Inspired by her dad, Audi Crooks marches Iowa State into NCAA Tournament
Iowa State center Audi Crooks is the second-highest scorer in the nation. Her late father, Jimmie, motivates her as she prepares to face Syracuse in the NCAA Tournament. Courtesy of Iowa State Athletics
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Audi Crooks sat at the podium, her eyes darting, looking for the next question. The freshman had just led Iowa State to a dramatic comeback over Maryland, putting up 40 points in her first NCAA Tournament win. But a Washington Post reporter wasn’t solely focused on that. Kareem Copeland noticed something else.
Before the game, Crooks briefly stood off to the side, closing her eyes to take a minute for herself while her teammates warmed up. Her 40 points didn’t tell the whole story. It was everything that preceded it off the court, too.
Which is why Copeland decided to ask about the moment. A faint smile broke out on Crooks’ face as he finished the question. She looked forward, trying her hardest not to cry, and let out a meek apology when she lost that battle. She wiped away her tears and began her response.
“Before every game, I just try to take a moment and I pray,” Crooks said at that press conference back in 2024. “And I’m kind of seeking guidance from my father.”
Crooks’ father, Jimmie Crooks, guided her through the first 16 years of her life. Though Jimmie died at the age of 55 on Aug. 14, 2021, he’s with her every step of the way. His memory pushes Crooks as the junior center leads No. 8 seed Iowa State (22-9, 10-8 Big 12) into the NCAA Tournament against No. 9 seed Syracuse (23-8, 12-6 Atlantic Coast) Saturday.
“I think (Crooks) is one of the best players in the country,” SU head coach Felisha Legette-Jack said Sunday. “I think she’s an All-American. I’m on the committee, I’ll certainly vote her in.”
Crooks — with her 25.5 points per game — earned Second Team All-American honors Monday, and with that status, has become one of the most polarizing stars in women’s basketball. Check X. For every post praising Crooks for a 30-point double-double in a win, there’s an avalanche of posts from accounts with thousands of followers criticizing her defensive play or poking fun at her physical appearance.
Audi Crooks is an offensive weapon*
*and the biggest liability you’ve ever seen on defense
— Barstool Sports (@barstoolsports) January 8, 2026
Crooks doesn’t let that scrutiny bother her, ISU head coach Bill Fennelly said. She knows she can’t control the outside noise. With all the attention on the Cyclones in the NCAA Tournament, she’s focusing on putting on the best possible show in Storrs, Connecticut, for her No. 1 fan.
“(I try to) just know that everything’s gonna be OK,” Crooks said in that aforementioned press conference, after defeating Maryland. “And (Jimmie’s) got the best seat in the house.”
His influence is evident in everything she does. She plays five different instruments, a skill Andscape reported comes from Jimmie. Still don’t buy it? Check the number. Her classic No. 55 belongs to Jimmie as much as it does to Crooks.
“He was very meaningful to her,” former Iowa State guard Kelsey Joens told The Daily Orange. “I mean, she wears (No.) 55 because of her parents.”
Check her wrist. Crooks has the word “Pops” — along with a set of angel wings, a halo and the bible verse “Proverbs 3:6” — tattooed on her right arm. She didn’t live with her father — Jimmie lived about 40 minutes away from her hometown of Algona, Iowa, in Fort Dodge — but ESPN reported Crooks’ mother, Michelle Cook, often met him halfway during the weekends to drop Crooks off. Cook drove her to Jimmie’s place when his health began to deteriorate.
Check her jersey, too. Not just the No. 55 she dons, but the name of the school she represents. Fennelly said Jimmie was a Cyclones fan, and Crooks regularly watched Iowa State games with him growing up, whether it was football or men’s and women’s basketball.
That connection is how Crooks, as a freshman at Bishop Garrigan High School (Iowa), ended up at an ISU basketball camp. Fennelly saw the same elite hands, the same preternatural awareness, the same polished footwork Crooks uses to dominate today.
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But that’s not what stood out most to Bishop Garrigan head coach Brandon Schwab. What he remembers most from her four years under him — more than any of the buckets she scored or games she won — was how Crooks handled Jimmie’s death.
“She kind of used basketball as an outlet to get things off of her brain,” Schwab told The D.O. “The way she handled that as a 16-year-old girl, I was really impressed.”
Crooks navigated college recruitment without Jimmie, fielding calls from coaches across the country. Fennelly was one of them, and during the summer of 2022, Crooks texted him asking to chat. He was at Disney World with his grandchildren, and he usually doesn’t let recruiting distract him during vacation.
He made an exception this time. Fennelly joked people always say magic happens at Disney World. That night, when Crooks called him to commit to Iowa State, he finally realized how true that statement rang.
“My grandkids didn’t realize how excited I was,” Fennelly told The D.O. “Like I said, we were very, very fortunate that it worked out the way it did.”
Five games into her collegiate career, Crooks earned her first start — against Syracuse, ironically enough. The only reason it took so long, Fennelly jokes, was due to “bad coaching.” She drew some hype that first season, but Fennelly said her true introduction to the world came in that March Madness game against Maryland.
“I remember having a conversation with Bill,” Schwab told The D.O. “I’m like, ‘You gotta let her go. Trust me. It’s hard to realize, but she’s gonna get stronger as the game goes on.’”
It has only snowballed from there. The hubbub has nearly become all-consuming. Iowa State Athletics declined an interview request for this story on Crooks’ behalf. Understandably so. A spokesperson wrote Crooks won’t take additional media responsibilities during the postseason. This year alone — and within the last few weeks especially — she’s been featured in The Washington Post, ESPN, People, NPR, Andscape and The Guardian.
“In our small state, she’s by far the most well-known, popular — whatever word you want to put in — maybe person, let alone athlete,” Fennelly told The D.O.
Iowa State has a mailbox for the women’s basketball team. It didn’t take Fennelly long to realize the Cyclones would need one specifically for Audi. It was small at first, but it’s grown into a massive crate, Fennelly said. He’ll often find her sitting in the athletic facility lounge, spending hours reading through the mail she gets. She answers each and every letter.
“Coach, the only thing I bring is stuff for Audi,” a mailman once told Fennelly.
When Fennelly took Crooks to the Iowa high school girls’ basketball state championships a few weeks ago, she took pictures with every girl who had the courage to ask her for one. After the tournament ended, she spent an hour and a half eating pizza and talking hoops with Schwab’s Bishop Garrigan squad in their hotel lobby. After every road game, she grants every single autograph request she’s met with.
Audi Crooks fires a midrange jumper against Iowa forward Hannah Stuelke on Dec. 10, 2025. Growing up, Crooks used to watch Cyclones-Hawkeyes rivalry games with her father, Jimmie Crooks. Courtesy of Iowa State Athletics
She never forgets where she came from and who she’s doing this for. That’s why Crooks takes a moment before each game to remind herself Jimmie’s watching over her, guiding her.
Because even if she doesn’t, Fennelly will do it for her anyway.
The reputation of the Hawkeyes-Cyclones rivalry precedes itself. Iowa doesn’t have any major professional sports teams, so Fennelly says the rivalry is the state’s most intense sporting event. He practically grew up immersed in it.
Fennelly’s father — also named William Fennelly — was an ardent ISU fan. He died on the morning of Dec. 11, 2019, the same day Fennelly’s Iowa State squad was set to face Iowa. To this day, it remains the hardest game of his 38-year coaching career.
He coached through it, knowing that’s what his father would’ve wanted him to do, but he’d be lying if he said he remembered much from that 75-69 loss. He sat on the bench alongside his son, Iowa State assistant coach Billy Fennelly, and cried through most of the game.
Each year, in the second week of December, the ISU-Iowa rivalry game comes around. Fennelly can’t divorce it from the context in which he coached it six years ago. The matchup carries a similar significance to Crooks, too, since she grew up watching those rivalry games with Jimmie.
“That was kind of our little connection,” Fennelly told The D.O. “We both lost our fathers, and both of them really enjoyed the rivalry.”
On Dec. 10, 2025, in the last rivalry game Crooks will ever play at ISU’s Hilton Coliseum, Iowa State clung to a three-point lead late against the undefeated Hawkeyes. There were 15 seconds left as Crooks prepared to shoot a pair of foul shots. The Cyclones just needed one to ice it. Fennelly stood on the sideline, pointed toward the sky and delivered his message to his star.
They’re watching.
Crooks looked back at him, tears welling up in her eyes. She split the free throws. Fifteen seconds later, she was mobbing her teammates at half court, celebrating a 74-69 win.
