How Angela Dugalić became UCLA’s most-improved player – San Bernardino Sun

Angela Dugailć, in her fifth year of college basketball, is a 23-year-old grandma.

Her teammates bestowed the nickname on her as the only graduate student actively playing on the UCLA women’s basketball team. It makes her smile – and it’s a real smile, not like some of the unfelt ones of previous seasons.

“I stopped putting as much pressure on myself,” Dugalić said. “Before, I wasn’t exactly forcing a smile but I had to remind myself like, ‘Hey, it’s a great day to have a great day.’ And now I just come in and I’m so happy to be here.”

The Bruin and Serbian Olympian has found not just her smile, but also strength this season. It’s led her to her best season yet as a starter at the four spot for 13 consecutive games on a No. 1-ranked team that has national championship aspirations.

“I was talking to a donor yesterday,” UCLA head coach Cori Close said, “and he said, ‘I’m not sure you have a more improved player.’ And I would agree with them.

“She has put in the work. Not just on the court in terms of her statistics – her basketball IQ and understanding her role and how she’s best, her emotional stability and mentality game by game.”

The return to UCLA

Dugalić made the momentous decision to return to UCLA for a fifth year for multiple reasons. Her first two seasons between Oregon and UCLA were “just weird years,” she said, and she missed her third year due to an ACL injury.

Last year, the 6-foot-4 power forward averaged a career-high 8.7 points per game, 6.5 rebounds per game and 2.1 assists per game in 29 starts during her fourth season after recovering from the injury, but she didn’t feel ready for the professional ranks.

“I wanted – I still want – to go to play at the professional level, but it just wasn’t enough,” Dugalić said. “And at that time, I thought I was sort of ready to leave college. It was just a hard season for me mentally, but I definitely was not ready to go play pro.”

The offseason that prefaced her final year of college basketball was pivotal. She trained with the Serbian National Team and competed in her second Olympic Games in Paris.

The summer took on the tone of her Serbian parents, who had immigrated from former Yugoslavia due to wars in the late 1990s: Keep your head down, do the work.

“It was another eye-opening event to me,” Dugalić said of the Paris Olympics, “but my coach made it very clear to me that like, this is your second Olympics. The first time, this was all new for you and you’re the new kid, so experience everything. Right now, this is business.”

The Serbian national team finished second in its group but didn’t medal. Still, the experience blended well with her training for UCLA.

Being a chronic overthinker and over-explainer has held Dugalić back in the past, but assistant coach Soh Matsuura tapped into it. The two worked so well together that Dugalić put a Serbian twist on his name: “Matsuurić.”

“She’s a big thinker,” Matsuura said. “I think a lot of her team is perfectionists. They want to get it right and be perfect every time and, obviously, that’s not always going to happen. So it’s just kind of getting getting through that.”

Emphasizing instinctual play among routine and structure helped Dugalić understand when to pass to or look for 6-foot-7 center Lauren Betts and when to take her own shots. Her decision-making abilities improved as she continued to combine her fast-paced international style of play with college basketball.

Jumping off of two feet instead of one and decelerating at the right time had upped her efficiency. She’s now shooting 45.1% and has grabbed a team-high 36 steals.

“So much of it is just a mental aspect, whether that is the decision-making and seeing things or having confidence, believing in your work, trusting the work you’ve put in,” Matsuura said. “I think there’s a higher level of confidence in that.”

Realizing her strength

UCLA brought in two transfers who could also play the power forward position in the offseason. Timea Gardiner joined the Bruins from Oregon State and Janiah Barker came in from Texas A&M.

There was new competition at her position, but Dugalić wasn’t alarmed. If anything, it reinforced her decision to stick around for a fifth year and Matsuura says that the three have been supporting each other from the beginning.

“It definitely brought up the competitiveness that I really, really wanted in the previous years,” Dugalić said. “I was like, ‘OK, I know I have my spot and now I have to fight for it.’ It’s actually a great thing because it brings out this whole new version of myself and version of them.”

Some other characteristics are intrinsic and unchangeable. She stays close to her Serbian roots by spending summers with the national team and scooping up her mom’s homemade burek – a cheese pie that her mom expertly cooks.

Dugalić plays cards with other Serbian student-athletes on campus and even though some of her teammates tease her about being more American than Serbian, their minds are quickly changed when they visit her home in Chicago.

Balance between life and basketball is achieved through purposeful attention to mental self-care. Some days it’s OK to relax in bed with a movie. On others, Dugalić mixes in manicure appointments, coffee shop visits and mall trips with teammates.