COLLEGE BASKETBALL ‘89-90 : UCLA WOMEN’S PREVIEW : Moore Won’t Be Satisfied With Fourth Again

If there’s one thing the UCLA women’s basketball team has shown in recent seasons, it’s consistency. The Bruins have finished fourth in the Pacific 10 Conference in each of the last four years, which doesn’t sit well with Coach Billie Moore.

“We are one of those rare institutions that have finished in top half of the conference and have not been content,” said Moore, whose Bruins won the national championship in her first year in 1977-78 but have not finished ranked higher than ninth nationally since 1984-85.

This year, though, Moore is optimistic, with good reason. The Bruins have 10 of last season’s 12 players back, including all five starters.

And eight of the returnees are underclassmen, which, Moore said, will allow the team to develop once again into a force in women’s basketball.

“I really think we have that capability, to move up to that top tier,” Moore said. “We get to return to a style of play that I’ve always favored and that’s a conversion game and a much more up-tempo game. We’ve worked very hard on gearing it up a notch thus far this season in practice and the players have responded very well to that.”

Most noteworthy among those returning are:

--Senior forward Sandra VanEmbricqs, a first-team all-conference player who led last year’s team in scoring and rebounding, averaging 13.5 points and 7.8 rebounds a game. VanEmbricqs, at 6-3, also keys the Bruins’ defense.

--Molly Tideback, a 6-3 sophomore and last season’s Pac-10 freshman of the year. Tideback shot 51% from the floor and registered a team-high 22 blocked shots last season.

--Guards Rachelle Roulier, 8.5 points and 3.1 rebounds a game; and Michelle Miles, 4.1 and 3.4. Miles, a point guard, led the team in assists last season as a freshman with 87.

Moore is particularly high on Rehema Stephens, a 5-11 transfer from Colorado who sat out last year. She has been playing extremely well in practice and should have a positive impact on the Bruins, Moore going so far as to credit her with having “the potential to become the most dominating player in years.”

In any case, the Bruins, who finished 12-16 overall last season and 8-10 and in a three-way tie for fourth place in the Pac-10, will have to contend with the likes of mighty Stanford, not to mention Washington and Oregon, which finished second and third respectively in the conference last season.

But Moore likes the Bruins’ chances.

“We feel we have the opportunity to move up and that’s not going to be easy,” she said. “We want to compete for the top spot. This team has the potential to be one of the best teams in years.”