LOS ANGELES — It’s an hour before tipoff and Patti Close takes her usual seat near the UCLA bench. Mother Bruin is in the house, ready to cheer on the team coached by her daughter, Cori Close.That reassuring presence is felt whenever the players take the floor.The next game is Saturday, when the overall No. 2 seeded Bruins (31-1) open March Madness against 16th-seeded Cal Baptist (23-10) at Pauley Pavilion.“She’s like the mayor,” Cori Close said.Patti Close’s spirited attitude and energy belie her 80 years. She drives herself to games, arriving an hour before tipoff. Once, when Cori Close was an assistant at Florida State, she noticed her mother was late.“She told me, ‘Don’t you ever do that again,’” Patti Close recalled.Cori Close says, “I just need to know she’s safe.”At halftime, a steady stream of people stop by her mother’s seat to visit.Post-game finds Patti Close in the interview room “to hear the straight scoop,” she said.Before Patti Close’s marriage of 53 years ended with the death of her husband, Don, a few years ago, the couple attended games together. Being directly involved with the team helps fill the void.“That’s a gift to me, for our team to be so kind to my mom, to give purpose for my mom,” Cori Close said.UCLA men’s coach Mick Cronin keeps his widower father close, too. Hep Cronin spends part of the season in California to follow the team and escape the cold weather back home in Ohio.Since Cori Close got the UCLA job in 2011, her mother has accompanied the team to Europe and Africa.“I never even had a passport,” Patti Close said. “It’s a dream. I love the kids. I always joke that I fall in love with them and they have the nerve to leave and graduate. How dare they.”Spending time around the team keeps her young and current, too.“My husband had this expression: you’re never too old to be immature,” she said.Cori Close also had her two sisters, an aunt and two cousins at last year’s NCAA Tournament, when the Bruins made their first Final Four and lost to eventual national champion UConn in the semifinals.“Our family has not been together this much in probably over a decade,” she said, ”and so it’s really a privilege that I could use my job to be able to experience that.”The players are regular visitors to Cori Close’s upscale house near the Westwood campus. They’ll cook and watch movie …
