KEIKI Rice’s first WNBA game was a blank. Her second, third and fourth were anything but. After being held scoreless in her debut against the Mystics, the UCLA rookie answered with 12 points, then 11, then 19 for Toronto, a quick climb that has turned her from a championship name into an early professional scoring option.
Rice, one of six UCLA players selected in the WNBA draft after helping the Bruins win the national championship, has also averaged 1.5 assists per game so far. That is the kind of steady production Toronto needed from a player whose college resume already marked her as part of a deep and highly regarded class, but who is now learning the pace and pressure of the league one game at a time.
She is not doing it alone. Gabriela Jaquez, another member of UCLA’s Big 6, has been just as relevant in the league’s early days. The No. 19 recruit out of high school and a co-MVP with Rice in the 2022 McDonald’s All-American Game is averaging 12.5 points and 5.8 rebounds per game for Chicago, and she delivered 20 points and eight rebounds in a win over the Minnesota Lynx on Sunday night.
The parallel starts matter because UCLA’s championship run did not just produce one pro-ready prospect. Lauren Betts, Rice, Jaquez, Gianna Kneepkens, Charlisse Leger-Walker and Angela Dugalić made up the Bruins’ Big 6, and all six were drafted into the WNBA after the season. Five of them went in the first round, while Leger-Walker came off the board with the third pick of the second round to the Connecticut Sun.
Rice’s path has been a little bumpier than Jaquez’s. She and Lauren Betts were both held scoreless in that debut against Washington, a reminder that even players who arrive with a championship pedigree do not always land cleanly in the pro game. Rice has since found a rhythm; Jaquez has been producing from the start. Both are still in the early stage of careers that already carry the weight of what they helped do at UCLA.
Chicago’s 3-1 start only sharpens the comparison. Jaquez is contributing to wins, while Rice is trying to turn a slow opening into something more durable in Toronto. For now, the early read is clear enough: UCLA did not send out a one-player draft class. It sent out a group, and two of its rookies are already making that plain.
