Iowa State struggling with Baylor

Kceasthawk@77

All-American
Feb 2, 2005
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Since the Baylor game all teams are double teaming Crooks with great success. Iowa foolishly refused to do so and got burned.
And then Brown and Williams would have killed us. Brown being out has really hurt them. The only issue with our game plan was Ava getting in foul trouble early again. When she was in she worked Crooks over a couple of times.
 

Kceasthawk@77

All-American
Feb 2, 2005
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The ISU loss is looking worse every week.

Crooks doing nothing more than backing down and bulldozing her defender and throwing up bunnies at the rim. Crazy how they've developed no other aspect to her game. Completely one-dimensional and it will never work at the next level.
Given her mass and strength, what else would she develop? Thats her game. She's not going to run the floor or be a consistant jump shooter
 

Hawkfan_08*

All-American
Jul 2, 2025
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Where would we be if we lost 2 of our top three players? If we play ISU without Brown we'd win by 20

I was thinking about this too. Chit Chat is clearly one of the best and she was gone for quite a few games.

Hays is in a funk right now but that would still be Hays and Stuelke in the post. You can't argue the result... we lost to ISU and it sucks but our depth is much, much better.

I don't think we would be doing what they are right now.
 
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Gonzo_Bloor

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Jun 30, 2025
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Given her mass and strength, what else would she develop? Thats her game. She's not going to run the floor or be a consistant jump shooter
Her size doesn't preclude her from developing a high post game, catching the ball while facing the basket or catching and turning to face the basket, taking mid-range jumpers off a dribble. She actually has a nice high release on her shot and a soft touch. Haven't seen it much lately, but it's there. Just because she's big doesn't mean they can't try making this more a part of her game. It's just bad, lazy coaching IMO. Not a whole lot different from Matt Campbell nearly ruining Allen Lazard. Guy was a beast at outmuscling Big 12 DBs so that's all Campbell had him do, not work on running better routes or improving his ability to separate, just do the 1 thing he's good at. Draft Day comes and the guy doesn't even get drafted.
 

NORTHSTAR

All-Conference
Oct 1, 2001
17,527
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I watched ISU lose today and Crooks seems lazy to me on defense, just stands around with no attempt to move 6 feet to help on D. She takes herself out and reenters when she wants. That wouldn't happen with most coaches I wouldn't think.
 

Kceasthawk@77

All-American
Feb 2, 2005
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I watched ISU lose today and Crooks seems lazy to me on defense, just stands around with no attempt to move 6 feet to help on D. She takes herself out and reenters when she wants. That wouldn't happen with most coaches I wouldn't think.
She needs to rest on defense or she'd have to sit more....
 

Franisdaman

Heisman
Nov 3, 2012
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MVPFAN

Senior
Mar 10, 2003
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I watched ISU lose today and Crooks seems lazy to me on defense, just stands around with no attempt to move 6 feet to help on D. She takes herself out and reenters when she wants. That wouldn't happen with most coaches I wouldn't think.
I have it from a very reliable source she is a loyal door dash customer.
 
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Franisdaman

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I have it from a very reliable source she is a loyal door dash customer.

What's interesting is that she has access to free, healthy food (and protein shakes, etc) 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. She must not be all that interested if she's having Doordash deliveries.
 

Franisdaman

Heisman
Nov 3, 2012
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Franisdaman

Heisman
Nov 3, 2012
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Rumor is that's why she isn't at Iowa...Bluder gave her a suggested health/conditioning plan and the family was insulted.

No idea if that's true, but given that Iowa likes to play fast, I can believe it.

I understand how weight can be a touchy subject and I can understand why she & the family might be offended by suggestions of needing to eat better and train differently.

But dang, Bluder only wants players to reach their potential and to have long, happy lives well after college.

I have read that eating habits start at 2 years of age so when kids learn at age 2 that the salty, sugary and fatty foods taste REALLY good, it sometimes is hard to break those eating habits.

Let's face it; we'd all love to eat pizza, cheeseburgers, french fries & shakes every day; but we soon would be wondering why our clothes don't fit.
 

NORTHSTAR

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Rumor is that's why she isn't at Iowa...Bluder gave her a suggested health/conditioning plan and the family was insulted.

No idea if that's true, but given that Iowa likes to play fast, I can believe it.
I saw that mentioned as well.
 

NORTHSTAR

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I understand how weight can be a touchy subject and I can understand why she & the family might be offended by suggestions of needing to eat better and train differently.

But dang, Bluder only wants players to reach their potential and to have long, happy lives well after college.

I have read that eating habits start at 2 years of age so when kids learn at age 2 that the salty, sugary and fatty foods taste REALLY good, it sometimes is hard to break those eating habits.

Let's face it; we'd all love to eat pizza, cheeseburgers, french fries & shakes every day; but we soon would be wondering why our clothes don't fit.

And fast food eating habits starts at an early age and has for several several years.
 

Franisdaman

Heisman
Nov 3, 2012
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Iowa cracked the top 10 for the first time in two years and UConn remained the unanimous No. 1 choice in The Associated Press Top 25 women’s basketball poll released Monday.

The Hawkeyes last were ranked this high in the final poll of Caitlin Clark’s senior year. They had been as high as 11th a few times this season.


Falling Cyclones​

Iowa State dropped out of the poll for the first time this season after losing its fifth consecutive game on Sunday. The Cyclones were 10th on Dec. 22, but have steadily fallen down the rankings since.

Conference supremacy​

The SEC has nine teams in the Top 25 for the second straight week. The Big Ten is next with seven as Washington re-entered the poll this week and Illinois fell out. The Big 12 has five ranked teams after West Virginia returned to the rankings. The ACC has two while the Big East and Ivy League each have one.


 

Franisdaman

Heisman
Nov 3, 2012
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On defense, you see a lot of what follows in Crooks.

Not much effort or hustle; not much of a vertical.

Watch:

 
Last edited:

Anon1764265535

Redshirt
Nov 27, 2025
11
23
2
Iowa cracked the top 10 for the first time in two years and UConn remained the unanimous No. 1 choice in The Associated Press Top 25 women’s basketball poll released Monday.

The Hawkeyes last were ranked this high in the final poll of Caitlin Clark’s senior year. They had been as high as 11th a few times this season.


Falling Cyclones​

Iowa State dropped out of the poll for the first time this season after losing its fifth consecutive game on Sunday. The Cyclones were 10th on Dec. 22, but have steadily fallen down the rankings since.

Conference supremacy​

The SEC has nine teams in the Top 25 for the second straight week. The Big Ten is next with seven as Washington re-entered the poll this week and Illinois fell out. The Big 12 has five ranked teams after West Virginia returned to the rankings. The ACC has two while the Big East and Ivy League each have one.


I count 8 from the Big Ten. UCLA, Michigan, Iowa, tOSU, MSU, Maryland, Nebraska, Washington.

>The Big Ten is next with seven as Washington re-entered the poll this week and Illinois fell out.
 
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Franisdaman

Heisman
Nov 3, 2012
17,942
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I count 8 from the Big Ten. UCLA, Michigan, Iowa, tOSU, MSU, Maryland, Nebraska, Washington.

>The Big Ten is next with seven as Washington re-entered the poll this week and Illinois fell out.

I copied and pasted excerpts from the article.

And you know what's funny? I noticed a couple words with a red squiggly line underneath (saying that they were misspelled). The writer & proof reader (if they still have them at the Associated Press) were sloppy with this article.

Here were the 2 typos that I corrected:

Conference supremecy​

The SEC has nine teams in the Top 25 for the second straight week. The Big Ten is next with seven as Washington re-entered the poll this week and Illinois fell out. The BIg 12 has five ranked teams after West Virginia returned to the rankings. The ACC has two while the Big East and Ivy League each have one.
 
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UpstreamHawkeye

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QCHawkeye

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I bet some of the wreetokng
I guess we''ll see. For three years now we've said, "oh we'll run her off the floor". We'll do this, or that, and she just does her thing. She's not a fun player to watch, but she's damned effective. It will be interesting to see who makes an impact in the pro game, Crooks or Stuelke......
neither will translate well to the WNBA IMO. It’s a much more talented league with much better athletes. Crooks will have to transform her body and Stuelke can’t make free throws and is too up and down.
 
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