Gianna Kneepkens helped revive the Utah women’s basketball program.
Now she’ll head west in search of an NCAA title.
Kneepkens, a four-year starter for the Utes, is transferring to UCLA for her final college season, ESPN reported Thursday.
In Los Angeles, Kneepkens will team up with UCLA coach Cori Close, who is good friends with former Utah coach Lynne Roberts. The Bruins often held secret preseason scrimmages with Utah because of the Roberts-Close connection.
UCLA is coming off a run to the Final Four, somewhere Kneepkens could not reach while in Salt Lake City.
She led the Utes to a Sweet 16 three years ago, but fell to LSU after a pair of missed free throws from teammate Jenna Johnson in the game’s final moments.
A year later, it looked like the Utes were primed for a deep NCAA Tournament run. Kneepkens and future WNBA player Alissa Pili built an offense that scored nearly 90 points a game. But Kneepkens sustained a season-ending injury and Utah was bounced in the second round.
Pili graduated in 2024 and was drafted by the Minnesota Lynx, and with that, the Utes’ window seemed to close.
At the start of last season, Roberts left Utah to become the head coach of the WNBA’s LA Sparks. Kneepkens went on to average a career-high 19.3 points per game last year. But Utah was still ousted in the first round by Indiana.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah guard Gianna Kneepkens works on her three point shot as she makes her way back from a season-ending injury on Wednesday, Jan. 24, 2024.
Kneepkens finished her Utah career scoring 1,621 points and was a first-team all-conference selection every year she was healthy. She was the Pac-12 freshman of the year in 2022.
If Kneepkens had stayed, she might have become Utah’s all-time leading scorer. She was 660 points shy of Kim Smith’s record of 2,281 points. For reference, Kneepkens scored 599 points last year.
But Kneepkens’ impact on the Utes is more significant than scoring.
The former Minnesota Gatorade Player of the Year committed to Utah when the program was struggling. Roberts was closer to losing her job than going to the NCAA Tournament when she reeled in Kneepkens, a 6-foot scoring savant. The Utes hadn’t been to the NCAA Tournament in a decade and attendance was historically low.
But within a year, Kneepkens was the driving force that turned the Utes into a contender. She immediately averaged almost 12 points a game as a freshman and led Utah to the Pac-12 tournament championship game her first season.
The next year, Utah hosted its first NCAA Tournament games and set up an offseason where the Utes were trendy picks to be a top 10 team nationally.
(Trent Nelson | The Salt Lake Tribune) Utah Utes guard Gianna Kneepkens (5) and Utah Utes forward Jenna Johnson (22) celebrate the win as Utah hosts Princeton, NCAA basketball in Salt Lake City on Sunday, March 19, 2023.
Now she is headed west, where Kneepkens will have plenty of talent around her. UCLA returns Lauren Betts, who was the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year, and Kiki Rice, who was first-team all-Big Ten.
Maybe in Los Angeles, Kneepkens will get a taste of that Final Four that Utah couldn’t quite reach.
