As Utah women's basketball prepares for Big 12 transition, high expectations remain

SALT LAKE CITY — Lynne Roberts welcomed the high expectations at the end of last season.

The Utah women's basketball coach told the world that her team's standard should no longer be measured on whether they make an appearance in the NCAA Tournament, but rather how deep into March her team can play.

Making it to the Big Dance is just the beginning.

For the third consecutive season, Utah made it to the NCAA Tournament last season. But the team fell short of its preseason goal to make it to the Elite Eight after several injuries finally caught up with the Utes against a sharpshooting Gonzaga team on their home court.

But as Roberts and her team prepare for the upcoming season — their first in the Big 12 — none of those expectations have changed.

"Different year, same expectations," Roberts said on the first official day of practice on Monday. "We're in a good place with where our program's at. Every year we bring in really good freshmen, and we've got a couple transfers, too, this year. But they're joining a group of established veterans, and so our culture's intact.

"They know what the expectations are. But, yeah, our expectations haven't changed. We want to make the NCAA Tournament, make a run in it, have a chance to compete for Big 12 title. Those expectations aren't going to change."

The conference affiliation may have changed, as well as some of the personnel — Utah lost Alissa Pili, Issy Palmer and Dasia Young to graduation, though Young is now on the coaching staff — but everything else remains intact.

It's a veteran unit that knows what it takes to meet, and potentially exceed, expectations for another season.

The biggest boost to the team's potential success is the return of "difference maker" Gianna Kneepkens, who suffered a season-ending injury early in the 2023-24 season.

"Adding Gianna Kneepkens back is a blessing, and we're excited about that," Roberts said.

"G is a difference maker in every sense of the word," she added. "She just brings a level of swagger when she plays. She's still not feeling like she's back to her normal self, and it probably will take a couple months to where she's completely ready for games. She hasn't been back that long, but she just brings a level of swagger that you can't put a value on it, or you can't really describe it."

Kneepkens is cleared to play and will continue to acclimate back to the game as the season progresses. And as she feels more comfortable with her game, she'll resume her role as one of the best shot creators on the team.

"It's so good. Just really excited to be back out on the floor," Kneepkens said. "Just feels like great energy out there. I mean, I'm just grateful to be out there. We've had great staff, coaching, teammates through the process, so just excited for this year. It went by fast, even though the days felt really slow."

But Kneepkens is just one part of a veteran team that returns starting guards Ines Vieira and Kennady McQueen, starting forward Jenna Johnson, and designated sixth-man Maty Wilke, who really developed as the season progressed last season as she was thrust into a starting role.

Wilke is one of the players that Roberts said she's looking forward to seeing on the court the most this season, simply due to all the hard work she's put in over the offseason to continue to develop and improve her game.

"I'm most excited for her, I think, coming into this season," Roberts said. "She's put in so much work in the dark when no one's watching, and she's playing with a different level of confidence and comfortability. I think she's gonna be someone that people aren't gonna talk about now, but at the end of the season, they're gonna be talking about. ... She looks really good."

Beyond the familiar faces — which also includes forwards Reese Ross and Sam Crispe — Utah brought in Rhode Island transfer Maye Toure, who Roberts sees big things from and someone that will play a lot as Utah attempts to replace Pili in some fashion in the post.

"She's super athletic — 6-3, 6-4," Roberts said. "She's gonna do well — plays really, really hard."

There's also Michigan transfer Chyra Evans and freshmen Brooke Walker, Kylie Ray and Grace Foster who will help round out some depth pieces for a team that will continue to put an emphasis on hitting at a high rate from behind the 3-point line, while also utilizing some of the inside-out game with its post play to keep the shots flowing from deep.

The identity of the team, Roberts said, won't change — even as the personnel does. There will be new nuances and wrinkles to the game, but the identity and culture of the program will remain intact.

"I think it is my job to read who you have, use the summer and even the fall workouts to figure out what you have, what you don't have, and then kind of create a system that maybe plays to strengths," she said. "But our identity of working really, really hard, we're going to help — the goal is always to play harder than you, play with toughness, and a collective spirit.

"Build on who we are, what we have, but we're adding some things and doing things a little differently because of personnel. ... So I think we're able to do some more things defensively and offensively; we've got to adapt a little bit."

The biggest change will likely come from the outside as Utah transitions from a loaded and highly-competitive Pac-12 that featured several ranked teams on a yearly basis with the Big 12.

But that change has the opportunity to be a good thing, too, according to Johnson.

"We're used to really hard competition, so I think that'd be good," Johnson said. "I think the style of play, it's a little bit different in the Big 12. But I think also, like, they have to guard us. I think that gives us confidence. Like, we play a difficult style of basketball. We've played against people that have seen us year after year, so now it's kind of fun going in. Obviously a challenge on our end, but also a big challenge on their end to defend a team that they never really have.

Kneepkens said playing "some of the best competition in the country" in the Pac-12 has prepared the team to manage the transition, especially as an experienced team.

"I think that will be good because we played great competition, and moving to the Big 12, it's another 16 deep of great teams," Kneepkens said. "So just knowing that each night's not going to be easy, from top to bottom, so I think that's the most important thing. And just staying consistent each day, starting practice today, and building off it every single day, so we can be great by the time it's March, but just focusing on today now."

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