Audi Crooks has surpassed expectations in her first season with Iowa State's women's basketball

AMES – Iowa State women’s basketball player Audi Crooks has a list of goals she came up with before the season hanging on a wall in her Ames apartment.

The list of things she set out to attain during her first season included improving, earning a starting spot, playing significant minutes, becoming an effective shooter from the field and being a better teammate.

“We’re still working,” Crooks said of the goals. “I’m not satisfied by any means. But I’m a lot farther than I think everybody thought I was going to be, including myself. But we still have a lot more to do.“

Crooks has quickly accomplished many of those goals and will continue to check more off her list when the Cyclones (14-10 overall, 8-6 in Big 12 Conference) play at Houston (13-12 overall, 4-10 in Big 12) on Wednesday at 7 p.m. The freshman, who had high hopes for herself heading into the season, has surpassed many of her own expectations.

“I definitely didn’t expect to be breaking records my first year, let alone starting, playing and contributing in a significant way,” Crooks said. “So, it’s gone a lot better than I would have anticipated.”

There have always been a ton of high hopes for Crooks, who was one of the best basketball players in the country while playing at Bishop Garrigan High School in Algona. The post player was ranked No. 57 on the 2023 HoopGurlz Recruiting espnW100 list and guided her team to back-to-back state titles.

It wasn’t always a matter of if she would produce at the college level, but when. Crooks dominated Class 1A competition throughout her high school career and was rarely challenged.

Critics questioned if Crooks could make the jump from small school basketball to Big 12 competition. She said she heard concerns about her 6-foot-3 frame and whether or not she could handle the pace of the game. The concerns motivated her. But Crooks wasn't set to prove them wrong. She wanted to prove herself right.

“I knew this was something that I wanted to do, and I knew that come hell or high water, I was going to do it and so that just was kind of a motivating factor,” she said.

More: Iowa State women's basketball loses at No. 5 Texas, Audi Crooks sets program record

To have the type of success she wanted, Crooks said she had to make changes mentally and physically. Crooks knew she couldn't easily dominate her new opponents. She had to work harder and she had to build up her endurance to log more minutes.

So, she embarked with her teammates on a grueling strength and conditioning program over the summer. Some of the toughest tasks came on the school's soccer field where Erin Brocka, the team’s director of strength and conditioning, set up cones a certain distance apart. Crooks had 15 seconds to get there before a beep would go off. After five seconds, she’d turn around it would beep and she’d take off again. They’d do reps of 15, four different times.

“That was probably our hardest conditioning,” Crooks said.

Crooks embraced it all. Her hard work was rewarded with massive changes that she can now see when looking at old photos of herself. The results also showed up on the court. Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly said Crooks, who logged about 15 to 20 minutes during the team’s trip overseas in the summer, was hoping he could get about that much from her when the season started.

Fennelly eased Crooks into things early in her college career, bringing her off the bench for her first four games. She averaged just over 18 minutes a game during those four contests and was impressive during all of them. So, Fennelly gave her a starting spot and as time has gone on, more and more playing time.

Crooks, who is now averaging 24.8 points per game, has become Iowa State’s most steady player this season. She's also accomplishing her goals, ranking first on the team in points (18.0) and field goal percentage (.568) and second in rebounds (7.4) per game. During Iowa State's double overtime win against Kansas State, Crooks scored 20 points in 34 minutes. Three days later at Texas, she poured in 24 points in 34 more minutes.

“She’s proved everyone wrong and she’s just going to keep on proving for the years to come,” said Iowa State freshman guard Arianna Jackson.

Crooks has made so many strides that she's become a pivotal point in Iowa State's offense with the Cyclones continually looking for ways to find her in the post. Opposing teams have even deployed multiple defenders to try to slow her down. It's rarely worked. Crooks even went toe-to-toe with Kansas State star Ayoka Lee, showing she could play with some of the best in the Big 12, already.

The only area of concern has been some struggles at the free throw line. Other than that, Crooks has been a star since stepping on the court for the Cyclones, etching her name throughout the record book along the way. She has already broken the school's record for field goals in a season with 171. Her 433 points on the season are second-most by a freshman in program history, just 27 behind Megan Taylor's mark of 460.

"She's been, I mean, lightyears above what we all thought was possible," Fennelly said.

The hope is that this isn't the highlight of Crooks' career. With more experience and more offseasons like her first summer in Ames, she could get even better. The goals she has next season could be bigger.

"Hopefully that'll motivate her even more as she moves forward in her career," Fennelly said.

Tommy Birch, the Register's sports enterprise and features reporter, has been working at the newspaper since 2008. He's the 2018, 2020 and 2023 Iowa Sportswriter of the Year. Reach him at tbirch@dmreg.com or 515-284-8468.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Audi Crooks lives up to expectations for Iowa State women's basketball