LOS ANGELES — Shreds of pastel blue paper — homemade confetti — fluttered around Mo Ostin Basketball Center on Selection Sunday.

It was the celebration of the latest historic moment for the UCLA women’s basketball team. The Bruins earned the No. 1 overall seed in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 20 tournament appearances.

“It’s a testament to how hard everyone in this program has worked,” point guard Kiki Rice told reporters. “But then again, a number one overall seed doesn’t get us to the Final Four, doesn’t get us to the national championship game, so we got to go out there and earn it, but it definitely positions us well.”

The Bruins (30-2) are set to return to Pauley Pavilion on Friday night to take on the winner of UC San Diego and Southern, who will play in a First Four game on Wednesday.

The NCAA Final Four is slated for April 4 and April 6 in Tampa Bay at Amalie Arena.

UCLA players and coaches jumped, hugged and smiled just as hard as they had at any moment this season below the blue confetti at Mo Ostin Center — except for Janiah Barker, who fixed a cold stare in the direction of the screen.

NIL donors filled the practice facility for the watch party and UCLA alum and former NBA player Matt Barnes hosted a Q&A panel with Rice, Lauren Betts and Gabriela Jaquez prior to the bracket reveal.

The Bruins sat in the front row of the crowd, separated only by the silver, shining Big Ten Conference Tournament championship trophy that sat on the hardwood floor.

“Bottom line is your work will speak for itself,” UCLA coach Cori Close told reporters. “It’s focusing on what you’re earning and being present that day. That’s what led us to getting the seed that we have, is our focus on our process.”

UCLA has prefaced the NCAA Tournament by bursting into the Big Ten Conference this season, beating USC in the tournament championship after losing the regular season title to the Trojans roughly a week earlier.

The Bruins had a program-best 23-0 start to the season and set a Big Ten record by holding the top spot in the AP Top 25 poll for 12 straight weeks.

USC was the only Big Ten opponent to hand UCLA a loss this season and it happened twice.

“We always say that talent is the floor,” Close said. “It was most rewarding to watch how their character grew. And as their character grew, that’s when their confidence grew. As they embraced the hard and conquered hard things, it grew even more.”

The change in conference presented scouting challenges that hadn’t been faced in the Pac-12 Conference for the coaching staff. Coaches and video coordinators went from breaking down six to eight games in the Pac-12 and up to 12 games in the Big Ten.

The extra work has the Bruins feeling especially prepared for the NCAA Tournament.

“Now we’re reaping the fruit of that labor,” Close said. “We are really confident going to the NCAA Tournament that we can turn around new teams really, really quickly, and we can understand a varied amount of styles of play because of what we faced in the Big Ten.”