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Iowa State center Audi Crooks is one of the most dominant forces in women’s college basketball today.
Crooks, a junior, leads the nation in scoring with 26.9 points per game to go along with 7.6 rebounds per contest. Crooks stands at 6-foot-3-inches tall and is significantly heavier than the overwhelming majority of both college and pro women’s basketball players.
Her size makes her nearly impossible to defend for most teams if she catches the ball in the post. But it’s also drawn criticism from haters and trolls in the pass.
“I think it was hard until I recognized the reality – people can hate but they can’t take away what I just did,” she told On3 about the critiques of her physique. “There might be 100 comments about my body or about how I look. But then there are 1,000 about my skill set, about my character, about how I smile and about how I treat other people.
“So it’s just like I said, no matter what you do, no matter who you are, if you’re doing something worth doing, then somebody’s going to hate on you. It’s just recognizing that and trying to take the bad with the good – and the good clearly outweighs the bad.”
But there are some valid sporting criticisms of Crooks as well.
Audi Crooks’ Size And Lack Of Defense Is Killing Her Iowa State Team
While Crooks’ size is a massive advantage on the offensive end of the court, it’s a glaring weakness on the defensive end. She struggles to move laterally and is often fatigued in games that are played as a high-pace.
Those issues have become abundantly clear in recent weeks, as Iowa State has dropped five straight games after beginning the season 14-0.
Cyclones’ opponents are averaging 76 points per game over that span, and 63.8 points per game over the course of the season, which ranks 177th in the country.
And they’re attacking Crooks at every opportunity.
LMFAOO look at this close out on the shooter by Audi Crooks
She ALMOST blocked it 😭😭😭
— Hater Report (@HaterReport_) January 5, 2026
In its most recent loss to Texas Tech, the Cyclones allowed 86 points, their second-worst total of the season, and Crooks scored just 15 points on 6-of-14 shooting.
As long as she remains wildly efficient on the offensive end, Crooks can still be an extremely useful college basketball player. But when her offense isn’t on, she’s borderline unplayable for coach Bill Fennelly.
Beyond that, her lack of mobility makes any sort of WNBA career virtually impossible. Crooks just turned 21, and she still has time to improve on defense. But she has a long way to go before even reaching a passable level at that end of the floor.