Four years ago, a young Gianna Kneepkens faced BYU for the first time and announced herself as the future of a program.
The Ute freshman, who made scoring look like an art form, had a few flashes before that game. She put up 15 points against Gonzaga and 14 against East Carolina. She opened her career with double digits against Lipscomb.
But when she got her first crack at the rivalry, she went 9 of 17 from the field and buried four triples. She ended with 29 points as her Utes were barely edged out by a veteran BYU team, 85-80. That night, with Kneepkens as the engine, it felt like Utah’s program finally had a pulse.
Three NCAA Tournaments later, and a Sweet 16 appearance, it turned out it was just foreshadowing.
Now, something similar might be happening in Provo.
Last week, BYU came into a rivalry contest struggling, looking for something, anything, to cling to in the future. And even though the Cougars fell to the Utes on a last-second heave, they left the Huntsman Center knowing they had a star.
Freshman Delaney Gibb went for 36 points on 13-of-18 shooting, showing everyone what could be in the future.
On Tuesday, Gibb was named the Big 12 Freshman of the Year.
“Delaney has had an all-time season,” BYU head coach Amber Whiting said in a statement. “From the very first game, she has shown why she is one of the best freshmen in the country and a massive addition to our BYU women’s basketball family. She is the type of player who brings it night in and night out both in the way she approaches the game and strives to make those around her better. Delaney is the ultimate competitor, and she always finds a way to get the most out of herself. She has big dreams and with her work ethic, she has the opportunity to achieve them.”
Utah saw the same thing last week.
“I think our program right now is where they want to go,” Utah head coach Gavin Petersen said. “Maybe that’s their start to kinda what we’ve had. Credit to [Gibb]. We recruited the crap out of her. We wanted her in Utah red. But sometimes you lose kids.”
Gibb comes in with similar accolades to Kneepkens. Whereas Kneepkens was the Gatorade Player of the Year in Minnesota, the same award UConn star Paige Bueckers won, Gibb was playing in world championships for the Canadian U19 team. She won Alberta’s player of the year as a junior and senior.
By the time she came out of high school, Gibb was being courted by Gonzaga, Oklahoma State, Utah and others. But she chose a struggling team in need of a scorer — almost identical to Kneepkens.
“She has international experience with Canada,” Petersen said. “So she is being coached and taught by some really high-level coaches. And she gets to play with some really good professionals when she goes to play with Canada basketball. She has the tools. She’s one of those kids where it is going to be exciting to see what she does individually.”
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) BYU Cougars guard Delaney Gibb (11) as BYU hosts Utah, NCAA basketball in Provo on Saturday, Jan. 25, 2025.
For BYU this year, it’s been a slog. The team’s been at the bottom of the Big 12 standings for the majority of the season. As the conference tournament begins, the Cougars are 4-14 in Big 12 play and 13-16 overall.
After BYU lost to Utah the first time back in January, Cougars coach Amber Whiting was close to tears.
“Going through this valley, they just keep fighting. Keep bringing it,” she said back then. “That’s a gut check. That’s a character-building moment for themselves. Basketball is basketball and life lessons are going to be there. So when times are hard, when it is marriage, with a kid, you just keep fighting.”
The Cougars came into Whitings' third season hoping for an offensive renaissance. She turned that side of the ball over to assistant Lee Cummard and promised to play uptempo and shoot more threes.
But the results have been marginal. Even shooting four more threes a game, BYU is only averaging two more points a night and is just 127th in offense.
Gibb is averaging 17 points, but the rest of the group has lagged behind.
Fellow guard Amari Whiting, once a top prospect, hasn’t taken a huge step forward offensively.
But even amid the struggles of the present, the future has started to show. Freshmen like Brinley Cannon and Kambree Barber emerged. When the Cougars upset No. 20 Oklahoma State, Amber Whiting finished the game with Cannon, Barber and Amari Whiting on the floor at the same time. Theoretically, it was the nucleus of a future contending team.
“I love when I look out there and see three freshmen and a sophomore closing out a game. That is a good feeling because that means our program is headed in the right direction,” Whiting said.
But the driver of the future is Gibb, no question about it. Just like Utah’s young core that won so many games — Jenna Johnson, Kennady McQueen, Ines Viera and Issy Palmer — they needed a leader. For the Utes, it was Kneepkens.
And maybe, like Kneepkens emerged back at the Huntsman in 2021, Gibb just had the moment that will turn BYU’s program around.
Only time will tell.
