A robe, a plane, a surprise call: How Iowa State women's basketball recruited 5 freshmen

After the Iowa State women’s basketball coaches officially signed the 2023 recruiting class to letters of intent, Cyclones coach Bill Fennelly took his staff out to dinner at Wallaby’s Bar and Grille, a popular establishment in Ames. Fennelly wanted to treat them all to a celebratory meal after officially locking up one of the most decorated groups in Iowa State history.

“It was just a culmination of a lot of work and trying to bring a lot of pieces together, and I think the idea of knowing what those five brought to our program was what we were excited about,” Fennelly said.

Fennelly and his staff spent years trying to get commitments from the five. Their hard work was rewarded with Jalynn Bristow, Addy Brown, Audi Crooks, Arianna Jackson and Kelsey Joens all deciding to come to Iowa State. They’ve lived up to the expectations and guided the Cyclones to a successful season.

“There’s a couple of other kids that we were recruiting but it was like, if we got these five, that’s where we’re going to be,” Fennelly said. “They fit us perfectly, position-wise, time-wise and our roster perfectly. That never happens.”

The rookies will take the court Saturday when Iowa State plays in the quarterfinals of the Big 12 Tournament at 11 a.m. at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City. But how they got to this point, deciding to play for the Cyclones, is a story in and of itself. The Register spoke with Fennelly and assistant coaches Jodi Steyer, Latoja Schaben and Billy Fennelly to learn what went on behind the scenes.

Arianna Jackson gets a recommendation from a famous former Cyclone

Bill Fennelly knew about Jackson early on. Jackson, a star point guard from Roosevelt High School in Des Moines, was part of a family full of Cyclones. Her father Hez played football for Iowa State. Her brother Kendell did as well. Hez was coached by Dan McCarney, a longtime friend of Fennelly's who encouraged him to look at Jackson.

"Mac had said, 'I don't know if Hez's daughter is any good, but you might want to take a look at her,'" Fennelly said.

When Fennelly did, he liked what he saw. Jackson was a Cyclone, through and through. She grew up going to Iowa State games and got lessons through Billy Fennelly's wife Lyndsey, one of the program's all-time best point guards. She was as loyal as they come, having stayed in Des Moines Public Schools while other star athletes were poached by suburban schools. She was exactly what Fennelly was looking for. He went to Roosevelt games and even followed how Jackson was doing in cross country.

"I learned more about cross country than I ever really thought I would know," Fennelly said.

But the biggest sell may have come from former Cyclone Meredith Burkhall, an ex-Roosevelt star herself. Burkhall met with Jackson and her family at an Ames restaurant and talked about her experiences playing at Iowa State. The meeting was the last piece of evidence Jackson needed before committing to the Cyclones.

Jackson pledged her allegiance to the Cyclones in September of 2020 and became the first commitment in the class. She made sure others followed. Jackson helped in Crooks' recruitment by attending the Drake Relays to watch the Bishop Garrigan High School star throw the shot put. Jackson arrived hours before her own AAU games to cheer on Crooks and her teammates at tournaments.

"A.J.'s a really good recruiter," Billy Fennelly said. "She was very invested."

Kelsey Joens follows in her sisters' footsteps to Ames

Joens has been on Iowa State's radar for a long time. Her sister Ashley was one of the best players in school history and became the program's all-time leading scorer during her five seasons in Ames before departing for the WNBA. Another sister, Aubrey, played her first two seasons at Iowa State. Kelsey frequently attended her sisters' games and was urged by her siblings to go to Iowa State as well. (Another sister, Courtney, played at Illinois.)

Iowa State's coaches knew they should keep close tabs on Kelsey. The Joens girls were known to work at the family's business, Joensy's restaurant in Iowa City, and work on their game when there weren't any customers around. Fennelly and his staff often stopped by to do some recruiting.

Becuase the staff had already gotten to know the family during the recruitment of Ashley and Aubrey, they felt like they an inside track to landing Kelsey. They certainly liked what they saw from her skillset as a strong shooter and versatile guard.

"We feel like there's an x-factor no one knows about," Schaben said. "It's the Joens factor because they're hard-nosed kids, they play hard, they compete and they just want to win."

After Kelsey committed to Iowa State in August of 2021, the staff worried she may change her mind after Aubrey transferred to Oklahoma following her sophomore season with the Cyclones. Fennelly called to make sure that Kelsey still wanted to come.

"She's like, 'Yeah, what are you talking about?'" Fennelly said.

Two important trips help land Jalynn Bristow

Schaben made an early impression on Bristow, a four-star recruit out of Texas. The longtime Fennelly assistant flew to Texas and stayed with some family members so she could check in on Bristow. Schaben got up at 3 a.m. and made the 2 1/2-hour drive to her high school to watch Bristow practice at 6 a.m. Schaben could have gone to a practice later in the day, but she wanted Bristow to know how interested they were in her.

"The coach there said, 'I have never seen a Division I coach come that early in the morning to go see a kid play," Schaben said. "And that's what I did. That was a big impact with her mom and her family."

Another time, Schaben and the rest of the staff took the school's private jet south to watch Bristow play. Schaben said it was the first time she'd done that. The only other person she recalled the Cyclones doing that for: star point guard Emily Ryan. Bill Fennelly admitted that the plane is a rarely used recruiting tool for the women's staff, but it was necessary to show Bristow how much the staff cared about her.

"We don't do that a whole lot," Fennelly said. "Believe me. I don't want you to think we're the men's staff."

It was worth it for Bristow, a long and versatile forward who was listed as the 48th-best player in the class of 2023 by ESPN. And it worked. Bristow narrowed her choices to Iowa State, Gonzaga, Penn State, Oklahoma and Texas Tech before committing to the Cyclones in February of 2022.

Addy Brown makes a surprise phone call

Brown's family was no stranger to the Cyclones, either. Iowa State had recruited her older sister Kennedy, a McDonald's All-American. Kennedy ended up at Oregon State and now plays at Duke. When the staff found out about Addy, they decided to keep an eye on her. It wasn't hard. Brown played on the same AAU team as Bristow.

They liked what they saw as Brown became one of the best prep players in Kansas. The forward could do it all. She averaged 20.4 points, 10.4 rebounds, 4.1 assists, 2.6 steals and 1.2 blocks per game as a senior. Like Kennedy, she was a McDonald’s All-American. But unlike Kennedy, Addy was interested in staying closer to home. Billy Fennelly said Brown told them she wanted to stay within a six-hour radius of the family's home in Derby, Kan., and play in the Big 12.

Iowa State fit both of those requirements.

While the Cyclones coaching staff was impressed with Brown, how she had developed and how her game had taken off, in hindsight they felt like they didn't go after her as hard as they should have. That's why they had some serious concerns when Brown reached out to Steyer, Fennelly's associate head coach, in March of 2022.

Brown texted Steyer to say she had some questions. Steyer feared the worst.

"I remember being in our meeting going, 'Hey, Addy, might call, I'm not sure, maybe she's dropping us,'" Steyer said.

Brown wanted to know how the staff saw her fitting in on the team and what she needed to work on. After Steyer answered those questions, Brown committed. Steyer, overjoyed by the news, told Brown to call the head coach and let him know.

"I remember either calling Bill or texting him like, 'You're going to get a really good phone call that's coming your way, so be ready,'" Steyer said.

An Iowa State robe helps land the commitment of Audi Crooks

The Cyclones pulled out all the stops when it came to recruiting Crooks. And rightfully so. The Algona native was one of the top talents in the nation, drawing interest from top programs across the country. Fennelly was so enthralled by her post presence and the potential she had that he even became a frequent customer of Cinco De Mayo, a restaurant in Algona.

Fennelly isn't a fan of Mexican food. But he knew Crooks loved the restaurant and hoped locals would see him and the coaching there and bring it up to the high school star. So every time they stopped in town to watch one of her volleyball matches or basketball games, they dined at the restaurant.

"I don't even like Mexican food ... she loves that restaurant so I'm like, 'OK, we're going,'" Fennelly said.

Another way the Cyclones tried to convince Crooks to come to Ames involved a robe. Crooks had seen team-issued robes during one of her other college visits and told one of her coaches about how much she loved the robes. She wanted her college team to have them. The coach passed along the message to Steyer, who didn't want that to be the difference between getting a Crooks commitment and losing out to another school.

The coaches talked to the Iowa State equipment staff. Then they sent Crooks an image of what her Iowa State locker would look like if she played for the Cyclones. In it was a robe.

"We got the robes," Billy Fennelly said.

Crooks committed in April of 2022. She was such an important part of the recruiting class that the staff continued their courtship of her long after. After a win at Hilton Coliseum earlier in the day, the entire staff showed up to Wells Fargo Arena to watch Crooks and her teammates win a state championship. During the state tournament game, a fan stopped and told the ISU coaching staff that he didn't believe Crooks, from Class 1A Bishop Garrigan, had what it took to play at Iowa State. The Cyclone coaches disagreed.

"We're like, 'Hey, you're entitled to your opinion and we obviously feel otherwise,'" Fennelly said. "We're not recruiting somebody to sit on the bench. And the whole time, obviously, our staff thought she could be super special."

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: How Iowa State women's basketball recruited Audi Crooks, other freshmen