LOS ANGELES - Picked ninth in the West Coast Conference preseason poll, LMU’s women’s basketball team climbed to No. 1 by season’s end—but the weight of ending a 22-year NCAA tournament drought proved too heavy in their biggest game. The loss to Oregon State in the WCC tournament followed a program-best 15-3 conference record, a regular-season title, and Head Coach Aarika Hughes’ WCC Coach of the Year honor. For a team that hadn’t lost since January, the moment was overwhelming—a reminder that basketball is as much mental as it is physical.
After the game, Hughes remembered the disappointment that filled the room but also recognized the standard her team had set. “A couple players are really going to have a hard time moving on because they weren’t what they wanted to be. I could feel the sorrow in the locker room afterwards. That’s hard to see as a coach.”
“You're not defined by your mistake, but you're remembered by your response,” Hughes said in a phone interview days after the loss. Looking back, “Everybody was so uptight. I think, as a coach, you're trying to do your best to alleviate some of that stress, to get past it and realize it's just a game. But everyone knew the weight of what that game was going to be for us.” The takeaway for the team, she said, was trusting the work that got them there. “The takeaway for me is watching our group still show up for one another. That’s special, and that's something that you want to bottle up and replicate every year,” she added
For programs like LMU that fall outside the Power Four—the ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, and SEC—the margin for error is thin. In a landscape where the odds are stacked against mid-majors, Hughes adapts. “I’m solution-based. Instead of wasting energy complaining, what is the solution? What’s the next step? You’re trying to teach resilience to players. If you can’t embody that every day, it’s hard to get others to buy in.”
That mindset shows up in the smallest moments on the court. Hughes calls it the “two-point rule,” a quick recognition of a mistake. “For me, in the middle of a game, if I call a man set and they switch into a zone and we lose a possession — 2 points. I should have known they were going to be in the zone. That’s on us. We’ve got you next possession.” According to Hughes, the fastest way to get back on track after a mistake is through acknowledgment and communication.
The same commitment to ownership shapes Hughes’ program. “We have four core values: tough, selfless, pride, and joy. All four of those words embody who I am as a competitor, a leader, and who I am every single day.” The search for players who align with those values is deliberate and exacting. Hughes recalls the recruiting process before this past season, emphasizing mindset above all else: “In the portal, my staff were going nuts because they were bringing very similar players — dominant at their position, the right size — but that other piece wasn't there,” Hughes says. “And I'm like, nope, not them. I didn't want to have to pull anyone.” She adds, “I'm willing to push.”
This season, the work showed. When asked what made this year different, Hughes was direct: “We had players that were willing.” True buy-in comes when a player and coach are fully aligned, turning their connection into a winning culture—a lesson Hughes learned firsthand during her collegiate career at USC. From 2006 to 2010, she was a standout student-athlete and three-year team captain for the Trojans, an experience that continues to shape how she coaches today. “I'm a player's coach.”
Hughes never set out to be a head coach, but early memories reveal her destination was clear. “I look at some of the things that I wrote when I was younger — wanting to be a mom or wanting to help. I've been a nurturer since I was babysitting across the street. I think it was something I was born with.” She remembers, “Being in an environment surrounded by someone like my dad, who was at the grassroots level for sports and helped teams, magnified my wanting to run toward that opportunity as often as I could.”
After a record-breaking season and nearly ending a two-decade NCAA tournament drought, Hughes’ challenge isn’t proving it works. It’s sustaining success in a landscape not built for programs like LMU to stay on top. “Adapt or die — this is the new landscape,” Hughes says, leaning into that reality and exemplifying the mindset she tries to instill in her players. “If I am going to stay in college athletics at this level — this job, which is not easy — I know this job has been hard before. This is the new hard. You have to choose to find a way.” If this season proved anything for the LMU women’s basketball team, it’s that the response — not the result — will shape what comes next.