Audi Crooks said she left Iowa State for Oklahoma State after honest conversations about rebuilding a roster, closing a major offseason move that sent one of the nation’s top scorers to a new Big 12 home. She made the decision in late April, but said Wednesday at Big 12 media day that the transfer only became final after she weighed what was ahead for both programs.
The move matters because Crooks was not just any departure. She averaged 25.8 points and 7.7 rebounds per game last season, earned All-America second-team honors and was ranked No. 1 in the transfer portal by. Iowa State lost nine players to transfer, and Crooks said she was the very last to leave, adding that it was never easy to walk away after three years in Ames.
She did not give a straight answer when asked whether Iowa State could compete financially to keep her, saying only “no comment.” That silence leaves one of the sharper questions around the transfer unresolved even as Crooks said she had “a lot of love and care” for her former team. She said the conversations about rebuilding made her think carefully, but she also saw Oklahoma State’s roster as “pretty dang strong” before she entered the portal and kept talking with other schools.
Part of that appeal, Crooks said, was Liv McGill and Jacie Hoyt. She said McGill was a major factor and that she wanted her to be the point guard, while also noting that she had spent the last three years competing against Hoyt and lost quite a few of those matchups. That history, she said, helped sell her on Oklahoma State as much as the roster itself.
The return trip will come quickly. Oklahoma State is scheduled to travel to Ames to play Iowa State on Jan. 9, a game that will carry extra weight after Crooks switched sides. Bill Fennelly said the reception should probably be mixed, and he is likely right: Crooks left on good terms, but she also left as one of the best players Iowa State has had in recent seasons. When she comes back, the questions will not just be about the score. They will be about what her departure says about how hard it has become to keep elite players in place once the portal opens.
