UCLA's Foster Feels Self-Improvement Ahead of Year 2

"Just y confidence is up, on and off the field," Foster said to Ashley Adamson and Yogi Roth during the Big Ten Network's UCLA training camp special. "And it just comes from experience. Being in year two, I have that experience, and I'm ready to go. Everything's growth, you know? You're going to see the same growth that you see in me, and you're going to see it in my team."

With growth comes learning. And Foster had to learn a lot in his first season. What did he learn most about himself?

"The motivation aspect," Foster added. "Just able to get these guys ready to go each week. There were some dark times. We went on a little skid in the middle of the season, and they still were preparing and coming out to practice; you would've had no idea what our record was."

One of the bigger changes Foster has implemented in year two is a strict media policy that limits local media's access during practice to a greater extent than ever before. But he's doing it because winning matters most to him.

Why Foster is Limiting Media

"Yeah, you guys film our practice and put it online," Foster said to the media during Wednesday's media availability. "If I was an opponent for another team, I'd look right at your guys' stuff and see what's going on. So for them not to get a beat on Tino [Sunseri] or depth or anything that's going on, that's why it's closed."

Foster's media access policies go beyond giving reporters a lot of time to watch practice, or even recording said practice. There were no players made available on Wednesday, and he has cut off access to exclusive player and feature interviews.

"That's the same thing," Foster added. "Because if they come over and interview, then you guys are gonna ask me, 'Are they a starter? Are they this? Are they that?' It's tough, but we're trying to win games."

Another potential consequence of restricting the media: fans having less access to their favorite team. Does Foster believe that will affect the program's marketing?

"No, I'll let you guys handle all of that," he said. "And I'm not worried about the marketing. Because what marketing does, if you win games, you're marketed. So we're going to go out there and focus on winning games. That's why we left for training camp. But if I was just trying to just let everything be open, we could have just stayed right here and did that. We're going to work and go away and come back and everything's going to be fine."

Foster's goal ahead of his second season at the helm is to win. And he's willing to go to whatever lengths it takes to achieve that goal.