Q&A: Why UCLA's Kiki Rice says athlete mental health during March Madness isn't talked about enough

USA Today

19-03-2025

Q&A: Why UCLA's Kiki Rice says athlete mental health during March Madness isn't talked about enough
UCLA Bruins guard Kiki Rice knows that when March Madness arrives, so does the pressure.
Rice, who is in her third season with the Bruins, has earned several honors during her tenure, including Pac-12 All-Freshman Team, All-Pac-12 Team and All-Big Ten First Team. Still, Rice, her teammates and head coach Cori Close have one goal to conquer: a deep NCAA tournament run ending with a national championship.
That's why Rice recently connected with BetterHelp during its "Stop the Madness" initiative. BetterHelp is raising awareness about the mental health challenges athletes face while empowering them to seek support without the barrier of stigma. The company also offers student-athletes, like Rice, a free month of therapy to help them manage pressures on and off the court.
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"It's [a] really important partnership for me, especially at this time of the year when all of us college basketball players are getting a lot of attention in the media and on TV and online and everything," Rice told For The Win. "And I think what a lot of people don't realize is that we're not just athletes. We're more than just people who go out there and perform on the court for your enjoyment and for you to watch for you guys to watch."
Ahead of March Madness and the women's NCAA tournament, For The Win sat down with Rice to chat about how she manages her mental health as an athlete, why beating the USC Trojans in the Big Ten championship meant so much, and what moment from UCLA's stellar season lives rent-free in her mind.
This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.
What sort of pressures do you face as an athlete?
I think you can often see that, especially at this time of the year with the hate messages and all of that kind of stuff that we receive online, whether it's about not making the parlay or not scoring enough points ... People hate on us athletes for that ... I do think it's tough because as college athletes we have a lot of different pressures, and we not only put pressure on ourselves to compete ... but it's like to receive a ton of messages from random people consistently ― it's tough at times.
Especially being a female athlete, and knowing that we receive more hate messages than our male counterparts, that's another tough, tough pill to swallow ... One in three high-profile female athletes receive abusive messages ... I honestly think that's unacceptable.
What's something UCLA does as a team to stay grounded throughout the season?
My team focuses a lot on ― "our circle of control" is what we call it. So, focusing on the things that we can control. So, we can't control outside media. We can't control press. We can't control stats or the refs or all that kind of stuff.
But we can't control our effort, how we play, how good of a teammate we are ― our recovery ... At this point in the year, we just got to let them go because they're not helping us win and we all want to win at this point.
What was going through your mind after you beat USC to win a Big Ten championship?
Yeah, that was definitely one of the happiest moments as of recent, just because it's what I came here to to UCLA to do, and I wanted to bring championships here. I wanted to make it to a Final Four. I wanted to win a national championship. I wanted to win a conference championship.
To kind of check off the first item on that bucket list ― it just meant so much to me because it's a step in the right direction and we worked so hard for this. And I've been so proud of the work that we've all put in... It felt like it was, "Okay, everything's finally coming together."
Let's talk about your teammate, Lauren Betts. What makes her so special?
I just think it's her ability to be so impactful on both ends of the floor. Obviously, you see her scoring, but I think the way that she defends, she just alters shots. She blocks shots. She makes other teams' forwards and guards not really want to be in the paint, not want to score in there...
So, her ability to just change the game and really dominate teams' game plans in so many different ways is something that just makes me so grateful to have Lauren on our team.
'She's one of the reasons we're so successful': Kiki Rice on teammate Lauren Betts
Kiki Rice reflects on Lauren Betts' impact at UCLA and her decision to stay and play another season with the Bruins.
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Who are some other players you feel more people should be talking about heading into March Madness?
I'd say Gabriela Jaquez. I think she's really just a glue player for our team. She does so many little things ... competes at the highest level, does whatever it takes to help us win. I think she's just someone who, you can't always tell on the stat sheet, but she's just so impactful in a lot of different ways.
Across the country, who else deserves more shine? I would say Sonia Citron on Notre Dame is a player that I think is just so, so talented and really good. Obviously, Olivia Miles and Hannah [Hidalgo] on that team get a lot of attention, but I think Sonia is a really, really good player.
What's one moment from this season or the last year that lives rent-free in your mind?
I would say one moment that lives rent-free from this season would be after we won the Big Ten championship when Lauren [Betts] ran by the USC bench and put Trojans down at them.
Yeah. That was pretty funny.