Iowa State will continue to lean on Audi Crooks in NCAA tournament game against Maryland

Iowa State began the season with four new starters. Its veteran floor general, Emily Ryan, sat on the bench nursing a leg injury and it looked like it would turn out to be a rebuilding year for the Cyclones.

But ISU’s youthful team refused to adhere to that narrative.

“Probably not (just) at the beginning of the year, but probably a month ago, I don’t think people thought this would happen,” said head coach Bill Fennelly, whose seventh-seeded Cyclones (20-11) will face 10th-seeded Maryland in Friday’s 6:30 p.m. first-round NCAA Tournament game in Palo Alto, Calif. “So it’s a credit to them.”

ISU stitched together a six-game winning streak en route to a loss to No. 1-seeded Texas in the Big 12 tournament final — and the Cyclones’ five freshmen, along with Ryan, fueled the team’s stirring late-season run.

Audi Crooks stands front and center for ISU and Wednesday was named an honorable mention All-American — the first freshman in program history to earn such accolades.

“It’s more than I ever could have thought for myself, especially in this first year, but I’m just filled with gratitude,” said the 6-3 Crooks, who averages 18.9 points and 7.7 rebounds. “I can’t thank my teammates enough because they’re the ones who give me the ball.”

The Terrapins, of course, will try to make entry passes to Crooks dicey propositions and they have quick, athletic guards who are skilled at creating turnovers in such situations. But teams have been game-planning to stop Crooks most of the season and typically the Cyclones find a way to ensure she produces big numbers.

“They’re not super, super lengthy down low, but they do like to front and bring backside help,” said Crooks, who has scored 22 or more points in four straight games. “Maybe it’ll be a little bit difficult to get it inside, but I think if we do manage to get the ball inside it’ll be to our advantage.”

And Crooks has become an efficient passer out of the post, as well. That’s what’s made ISU so dangerous lately. When Crooks draws an aggressive double team, she finds an open teammate on the perimeter who can knock down long-range shots.

“Any given night it can be anyone’s night,” said Ryan, who returned to the lineup in the last nonconference game and has been a steadying force, as usual, ever since.

That’s true. The Cyclones are shooting a sizzling 43.1 percent from 3-point range in their latest three wins, so efforts to limit Crooks don’t necessarily cause the offense to fully falter.

“We’ve gotten here because of the way we’ve played as a group, and obviously Audi has been a huge part of that,” Fennelly said. “But you’ve just got to go into the game and decide — get a good read early on how they’re going to guard her.”

Then the Cyclones counterpunch. It’s a strategy that’s worked well for a team that many outsiders wrote off early in the season, but never gave up on itself.

“My staff has done the best job they’ve ever done,” Fennelly said. “Ever. It’s been hard in a lot of ways, but it’s been a lot of fun.”

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