Why Stopping Audi Crooks Has Become Almost Impossible
Let me tell you about something wild happening in women’s college basketball right now — because Audi Crooks is redefining what “dominant” looks like. Every season we see big scorers, but what Crooks is doing for Iowa State this year feels like it belongs in a video game rather than a real box score.
At just 6-foot-3, she’s leading the entire nation with an astonishing 27.6 points per game, and most of the time she barely plays half the contest. She’s already scored 276 points in just 245 minutes, putting her on pace to become the first Division I women’s player this century to average at least a point per minute. Only Joel Embiid has done something like that recently in major basketball, so she’s working in rare company.
Also Read:- Rising Tension Ahead of Indéfendable’s Mid-Season Finale
- Lincoln Lawyer Season 4 Brings Mickey Haller’s Biggest Fight Yet
And it’s not like this came out of nowhere. Crooks announced herself nationally during the 2024 NCAA tournament when she dropped 40 points on Maryland as a freshman. Now, in her junior year, she’s taken everything up a level — smoother moves, sharper footwork, cleaner finishes. She currently sits second in the country in field goal percentage, hitting nearly 73% of her attempts, and she’s already logged multiple 40-point nights this season. She even put up 30 points in 19 minutes against Northern Illinois and then just casually checked out of the game. That kind of efficiency is almost unheard of.
Her coach, Bill Fennelly, admits he’s rarely seen anything like this. Teams are throwing everything at her — double-teams, triple-teams, flops, physicality — and she’s still scoring through it all. Her patience in the paint has improved every season, and she’s now finishing plays with a mid-range release that looks smoother than most guards’.
But what really makes her unstoppable is how predictable she is — in the best way. Everyone knows the ball is going to her, yet nobody has figured out how to stop it. Even her teammates joke about it. As guard Reagan Wilson put it, “You throw the ball to her, and it’s going in.”
All this is happening while Iowa State sits undefeated at 10-0 and ranked No. 10 in the country. They’ve scored over 100 points in back-to-back games, and Crooks is the engine powering everything. Now the tension is building as they prepare to face No. 12 Iowa — their toughest test yet. The Hawkeyes haven’t lost to the Cyclones since 2021, and they’ve got their own star, Ava Heiden, ready to push the pace.
But if Crooks continues at this level, she’s heading straight into national player of the year conversations and possibly one of the greatest single seasons in college basketball history. Teams know what’s coming. They just haven’t figured out a solution.
Read More:
0 Comments