SACRAMENTO, Calif. -- As the UCLA Bruins entered this season, they knew their depth was going to be one of their strongest attributes.
"I told them in the locker room, it's going to be a different person every night," coach Cori Close said Monday night. "Today, it was Gianna [Kneepkens]."
Kneepkens finished with 20 points on 8-of-14 shooting in the No. 3 Bruins' 73-59 win over No. 6 Oklahoma at the Golden 1 Center.
Kneepkens arrived at UCLA after four seasons at Utah where she was no worse than their second-best scorer on a game-to-gane basis.
Kneepkens acknowledges there has been an adjustment period since joining UCLA, which prides itself on its depth, especially this season. It has forced Kneepkens to navigate not being the No. 1 or No. 2 option, or the primary ball handler.
Close says she likes to remind Kneepkens -- as well as many of her other players -- that if and when they make it to the WNBA, they probably won't be the first option on their team. At least not at first.
For Kneepkens, she said she wanted to transfer somewhere that would help her grow -- both as a player and a person. And she said UCLA was the best fit for that.
"There have definitely been hard days and hard moments," Kneepkens said, "but I have great people around me that have helped me be better. I've already felt growth."
Kneepkens' teammates don't seem to notice her bad days. She's always the first player in the gym in the mornings and is often the last one to leave -- "even when she's not supposed to come in," as Close pointed out.
"She never shows [her bad days]," said Angela Dugalić, who finished with 16 points and 15 rebounds Monday. "She is very, very steady for us. ... She's made our team so much better."
Kneepkens is averaging 16.3 points through the first three games, including consecutive 20-point games against Oklahoma on Monday and UCSB on Nov. 6. She's shooting 35% from 3, and has helped the Bruins establish a quick-paced style they want to continue throughout the season.
"This was all about alignment," Close said. "What she wanted to learn and grow in, we could provide. And what we needed her to provide us with was a complementary piece to the other people we had."
Close said Kneepkens became a focal point for the program as soon as the senior guard entered the transfer portal last spring. At the time, the Bruins were still playing in the NCAA tournament, but Close made it clear to her staff that as soon as the team was done playing, Kneepkens was the No. 1 priority.
At the time, Close said she didn't know her team would be losing as many players as it did to the portal. But it made her pursuit of Kneepkens even stronger.
"It left space for someone like Gianna," Close said. "We knew having a player like Lauren [Betts] and the spacing that would be created with a player like Gianna ... [Gabriela Jaquez] is better at her slashing because Gianna is here. ... The driving lanes are better for Kiki Rice.
"It was all about creating complementary pieces, and her skill set was the complementary piece we needed."