UCLA's Osborne balances leadership on and off the court
It's 10 minutes after UCLA's practice on the Wednesday before its penultimate regular-season home game against Utah. Swinging afrobeats and the soul of Keyshia Cole's “Love” serenade the Bruins as they shoot around.
Charisma Osborne sways loosely to the playlist.
The fifth-year senior, enjoying one of the few guaranteed instances she and a Bruins team that won its first 14 games, only to be disrupted by midseason uncertainties, have left together.
Osborne's on-court persona is that of a stone-faced leader, a guard who strives to lock up each opponent she faces, averaging a team-high 1.8 steals. But not in this moment. “It's kind of like having a little alter-ego,” Osborne says. “When I'm on the court, I'm locked in, serious. And then when I'm off the court. I can have fun. I can loosen up a bit.”
Knowing that, head coach Cori Close doesn't want to interrupt her flow. She wrestles with herself as she speaks to the media, quietly debating whether to silence the music that fills Pauley Pavilion, alternating tunes that drown out the stress coupled with that midseason turmoil, the sounds that ignite Osborne's personality.
Authentic, in full effect, until Close's professionalism gets the better of her.
“Can you turn it down, please?” she asks a staff member.
The music fades and so does Osborne's vibrance. Her face shifts back into an unbreakable glare as she refocuses on a shooting drill. She darts from spot to spot around the court she's called home for the past five years.
Five seasons that were almost four before she used her final year of eligibility. Five seasons that gave her the time to leave her mark at UCLA through her work with organizations supporting Black student-athletes. Five seasons in which she never considered transferring because she valued the proximity to home. Five seasons culminating in a 2023-24 campaign where Osborne feels “a lot less pressure” because of the Bruins' influx of offensive talent.
Over this time, she's learned to treat perpetual expectations like her alter-ego, stoically embracing the ups and downs of competition while she tries to maximize each fleeting moment she has left at UCLA.
Osborne and teammate Camryn Brown recently debated how this Bruins team would stack up against the 2019-20 iteration, when both were freshmen. They came to the conclusion that the potential this year is the highest it's been.
Not to diminish the talent laden throughout a 25-6 team that was led by current New York Liberty forward Michaela Onyenwere, but they relied on Osborne, from Day One, to be “the defensive stopper” and an offensive creator.
It was a role in which Rachel Schrote — who was in player development at UCLA and is now the girls basketball head coach at Windward High, Osborne's alma mater — said Osborne would “be so hard on herself” when she failed to meet internal expectations.
“I don't like making mistakes,” Osborne said. “My freshman year, if I messed up, it might affect me for a couple plays.”
She needed to find ways to distract herself from slumps on the court.
Along with Onyenwere and Brown, Osborne started the More Than A D.R.E.A.M (MTAD) movement in response to the killing of George Floyd during the summer of 2020. They posted YouTube videos educating others on their experiences as Black female student-athletes. They brought in South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley and actress Gabrielle Union as speakers.
Through MTAD, Osborne continued influencing fans once the NCAA season shut down. When basketball resumed, workouts, practices and games dominated her routine, so she replaced her work with MTAD by attending UCLA's Black Student-Athlete Alliance (BSAA).
“It really has taught me that I can encourage other people, especially when things aren't going my way or I don't feel like myself,” she said.
After Wednesday's practice, Osborne commended Bruins forwards
Fifth-year senior Charisma Osborne is averaging 14.9 points for UCLA, which is 22-5.
UP NEXT Today: UCLA at Arizona State, 6 p.m., Pac-12 Arizona
Lina Sontag and Angela Dugalic for accompanying their teammates to a BSAA event.
Each platform that Osborne contributes her time to not only imbue Bruins fans and UCLA students, but people who have been alongside her since she started playing basketball. A journey that's never crossed state lines.
Osborne led Windward High to a CIF Open Division state championship in 2018 and a Division I state championship in 2017 before choosing to play college basketball less than 20 minutes away.
“Representing your community and having a home base that you can go back to, where people will continue to support you, I think can just help in general,” Schrote said.
It certainly provided an opportunity for Osborne to support Schrote as she navigated this season, her first as Windward's head coach.
Osborne came to watch the Wildcats' first practice. She and her mom, Chaka, attended a handful of games and Schrote said she's acted as “a direct resource” to current players Samari Bankhead and Sadie Cohen as they've gone through the recruitment process.
“When you're going through a hard time and you're out of state, oftentimes all you want to do is go home,” Schrote said. “Having the freedom and flexibility to do that right away, it provides a safety net.”
Osborne says she loves having her family at each game and that she expects to miss “the diversity of L.A.” when she's playing in the WNBA.
She's excited to compete at that level and use the platform to further influence an expanded audience about her experiences as a Black woman athlete.
“I don't think (Osborne) would have been able to do that her freshman year,” Schrote said.
Leading on and off the court call for different skills. Osborne has always possessed the savvy to champion both. As she's matured, she's come to understand how to prevent the burden of making mistakes and losing games from seeping into her extracurricular interests, instead using them as a respite.
She's found a healthy medium at a crucial time.
This season, she feels as if the Bruins “can really win it all,” despite the struggles they experienced over a stretch from Jan. 22 to Feb. 16 where they went 4-4.
“Our team was going through some rough patches,” Osborne said. “I think recently we've been starting to find our mojo again.”
Her words turned into fruition as UCLA beat consecutive ranked opponents — No. 18 Utah and No. 13 Colorado — to put itself back into second place in the Pac-12. Osborne averaged 13.5 points per game, 3.5 assists and 1 steal and UCLA's defense allowed just 48.5 points, the wins marking Osborne's final regular-season home games.
The finality of her tenure didn't sink in until this past week, when she and Brown announced to one of their classes that the Bruins senior night was on the horizon.
Then they turned to one another in disbelief, Osborne blaming the end creeping up on her certainty that 2022-23 would be her last year. In retrospect, she said it's because she's focused on staying present, wringing every last ounce out of the finite treasures the five seasons at UCLA have brought her.