- Joined
- May 8, 2002
- Posts
- 392,291
- Reaction score
- 43
You must be registered for see images attach
Utah Utes guard Gianna Kneepkens (5) drives on BYU Cougars forward Emma Calvert (25) as BYU and Utah women play at the Marriott Center in Provo on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
Even though Utah and Indiana have never played in women’s basketball, when they meet for the first time in Friday’s NCAA Tournament first-round action, there may be some familiarity between the two programs.
That’s because there are some similarities between the two schools this season, potentially setting up a tight, thrilling matchup.
From similar-style leading scorers to veteran NCAA experience to coming off a long break, here’s a look at three storylines that could play major factors in how Friday’s first-round game (11:30 a.m. MDT, ESPN2) plays out.
Gianna Kneepkens vs. Yarden Garzon
Both teams are led by a sharpshooting junior guard, and how the two fare against each other may shift the momentum in the NCAA Tournament matchup.
For Utah, that’s 6-foot Gianna Kneepkens.
For Indiana, it’s 6-foot-3 Yarden Garzon.
The similarities in the statistical numbers each put up are noteworthy.
Kneepkens leads Utah by averaging 19.2 points per game this season, while Garzon is Indiana’s top scorer at 14.5 per game.
Since the start of Big 12 play, Kneepkens has had 10 games with 20 or more points and three games of 30 or more.
Garzon has scored in double-figures for seven straight games now, including a 23-point effort in a Big Ten tournament loss to USC, a No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed.
Both players are also known for their 3-point shooting prowess.
Kneepkens averages 3.0 3s per game, seventh nationally, while Garzon comes in at 2.74, 14th best in the country.
Kneepkens is hitting 45% of her 3-point attempts this season, ninth nationally, while Garzon shoots 41.5%, 25th in the country.
The closest player the Utes have faced this season similar to Garzon in 3-point shooting is TCU’s Madison Conner, who is second nationally at 3.47 3-pointers per game.
In Utah’s 81-73 loss to the Horned Frogs in January, Conner made 3 of 6 3s and shot 4 of 11 from the field for 13 points, while adding a team-high six assists.
That’s a kind of performance Utah could expect to see from Garzon Friday.
Both Kneepkens and Garzon are also strikingly similar in other parts of their game.
Garzon has a slight edge in assists per game — 3.2 to 3.1 over Kneepkens — while Utah’s star has a slim advantage in rebounding, averaging 5.1 to 5.0 for Yarden.
Kneepkens and Garzon are likely to impact the first-round game in a variety of ways.
“I think with (Gianna), a lot of times, she’s the No. 1 thing on the opponent scouting report, so they’re going to try to take on her, but that leaves her opportunities to facilitate, leaves her opportunities to just even draw the defense and create open lanes, open shots for teammates,” Utah coach Gavin Petersen said.
“It’s going to be very important, but we’ve got to take what they give us and we’re more than capable of scoring in a variety of ways.”
You must be registered for see images attach
Indiana guard Yarden Garzon (12) plays against UCLA in Bloomington, Ind., Saturday, Jan. 4, 2025. | Michael Conroy
NCAA experience on both sides
Both Utah and Indiana are coming into this year’s postseason with plenty of recent success making the NCAA Tournament.
This is the Utes’ fourth-straight season making the NCAAs, while the Hoosiers are participating in their sixth straight.
Utah has won its first-round game each of the past three seasons and reached the Sweet 16 two years ago.
There’s also plenty of seasoned leaders on the Utes squad who are familiar with the NCAA Tournament — along with Kneepkens, seniors Kennady McQueen, Jenna Johnson and Ines Vieira will be making their fourth-straight NCAA appearance for the Utes.
“This is what we set out to do. This was the vision coming in,” McQueen said. “(We’re) using our experience that we’ve gained over the past four years of making it and just use that to propel us forward.”
Indiana, meanwhile, has advanced out of the first round in each of its previous five NCAA appearances in this stretch, reached the Sweet 16 and made it to the Elite Eight in 2021.
The Hoosiers also have several players with multiple years of experience playing in the tournament, including Garzon, grad-student guards Sydney Parrish and Chloe Moore-McNeil and senior forward Karoline Striplin, a transfer from Tennessee who played in the NCAA Tournament multiple times with the Vols.
“We know what to expect,” Parrish said. “We hear our name called (during the selection show), we’re excited, and now we’re ready to get working.”
One area where Indiana has an experience edge is at head coach.
The Hoosiers’ Teri Moren will be coaching in her seventh NCAA Tournament in 10 years at Indiana, while for Petersen, this is his first NCAAs as a head coach. He was an assistant under former Utah coach Lynne Roberts for 10 seasons and helped prepare for the last three NCAA Tournaments.
Both teams are coming off a long break
By the time the teams face each other Friday, it will have been two weeks since either Utah or Indiana has played a game.
That’s because their respective conference tournaments happened two weeks ago, and last week was open as they waited to find out their NCAA Tournament draw on Selection Sunday.
Kneepkens is looking forward to getting back in a competitive environment with high stakes on the line.
“I think as a competitor, you always just want to play games,” she said. “So it was definitely good for us to kind of get back to our fundamentals, get a little sharper there. We’re definitely excited to kind of get prepared and see another face on defense.”
Whichever team is better able to handle the long break between games could end up a first-round winner.
“Our coaches have done a good job of keeping us competitive in practice,” Parrish said. “We’ve never had a practice go by where we haven’t played each other at the end, not just our practice players. That’s kept us really (focused) so we don’t get away from how competitive we are in games.”
You must be registered for see images attach
Utah Utes head coach Gavin Petersen claps his hands after a score as Utah and Utah State women play at the Delta Center in Salt Lake City on Wednesday, Dec. 4, 2024. | Scott G Winterton, Deseret News
Continue reading...
