Iowa State's Audi Crooks is the CENTER OF ATTENTION
Crooks has been dominating in the post since her high school days at Bishop Garrigan High School in Algona, IA, where she led her squad to back-to-back state titles and inked her name in the state record books. She broke the tournament record by dropping 49 points in the state championship game, doing so while ducking the haters who tried to call her a one-hit wonder, like she does her defenders. “The critics say sometimes that all I do is get baskets right under the basket,” she told The Gazette in 2023. “I mean this in the most humble way: It works.”
It’s at Iowa State that Crooks has perfected the art of posting up. The minute the Cyclones get possession of the ball on the offensive end, Audi is always right there, scheming under the basket and boxing out or dancing with her defenders. Sometimes she’ll take a few dribbles and then either push right past her opponent or go right under them for a smooth layup finish.
What’s even scarier for everyone is that this season, Crooks has been challenging herself to knock down jumpers from the mid-range, too. After earning All-Big 12 honors as a freshman, she locked in on it during the offseason. “I took the time to appreciate what I did my first year, but also improve,” Crooks tells us. “ focused a lot [on] turning up [on] the defensive end of the floor, being a better defender, being a better shot blocker, and then also coming out of the paint a little bit [with my] mid-range game, trusting myself with the rock and trusting myself to be able to handle the ball.”
It’s that trust—in herself and from her squad—that’s led Crooks to emerge into a college basketball star as just a sophomore. “I chose Iowa State because it made me feel cared for as a person, not just for what I do on a basketball court,” Crooks told us when asked about her decision to play for the Cyclones. During her recruiting process, Fennelly and his staff worked hard to make sure she felt that way, from dining at her favorite restaurant, Cinco De Mayo, a local Mexican spot in Algona, to sending her a picture of her future locker. They even defended her against the aforementioned critics, including on the night that Crooks led her high school squad to a state title.
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