Making a case for Gianna Gotti

May 1, 2023 Andy Furman

Gianna Gotti. Courtesy Brooklyn College athletics

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She certainly has a case.

Gianna Gotti, a Brooklyn College senior, plans to attend Law School upon graduation this month.
And her first case just might be her own – and it’s pretty cut-and-dry.

The First-Team, All-Met Division III basketball star could very well be one of the best guards in the nation.
The recently-concluded season saw her 21.8 point-per-game average rank tenth in the country.
Add to that 15th in assists (142) and tied for first in steals (151).

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She averaged 5.9 rebounds per-game and led the City University of New York Athletic Conference (CUNYAC) in free-throw shooting percentage (76.0).
Gotti surpassed 1,000 points scoring for her career in a conference win at Hunter in February.
She scored a Brooklyn College career-high 38 points against CUNY runner-up John Jay in late January.
Last year’s NCAA Division III Steals Champion, Gotti came up with a season-high 12 picks against CCNY in January.
That certainly looks like an open-and-shut case, for sure.

But it wasn’t Brooklyn College from the start for the Oyster Bay High graduate who is a Top-20 all-time leading scorer on Long Island.

Two years were spent at the University of Bridgeport.

“My first two years at Bridgeport weren’t the best experience for me mentally,” she said. “I felt it was important to put myself in a family environment in the next school I picked.”
She said when Brooklyn’s coach Alex Lang reached out – she was all-in.

“He (Coach Lang) was a familiar face because I knew of him in high school. When I committed to Brooklyn,” she said, “it was really just a gut feeling to do so. I didn’t even visit the school to see if I liked it. I questioned my decision to my mom, and she was the one who told me that everything happens for a reason, and I was brought to Brooklyn for a purpose.”
Today she says it was the best decision she ever made made.
“It helped me grow not only as a player, but as a person.”
And Brooklyn College has enjoyed an unprecedented run of success – a big part of which can be attributed to the 2022-23 CUNYAC Player of the Year.
Gianna Gotti help lead Brooklyn to two CUNYAC Championships and earning back-to-back NCAA tournament appearances.

This season Brooklyn fell in the first-round of the NCAA D-III Tournament to Christopher Newport University – the number one (D-III) team in the nation.

“We showed up and made no excuses,” she said.

Gotti scored a game-high 16 points with three steals in the loss.

Gotti has shown-up each and every time she steps on the basketball court.

In fact, in her five games during the final month of the semester, the senior captain averaged 21.4 points, 7.2 rebounds, 6.4 assists and 6.2 steals.

She scored 25 or-more points in three contests, six or-more assists in three games and at least five steals every game.,

And off the court, she is an CUNY Scholar-Athlete Honor Roll member.

“Gianna was great for us in her first season a year-ago,” Coach Lang said, “But she worked hard to be that much better as a senior.”

Gianna Gotti plans to continue her education and make a lasting impact for women.

“My goals have always been the same since I was a kid,” she said. “To lead a life on and off the court that creates power, place, and opportunity for women.

“My goal is to further continue my education and attend law school in the hopes of one day being able to become an even greater voice for women in the future.”

She already made a case for herself in basketball – the rest should be easy.

Andy Furman is a Fox Sports Radio national talk show host. Previously, he was a scholastic sports columnist for the Brooklyn Eagle He may be reached at: [email protected] Twitter: @AndyFurmanFSR