(Photo: Tyler Rittenhouse/WCSN)
Kianna Ibis, who tore her ACL her senior year in high school, was no stranger to recovering from a major knee surgery. A full year of ice, heat and physical therapy is the recipe for getting back on the court.
But when she tore her meniscus as a freshman at Arizona State, she used a different tool throughout the process: Snapchat.
“(Former Sun Devil) Sophie Brunner would always give me advice, even now on Snapchat we’ll be snapping each other and then she’ll give me advice and stuff like that,” Ibis said. “Her and Kelsey (Moos) have always been like the moms of the team and they’re very supportive.”
That was 2015. Brunner and Moos were two seasoned veterans consoling the freshman who was poised to make an impact on the program.
The only catch: her play was limited because of the injury. Any major contribution Ibis wanted to make had to wait.
“Being able to sit out and watch before being thrown into everything kind of helped me,” Ibis said. “It definitely helped me develop as a player being able to watch Sophie and Kelsey and all the seniors and the role players before me.”
Two years after the injury, Ibis is leading the Sun Devils in scoring at 13.6 points per game, including reaching over 20 points five times this season. She’s the only Sun Devil on this team to reach 30 points.
This may come as a surprise to some, but those inside the program expected this level of performance before the knee injury slowed the junior forward.
“It’s the progress we expected to see,” ASU head coach Charli Turner Thorne said. “Kianna was a big-time prospect and then she hurt her knee her senior year in high school. What she was going to be if she never hurt her knee coming in as a freshman is maybe what she is doing now.”
Just over 1,200 miles away from Wells Fargo Arena lies Benson High School in Omaha, Nebraska. It was Benson where Ibis built her legacy, becoming a Top 100 prospect before experiencing the setback her senior year.
She earned all-state honors in her final three years. Despite the injury her senior year, she did so again as she averaged 21.2 points, 11.2 rebounds, 2.2 steals and 1.7 blocks in 17 games.
Ibis was a driving force as a junior in her team’s run to its first state title, averaging 19.4 points, 15.4 rebounds a game while amassing 163 blocks and 52 steals.
As a freshman at ASU, Ibis only played in limited action. In her sophomore season, she reached double-digits in points just four times.
She’s flourished this season, though.
“This is not surprising at all, it is what we envisioned,” Turner Thorne said. “She was so slowed by that horrible knee injury that it has taken some time and then she did play behind some great players.”
One of the players Ibis learned from — Brunner — just so happens to be one of the program’s all-time greats. Brunner (2014-17) led the school to four consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, including a Sweet Sixteen in 2015. She also helped the team to a 2016 Pac-12 Championship and the highest March Madness seed in program history (No. 2).
Watching Brunner taught Ibis a lot about the college game.
Turner Thorne may have seen Ibis’ potential through the clouds created by the knee injuries, but because of those and the limited opportunity she had sitting behind talented players, one question remained: How would Ibis handle being a leader when it was finally her turn?
Her stats this season answer that question.
“Her nickname as a freshman was honey badger because she would shoot, she didn’t care,” Turner Thorne said. “That’s what we love about Kianna is every time we put her in the game we put her in to score.”
She does that. With relative ease.
Her defensive skills are helpful as well.
“She is a great defensive player and she’s just becoming a more complete player as a starter as someone as she’s taken on huge assignments defensively and still scored 20 points,” Turner Thorne said.
Ibis still wears a brace on the right knee, a symbol of the knee injuries that first slowed her, then made her the resilient player she is today. But as the season progresses, she hopes to eventually brace for a run in March, something that isn’t out of the question for the Sun Devils who sit at a conference record of 6-4 halfway through Pac-12 play.
It’s a goal she set out to complete from the time she took her official visit, where she noticed everyone was welcoming and the program’s facilities were top-notch. She eventually committed to the Sun Devils over Nebraska, Stanford, and Creighton.
“I committed because of the atmosphere and everyone here is like a family,” Ibis said. “I really like the culture.”
Three years in, those same aspects are still there. What she couldn’t have predicted, though, was that Snapchat would play a role in her journey.
