Welcome to the Big 12 era for Arizona women’s basketball! Everything is new including the style of play, the coaches, the players and the cities the Wildcats will visit. To get to know more about the league, the Star is taking a look at the new and the not-so-new opponents for the Wildcats. Next up is Utah — Arizona’s opponent in Tuesday’s Big 12 home opener.
Utah’s Gianna Kneepkens is a redshirt junior who is averaging 18 points (49% from the field, 43% from long range) and 2.6 assists. The 6-0 guard has steadily improved each year and is one of the top players in the Big 12 and the nation. She is a two-time Pac-12 first teamer, Pac-12 Freshman of the year, previous Top 5 finalist for the Cheryl Miller Award, WBCA Honorable Mention All-American and a two-time Naismith, Wooden and Ann Meyers Drysdale preseason award lists member.
Her junior year was cut short – only eight games – with a season-ending broken foot. Prior to this, Kneepkens surpassed 1,000 points and was shooting 63% from the field and 54% from long range and averaging 18 points per game before her season ended.
The Star talked to Kneepkens on various aspects of the Utes program.
Utah Utes vs. St. Joseph’s Hawks at Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City, UT on Friday, Nov. 22, 2024. Gianna Kneepkens running the Utes offense.
Being a Ute is special: “I’ve loved being part of the University of Utah basketball team. I think something that’s special about us is that our group of girls just puts their heads down and works hard. I feel like none of us think things come easy, so that’s our culture. Just work until you get it. You don’t deserve anything. You earn everything. It’s fun to be part of, because when games get close, that kind of mindset comes back in, and we just want to have a good mindset until the end.
“The community (makes being a Ute special). We have the best fans and they come to support. The teams I’ve had over my past four years have been super special and I have a group of coaches and staff that want the best for me and my teammates. I’ve been surrounded by great people, which I don’t think everyone can always say.”
Favorite tradition: “One tradition we have, is (lighting) the letter ‘U’ on the mountain. After wins at home we’ll push down this (handle at center court to light) the U and then the whole valley knows the University of Utah team won because we lit the ‘U.’”
Life without a player like Alissa Pili (who now plays for WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx): “Every year you lose people because of either the transfer portal or they graduate and we had great seniors last year and we can’t just stop because they left. I think we got some great transfers, some great freshmen and everyone just has to get better from year to year. Pili scored and was a big inside presence for us, so we needed people to step up in the scoring areas. You can never replace someone by one person. Everyone has to make that step in their game, because that’s just how it is. And she’s irreplaceable. She’s a very special girl to play with, but I think our identity is just a team that plays well together. We want to play fast paced and just have fun with each other at the end of the day. I think what’s special about our group is we just care about winning and playing Utah basketball the right way. Nobody really cares how many score, as long as we win. And I think that’s really fun basketball to play.”
Utah Utes vs. St. Joseph’s Hawks at Huntsman Center in Salt Lake City, UT on Friday, Nov. 22, 2024. Utah coach Gavin Petersen calling out a play.
Transitioning during the season to a new coach: “I’ve obviously never been through this type of change in season but I think it’s been as smooth as possible. (Lynne Roberts left for the L.A. Sparks position and was replaced by longtime associate head coach Gavin Petersen). (Gavin has) been with Coach Rob for a long time and he understands where she’s coming from and they worked very tightly together. A lot of his stuff is similar. He has his own tweaks and his own little things just because he has a different mindset, because he’s different person. But I think it’s special, because we all know Gavin and since he went from associate head coach to head coach, he’s still Gavin, and it makes it easy for us. When there’s that big of change, all you ask for some stability. And at this point, I think it’s exactly a month today that it changed, it feels pretty normal. I think that’s all (we) could have asked for.
“He worked with the guards (her position group) and he wanted to try and keep this year stable, so he’s been staying with the guards, and honestly, not a lot of things have changed from that. It’s helpful because all of the guards know what he wants. That has made the transition a little easy for us.”
