{"id":831345,"date":"2025-06-27T12:59:36","date_gmt":"2025-06-27T16:59:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/?p=831345"},"modified":"2025-06-27T12:59:38","modified_gmt":"2025-06-27T16:59:38","slug":"grace-knox-come-up-story","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/the-magazine\/slam-256\/grace-knox-come-up-story\/","title":{"rendered":"Grace Knox, the No. 7-Ranked Player in the Class of 2025, is Poised to Make a Whole Lot of Noise at LSU"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Grace Knox has always played the game with a competitive edge. The LSU commit has gone hard on every possession, whether she gets the rock or not, always finding a way to impact the game.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI mean, if we’re gonna play, why not be as competitive as you can and go as hard as you can? Because if you’re not going hard, to me, it’s not fun. It’s not how the game\u2019s supposed to be played,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s been the mantra the 6-2 wing has played under for her entire hoops career. Pull up the tape and you\u2019ll see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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On the offensive end, Knox gets buckets from all levels, scoring in the post and occasionally letting one fly from deep. Defensively, she locks down opponents on the interior, blocking shots like A’ja Wilson\u2014the player she molds her game after.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But most notable on the tape is Knox\u2019s hustle. She makes timely cuts, sets brick-wall screens and comes down with every 50\/50 ball. \u201cEven if other things, like points, aren’t showing, I was taught that other things matter, like rebounding, 50\/50 balls, playing defense\u2014and those can really determine the game at the end of the day,\u201d she says. \u201cJust trying to focus on what I’m good at, and I’m pretty athletic, so I think that helps a lot and brings a lot to my game.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knox always had athletic talent, originally aspiring to play in the NFL. Once she moved on from that dream, she switched to basketball. With the help of her father, she started seriously working at the game. After hooping in Nevada, Knox transferred to Etiwanda High School in California to better prepare for college and gain higher levels of exposure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She dealt with nagging back injuries, which sidelined her for her sophomore season, leading to a lengthy rehabilitation process. Throughout that journey, she received vital support from her family and used her goal of playing college hoops to motivate herself to recover. Even from the bench, Knox still improved her game in different areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think it helped me as well in an IQ way, just learning the floor from a different angle, from a different perspective, and just kind of seeing things that I wouldn’t see if I was playing,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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When she returned to the court, the accolades began piling up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Playing alongside guard Puff Morris, Knox averaged 17.2 points and 11.9 rebounds per game in her junior season, leading the Eagles to a CIF Open Division state championship. During her senior season, Knox averaged another double-double and was stuffing around four shots a game. She was named a McDonald’s All-American and played in the Nike Hoop Summit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As if scouts weren’t already turning their heads after the showcases, her final playoff push cemented her status as a top player in the nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Knox closed out her high school career in a league of her own, winning her second CIF Open Division state championship in a row.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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It\u2019s easy to see why Knox received over 40 DI offers during her recruitment. Powerhouse programs like USC, Texas and Tennessee offered her, but she eventually committed to LSU in November. \u201cI felt like their program in general, their style of play, matches really well with how I want to be able to play and develop along the years,\u201d Knox says. \u201cThe culture had a lot to do with my decision as well, just the family welcoming, comfortable culture, just knowing that I’ll be taken care of.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But more importantly, coach Kim Mulkey\u2019s development program factored into her decision.  The four-time champion\u2019s pipeline goes far. Brittney Griner. NaLyssa Smith. Angel Reese. The talent speaks for itself. Now, Knox is in a prime position to become Mulkey’s next great wing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alongside fellow five-star recruits ZaKiyah Johnson and Divine Bourrage, Knox headlines LSU’s No. 2 ranked recruiting class (according to 247sports) for the 2025-26 season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her goal for the upcoming season is simple, and one that will have Tiger Nation excited for what’s to come. Knox said she wants to bring home hardware and hang another championship banner in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center. \u201cMy goal is to eventually become a starter during my freshman year,” she says. “I want to be on the first All-Conference team for the SEC and just [win] as many freshman accolades as I can, just so people know who I am and that I can prove myself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Portraits by Sam Muller.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Grace Knox has always played the game with a competitive edge. The LSU commit has gone hard on every possession, whether she gets the rock or not, always finding a way to impact the game. \u201cI mean, if we’re gonna play, why not be as competitive as you can and go as hard as you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":543,"featured_media":831348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[65393],"tags":[62525,65418,5666,65411,64927],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-831345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-slam-256","tag-feature-1","tag-grace-knox","tag-lsu","tag-slam-256","tag-slam-hs"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/543"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=831345"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":831355,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/831345\/revisions\/831355"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/831348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=831345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=831345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=831345"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.slamonline.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=831345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}