Gianna Kneepkens’ love for basketball started in a Duluth, Minnesota, driveway.

Though the 6-foot guard is now preparing to make her debut at Pauley Pavilion, she spent her youth shooting hoops on a small slab of cement alongside her five older brothers.

“My first memories of basketball are just playing in our driveway,” Kneepkens said. “There’d be scratches, cuts, bruises.”

Basketball is not the first sport that comes to mind in Duluth. The cold northern town situated on Lake Superior’s coast prides itself on hockey – both preparatory and collegiate.

Minnesota produces the most NHL players out of any state in the nation. With many coming from high schools in the Iron Range region and the University of Minnesota, Duluth is one of just five schools in the nation that was won back-to-back national championships.

“When I was younger, basketball wasn’t huge in Duluth,” Kneepkens said. “It’s cold up there. It’s what most people consider a hockey state, so there weren’t a ton of older girls basketball players.”

But that did not stop Kneepkens from pursuing the sport – although she said she initially enjoyed soccer more as a kid, earning two All-State selections. She started taking basketball more seriously in middle school, and she intensified her training after getting a private coach.

Her love for the sport flourished as she continued to challenge herself in high school. Kneepkens graduated from Duluth Marshall High School, holding the state tournament record for most points in a game with 67 and averaging 43.1 points per game across the 2021 tournament.

“I’m super competitive,” Kneepkens said. “That probably comes from having five older brothers, but I love challenging myself and setting goals and reaching them and doing what I can to be the best version of myself. I really started to love that, and then it kept growing, and here I am now. I still love it.”

Kneepkens joins UCLA women’s basketball for the 2025-26 campaign as a graduate transfer from Utah. After four seasons with the Utes – a broken foot sidelined her for the 2023-24 campaign – Kneepkens will spend her final year of eligibility as a Bruin.

The Duluth local was the No. 4 transfer last spring, as per ESPN, making her one of the most sought-after players in the nation.

That ranking was earned through her impressive stint at Utah, where she was just the second Pac-12 Freshman of the Year in program history. Kneepken followed that up with a successful sophomore campaign, during which she achieved her second consecutive Pac-12 First Team All-Conference selection.

Kneepkens was named to watchlists for the Wooden Award and Naismith Trophy ahead of the 2023-2024 season. While the broken foot that came Dec. 2 forced her to sit out the rest of the year, Kneepkens averaged 54% from beyond the arc across the first eight games of the season.

Kneepkens then quelled any concerns of injury impacting her senior campaign. She recorded back-to-back 30-point performances and ended last season ranked No. 16 and No. 8 in the nation for free throw percentage and 3-pointers per game, respectively.

With statistics like those, she could likely select between some of the nation’s top programs to play out her graduate year. But Kneepkens chose UCLA.

“A lot of it had to do with it being my last year to go to a place where I felt like I could help the team win. They already could win, and I just wanted to be able to contribute,” Kneepkens said. “I also felt like the people here were great, and they fit me and what’s important to me. … I felt like here I could personally get better.”

After the departure of guard Londynn Jones, who ranked fourth in program history for total career 3-pointers made as only a junior, Kneepkens will likely serve as a valuable addition to UCLA’s backcourt.

“Gianna is the perfect piece to add to your championship puzzle,” said coach Cori Close to UCLA Athletics. “Great scorer, elite work ethic, high basketball IQ and a selfless teammate. Her style of play fits a need for us, and I think she is going to really soar in our system as well.”

The Bruins enter the new school year with an arsenal of both new and returning talent. 2025 Naismith Defensive Player of the Year center Lauren Betts is back for her final year alongside senior guards Gabriela Jaquez and Kiki Rice.

And incoming freshman forward Sienna Betts will make her anticipated UCLA debut alongside her sister, as well as graduate guard Charlisse Leger-Walker, who sat out her first year in Westwood with a torn ACL.

“As a team, our goal is to win a national championship,” Kneepkens said. “We have to focus on what’s happening right now and getting better now, but that’s the biggest thing.”

Kneepkens has spent the past month training with the team. And for someone who shot 44.8% from three and 89% at the charity stripe during her senior year at Utah – both stats that edge out UCLA’s leaders in those fields from last season – training builds discipline.

“I get a lot of reps in – a lot of game reps,” Kneepkens said. “Confidence can build through that preparation. So when I’m in a game, it’s not the first time I’m seeing the looks, because I’ve practiced it over and over on my own.”

But passion is not only fueled in the gym, and Kneepkens said that some of her favorite memories so far as a Bruin have been off the court, citing team trips to the beach, soccer games and going out to eat as sources of enjoyment.

Leger-Walker has started a series on the team’s Instagram page where she teaches Kneepkens a new dance move every day, and the pair joked its way through the first installment.

“I met a ton of great people, like my best friends in basketball,” Kneepkens said. “That also has made me love it too, because I get to challenge myself, but then I also get to have fun doing it because I’m surrounded by good people.”

While Kneepkens is projected to be selected in the first round of the 2026 WNBA draft, a new legion of young players is developing out of Duluth Marshall, following in her footsteps.

Among them is rising high school sophomore Chloe Johnson. In her freshman year alone, Johnson surpassed 2,000 career high school points and is ranked the No. 1 player in the nation from the class of 2028 by PrepGirlsHoops.

Johnson met up with Kneepkens on a trip to UCLA this summer. Although sunny Southern California could not look more different than snowy northern Minnesota, basketball fervor transcends state boundaries.

“There’s a strong core of girls that really take basketball seriously and are liking it up in Duluth, so it’s pretty cool to see,” Kneepkens said. “I’ve been working out with Chloe since she was really little, and I was probably 13 or 14 years old. So just to see her grow and thrive – doing things that I never did at her age – is pretty awesome.”