gianna kneepkens: Gianna Kneepkens set to visit Dawn Staley's South Carolina, Cori Close's UCLA as transfer portal decision looms

Gianna Kneepkens set to visit Dawn Staley's South Carolina, Cori Close's UCLA as transfer portal decision looms

NCAA Womens Basketball: NCAA Tournament First Round-Indiana at Utah - Source: Imagn — Gianna Kneepkens is visiting some of the top programs in the country.- Source: Imagn

Gianna Kneepkens is one of the most sought-after names in the transfer portal. The former Utah guard entered the portal after four seasons in Salt Lake City and is pursued by some of the biggest programs in the country.

According to On3's Talia Goodman, Kneepkens will be visiting South Carolina on Sunday before making one final visit to UCLA. The report adds that she has already visited Texas and Oklahoma.

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Gianna Kneepkens set a career-high for points in her final season with the Utes, scoring 19.3 points per game, also a team-high. The six-foot guard also played a career-high 30 minutes per game in her final season at Utah.

A year earlier, Kneepkens played in only eight games before suffering a season-ending torn ACL. The senior was lethal with her shooting. Besides leading the team in scoring, she had the best free-throw (89%) and three-point (44.6%) percentages in the conference.

The Duluth, Minnesota native earned All-Big 12 first team honors. She also performed well in the classroom, as the guard was named a Big 12 Scholar Athlete of the Year. She had a 3.909 GPA.

Since Kneepkens' arrival, the Utes have made trips to the NCAA Tournament every season, but haven't found success other than a Sweet 16 run in 2023. This season, they made the tourney as an eighth seed with a 22-9 record, but were bounced by the Indiana Hoosiers in the first round.

Gianna Kneepkens is expected to decide on her future next week

After finishing her four visits, Gianna Kneepkens is expected to choose her destination next week, according to On3. If the senior lands in one of those four programs, she will be part of a serious title contender.

Dawn Staley and the South Carolina Gamecocks have played in three of the last four championship games, winning two and falling one win short of a title last season.

The Texas Longhorns and UCLA Bruins made runs to the national semifinals. The Longhorns lost to the Gamecocks, while the Bruins lost in the first Final Four game in program history to the eventual national champion, the UConn Huskies.

Oklahoma lost to UConn in the Sweet 16, but the Sooners led at the break before Paige Bueckers caught fire and led the Huskies to victory.

About the author

Allan Wolburg Robles is a College Sports journalist at Sportskeeda with over 17 years of experience in the field writing for publications including Reforma, Yahoo! OddsShark and Apuesta. Allan studied Communications at Anáhuac University, where he learned what would become the basis of a trade that was already a dream of his before starting college.

His favorite team is Army West Point as when he was young, Allan lived in West Point for a couple of years, went to pretty much every home game, a couple of Army-Navy games and even got to meet some of the players.

Allan's favorite players of all time include Tommie Frazier, who was unbelievable during the Nebraska dynasty of the early 90's. Tim Tebow was also a favorite, mainly because of his leadership skills, although he was also awesome on the football field. As a fan of defensive football, (or what's left of it), Sean Taylor could take over a game for Miami.

Allan has always considered himself a student of the game more than a fan of it. So the historical part and evolution of the game, as well as the ins and outs of what happens on the field, and being able to put it into words for the audience, are his biggest strengths.

Besides sports, Allan enjoys reading books, watching movies and spending time with his dogs.

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Edited by Chaitanya Prakash