A veteran Utah women’s basketball group takes on a new challenge — the Big 12

KANSAS CITY — Lynne Roberts has accomplished a lot during her tenure as Utah women’s basketball coach, especially in the past several years.
The Utes have played in the NCAA tournament each of the past three seasons, advancing as far as the Sweet Sixteen two years ago, and won a share of the Pac-12 championship that same year.
By the time the Pac-12 Conference — at least, the old Pac-12 — crumbled last offseason when conference realignment sent 10 league schools to three other conferences, Utah had established itself as one of the teams to beat in their old conference home.
Now, though, the Utes are in the Big 12 — and on Tuesday, that included rubbing elbows and sharing conversations with a different group of programs during the Big 12 basketball media days at T-Mobile Center in Kansas City.
“It’s different. I think there was a, I don’t know if this is true in all the other sports, but there was a true camaraderie with the women’s basketball coaches in the Pac-12,” Roberts told the Deseret News, about joining a new league where it will take time to feel everything out.
“We all knew each other very well (in the Pac-12), each other’s families and that comes from being at a place for a long time. There was not a lot of turnover in the coaching, a lot of people have been there a long time. Coming in new and I’m not saying there’s not camaraderie here, it’s just we’re the new kid on the block, and it’s like being the new kid in the lunch room where you’re trying to figure out where you’re going to sit. That’s kind of how it feels. But I’m sure that’ll change.”
Utah senior forward Jenna Johnson said that one of the things that will involve a learning curve in adjusting to the Big 12 is style of play.
“Coach Rob was mentioning it earlier, like style of play is different for sure. Pac-12, all those different teams and personnel, were kind of the overall feel of a lot of teams were similar,” Johnson said. “So I think just, you know, you play one team now, it’s super dribble drive offense, another one that spreads you out, catch-and-shoot threes. So I think that would be the biggest difference, just like different scouting reports each and every game, and just really different styles of play every night.”
With two weeks until the season starts on Nov. 4 with a late-morning matchup against Southern Utah, the vibe surrounding another veteran-led group is overwhelmingly positive, as players are excited and determined to start another season.
The team will lean on returning starters and veterans like Johnson and guards Gianna Kneepkens, Kennady McQueen and Ines Vieira to guide the 2024-25 version of the Utes.
“You know, I think we have enough experience back that have played in so many big moments and big games and won and lost big games that I think we’re ready — that’s the beauty of experience,” Roberts said. “For so long, we’ve been talking about how young we’ve been, and now these guys are juniors and seniors, and it’s like, you know, I think there’s a humble confidence about where we’re at.”
After three-plus weeks of training camp, the anticipation to transition from offseason to in-season is growing.
“I feel like, collectively, very excited for this part of the year, like just itching to start playing against other teams and stuff,” Johnson said. “Luckily, we had a couple kind of closed-door scrimmages to get our feet wet, gain some confidence, so those have been going well. But yeah, honestly, just really looking forward to Nov. 4, getting fans in the arena and getting to play.”
Speaking of those closed-door scrimmages — known commonly as “secret” scrimmages in the college basketball vernacular — Utah was able to use its Pac-12 connections to help get them ready for play.
Utah, according to reports on social media, played a scrimmage last weekend against UCLA — Roberts mentioned there’s another scheduled scrimmage against a former Pac-12 school that “will test us.”
“Well, I think you know, last year we played two exhibition games, and we won by a lot, and then we played two nonconference games and won by a lot, and then we went down to Baylor and did not play well. But we had never been tested. We hadn’t been — nothing had been hard,” Roberts said. “And so I said to our staff, like we’re not doing that again. We want to be ready.”
That’s where the scrimmages — set up with previous league connections — will help, even if details about the game’s action are not made available to the general public.
“We wanted our nonconference to give us more quality wins, potential for quality wins, quality games, because we want to get as high a seed as we can (in the NCAA tournament),” Roberts said.
Kneepkens, who missed most of last season with a broken foot, noted that the scrimmages are helping the team get game-ready — even for a veteran squad where so many of the players already have years of experience together.
“I think it’s extremely valuable, especially when we’re playing against good teams in our scrimmages. It kind of just gets us prepared for the intensity we need to be at, and just like the level of play we need to be at,” she said. “So being able to see some adversity before we play games that count, where you lose if you’re 0-1, or if you win you’re 1-0, being able to have that experience is important.”