The basketball gods really have a thing for Iowa. First came Caitlin Clark at the University of Iowa, a scoring sensation who dominated headlines and sparked cultural debates. Now, the state’s other major college program, Iowa State, has been blessed with Audi Crooks – a thunderclap in her own right.
Where Clark dazzled the masses with moon ball shots and moxie off the dribble, Crooks is the kind of talent that makes other players of stature sit up and take notice, the junior center with a feel beyond her years. A 6ft 3in ballast in the paint, Crooks belongs to a protected class of hooper, the velveteen giant – post players who win with touch as much as brute force.
In the early 2000s, Troy Jackson – a 6ft 10in, 375lb streetball legend who played under the stage name “Escalade” – lit up And1 Mixtape crowds with his buttery shoulder rolls and no-look passes. Two years ago, 6ft 9in, 275lb DJ Burns Jr was the darling of the NCAA men’s tournament, his throwback, back-to-the-basket game carrying North Carolina State to their first Final Four since 1983. In fact, his greatest admirer was none other than the once roly-poly Nikola Jokić – the big man head and shoulders above the rest.
But the women’s game has never seen a figure quite like Crooks, a bulldozing ballerina fans have taken to calling “Baby Shaq”. The diesel that drives the Cyclones, Crooks averages more than 25 points a game while making two-thirds of her shots from the field – efficiency that makes her virtually impossible to guard. Front her on the low block, and she’ll catch and finish. Defend her straight up, and she’ll clear a path to the hoop. Push her farther out, and she’ll splash jumpers all day, no matter which way she’s facing. Send extra bodies her way, and she’ll either wing the ball to an open teammate or make whoever’s marking her regret their life choices.
Four months ago, when Iowa State hosted Valparaiso, the Beacons threw the kitchen sink at Crooks – and it still ended in a 97‑50 Cyclones blowout, with Crooks scoring a career‑high 43 points in 20 minutes to shatter a 41‑year‑old school record. Two-and-a-half weeks later, she dropped 47 points in an 11‑point win over Indiana, missing just eight shots combined from the field and free‑throw line.
“She’s a monster,” former NBA all-star Jeff Teague said after Crooks scored 41 points in 30 minutes in Iowa State’s conference opener against Kansas, sympathizing with the Jayhawks’ defender who drew Crooks in single coverage and spent most of the game dodging her elbows. “Her sternum [must be more] bruised than a motherfucker. Get well soon.” Against Iowa last December, Crooks scored 30 points – the final one on a free throw with 15 seconds left – to secure her first career victory over Iowa State’s chief rival.
Crooks comes by the clutch gene naturally. Born to high school basketball legends in north-central Algona, Iowa (population: 5,500), she has been on a breakout trajectory since arriving in Ames as a player scouts once discounted for coming from a small town and dominating undersized high school competition. At Bishop Garrigan High – where her mother, Michelle, looms large in the basketball record book – Crooks excelled not just on the hardwood, leading the Golden Bears to back-to-back state titles, but also in volleyball, track and field throwing events, and even the school band, where she played trumpet and drums.
Crooks wears No 55 to honor her parents, who both rocked the same digits back in their day. Her father, who died in 2021 at the age of 55, from diabetes-related complications, is a major source of inspiration. “Whenever he was at any of my sporting events, I would know because I could hear him,” she recently told ESPN. “He was probably the biggest influence in my life as far as basketball.”
In her NCAA Tournament debut two years ago, Crooks scored 40 points with just two missed shots to help rally Iowa State past Maryland in one of the largest comebacks in March Madness history. As a sophomore, Crooks shattered Iowa State’s single-season scoring record, shooting 75% or better in six games. Crooks’s brilliance is a big reason Iowa State have become a fashionable pick for a deep tournament run. But thus far, the 21-year-old has struggled to push the Cyclones past the second round.
This season, Crooks’s silky outbursts propelled Iowa State to a 14‑0 start. But then, just as Iowa State were beginning to look like Final Four shoo-ins and Crooks seemed to have one hand on college basketball’s Naismith award (given to the nation’s top player), the Cyclones lost their wind. After throttling Houston to notch their 14th victory and a season-high 10th-place in the AP poll, Iowa State dropped five straight games, and two of their last three, to finish the regular season 22-8.
Earlier this month, a nine-point upset loss to Arizona sent Iowa State crashing out of the Big 12 tournament in the first round. A large measure of the slide can be attributed to losing do-it-all forward Addy Brown – who helped power the Cyclones attack along with Crooks and transfer point guard Jada Williams until a lower body injury sidelined her for 11 games. Iowa State were further criticized for stacking their early-season schedule with overmatched opponents. But ultimately, the blame for the collapse fell on Crooks.
The dramatic slump opened just enough daylight for critics to spotlight the recurring lapses in Crooks’s defensive effort – “Halfway Crooks”, to borrow a line from the infamous Mobb Deep; that’s even as she ranks among the nation’s leading rebounders and shot blockers. The slump invited more scrutiny of Crooks’s physique, an issue that has followed her throughout her athletic career.
Women’s college teams do not list players’ weights on official rosters, as much out of some Emily Post-inspired deference to etiquette as an obligation to shield players from misogynistic abuse. Alas, that hasn’t stopped online speculation about Crooks’s size. But like the defenses that collapse on her in the paint, Crooks refuses to let keyboard busybodies knock her off balance. “Nobody can depreciate my play, so they come after me personally,” she told ESPN. “This body has gotten me so, so far in life, and it enables me to do what I do on the court. The people who criticize me for that certainly couldn’t stop me in the paint.”
With the Hawkeyes still near the top of the AP rankings two years after Clark moved to the pros, Crooks has a chance to carve out her own legacy as Iowa’s new standard-bearer against a brutal 2026 tournament field headlined by South Carolina, LSU and yet another Connecticut squad racking up victories on a title-defense march. Whether this Audi cruises to a ring will come down to seeding, inner strength and that sweet, sweet velvety touch, of course.
As for those who still doubt her fit in this game? They would be wise to remember the basketball gods’ habit of smiling down on the biggest and boldest.
