UCLA’s national champion women’s basketball team was given an eyebrow-raising political quest by late night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel.

During a group interview on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on Tuesday, a discussion with Lauren Betts, Kiki Rice, Gabriela Jaquez, Angela Dugalić and coach Cori Close turned political.

After Kimmel pointed out that former President Barack Obama made a social media post congratulating the team on their championship win, the host asked if President Donald Trump had reached out yet.

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The UCLA Bruins women’s basketball team is honored at center court during a game between the Lakers and Oklahoma Thunder at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on April 7, 2026. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

The players answered “no” in response to Kimmel’s Trump question.

But then Kimmel steered the conversation deeper into an anti-Trump routine.

“I’m sure you know he’s busy. Um he’s in two weeks you’ll hear from him,” Kimmel said. “In the event that you do get invited to the White House and you decide to go to the White House, I have something for you.”

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Kimmel then pulled out a silver trophy that hardly resembled the NCAA championship trophy that sat on his desk.

“What I want you to do is bring this fake trophy we’ve made to the White House. He’s not going to know. But when you bring a trophy, he sometimes takes it and keeps it for himself. So, this is for you guys to take to the White House. And then you can say, ‘President Trump, we want you to have this.’ And he’ll be so happy. You’ll probably get an endowment and you’ll be able to keep the real one,” Kimmel said.

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Head coach Cori Close of the UCLA Bruins watches during the first quarter against the South Carolina Gamecocks in the NCAA women’s basketball national championship at Mortgage Matchup Center in Phoenix, Ariz., on April 5, 2026. (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)

Close laughed at Kimmel’s joke, while the players lightly clapped their hands, exchanging light laughs.

Meanwhile, social media users criticized Kimmel for turning the sports interview into a Trump-focused rant.

“Even celebrating their championship he has to make it about himself and his hatred for Trump. What an a—hole,” one X user wrote.

One X user mocked Kimmel, writing, “What will he do when Trump is out of office? Is the show cooked?”

Another X user wrote, “This is funny, but I dislike that he used them to smite the frump.”

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UCLA center Lauren Betts (51) reacts while holding up the UCLA bracket sticker after UCLA defeats Oklahoma State in the second round of the NCAA college basketball tournament, Monday, March 23, 2026, in Los Angeles. (Jessie Alcheh/AP)

UCLA won its first women’s basketball national championship in program history this past weekend, defeating the South Carolina Gamecocks, the team led by Dawn Staley that had reached the national title game three consecutive seasons and won it in 2024, in dominant fashion, 79-51.

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It was an L.A. story when the Big Ten Conference announced its women’s basketball awards.

UCLA and USC swept the major honors.

Bruins center Lauren Betts was named Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year – becoming the first player in conference history to win both awards in the same season – while Cori Close was named Coach of the Year and graduate forward Angela Dugalic Sixth Player of the Year. Trojans guard Jazzy Davidson was selected the Freshman of the Year.

UCLA’s Kiki Rice made the 10-player First Team as selected by conference coaches alongside Betts, Davidson, Illinois’ Berry Wallace, Iowa’s Ava Heiden, Maryland’s Oluchi Okananwa, Michigan’s Olivia Olson and Syla Swords, Ohio State’s Jaloni Cambridge and Washington’s Sayvia Sellers.

UCLA’s Gabriela Jaquez and USC’s Kara Dunn made the Second Team and UCLA’s Gianna Kneepkens was an Honorable Mention selection.

Rice joined Betts on the All-Defensive Team alongside Davidson, and Trojans teammate Kennedy Smith. UCLA’s Sienna Betts joined Davidson on the All-Freshman Team.

It was the second time in as many years that Betts was named the conference’s Defensive Player of the Year. She leads UCLA in points (16.3), rebounds (8.8) and blocks (2.0) per game while also averaging 3.2 assists.

Close’s award comes after she guided the second-ranked Bruins to becoming only the fourth unbeaten team in Big Ten play, joining Maryland (2015), Purdue (1999) and Ohio State (1985). She had swept the national coach of the year awards last season, winning those given by Associated Press, Naismith, the U.S. Basketball Writers Assn. and the Women’s Basketball Coaches Assn.

Davidson becomes the first USC player to be named the Big Ten Freshman of the Year during a season in which she’s the only Division I player leading her team in points (17.9), rebounds (5.9), assists (4.3), blocks (2.0) and steals (2.0).

Dugalic is the only non-starter in the country averaging nine or more points, five or more rebounds and one or more steals while shooting 50 percent from the field and 35 percent from long distance while starting fewer than 10 games.

Rice has now been an all-conference selection in each of her four seasons after being named to the Pac-12’s All-Freshman Team and the All-Pac-12 Team as a sophomore before being picked for the All-Big Ten First Team in each of the last two seasons.

Top-seeded UCLA (28-1) opens the Big Ten Tournament on Friday in a quarterfinal at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis against either ninth-seeded USC (17-12) or eighth-seeded Washington (20-9). The Trojans and Huskies will face one another at 9 a.m. PST on Thursday.

The team to be named later on USC’s football schedule was identified Wednesday.

The Trojans will open the season against San Jose State on Aug. 29 at the Coliseum after Notre Dame fell off their schedule, necessitating the addition of another nonconference opponent.

The early date of the game was a result of USC having two byes on its schedule. Playing on Week Zero at home instead of internationally or at a neutral site required an exemption from the NCAA. San Jose State qualified as an opponent that fit the Trojans’ needs because it faces Hawaii this season, providing the Spartans the option of playing an additional game; it will be the first time they have played a 13-game schedule since 2017.

With the exception of the pandemic-shortened 2020 season, this will be the first season that USC will not play Notre Dame since the end of World War II. The teams are on an indefinite break from facing one another after discussions to continue the rivalry broke down in December.

The Trojans pivoted to what might feel like a certain victory. USC has gone 6-0 in its history against San Jose State, with every game coming at the Coliseum. In their most recent meeting, the Trojans beat the Spartans, 56-28, in their 2023 season opener.

San Jose State is entering its third season under coach Ken Niumatalolo, the former longtime Navy coach who has gone 10-15 with the Spartans. After his dismissal from the Midshipmen, Niumatalolo spent one season as director of leadership at UCLA in 2023 — when the Bruins beat the Trojans at the Coliseum — before taking the San Jose State job. Niumatalolo led his new team to an appearance in the Hawaii Bowl during his first season before the Spartans slipped to a 3-9 record last season.

San Jose State will face long odds in its return to the Coliseum given that teams from the Mountain West Conference have gone 1-1-39 against the Trojans (including two wins vacated because of NCAA penalties).

USC will play Fresno State on Sept. 5 at the Coliseum followed by another home game Sept. 12 against Louisiana. It will be a home-heavy start to the season for the Trojans, who will play five of their first six games at the Coliseum.