A WOW performance by Iowa State this afternoon

[Blakeon18]

Big 12 semis-game. ISU dominated best in Big 12 [Oklahoma] 85-68...nowhere near that close overall.
Several good frosh for ISU...frosh Crooks had 25...could not be stopped inside...too tall/too wide...finished inside very well.
Guards were solid...lots of treys taken/lots made. OU was projected a 6 seed and ISU a 9. Looked the reverse.
If ISU plays like this they will be dangerous...at least the first weekend. Coach did a great job of giving Crooks
a brief rest regularly. One of the best performances I have seen all year.

ISU to meet the winner of Texas/Kansas State in the Big 12 Tuesday evening.

I would LOVE to see a home/home with ISU...great crowds both places.

 

[LowkeyX]

Big 12 semis-game. ISU dominated best in Big 12 [Oklahoma] 85-68...nowhere near that close overall.
Several good frosh for ISU...frosh Crooks had 25...could not be stopped inside...too tall/too wide...finished inside very well.
Guards were solid...lots of treys taken/lots made. OU was projected a 6 seed and ISU a 9. Looked the reverse.
If ISU plays like this they will be dangerous...at least the first weekend. Coach did a great job of giving Crooks
a brief rest regularly. One of the best performances I have seen all year.

ISU to meet the winner of Texas/Kansas State in the Big 12 Tuesday evening.

Audi Crooks would’ve easily been FOY in any other conference not named Pac12 or ACC. I feel like they’re going to be a tough out in the tourney & definitely next season with E. Ryan & their freshmen core back.

 

[Vowelguy]

Great environment for the Tex-KSt game. Impressive given that it’s a Monday afternoon

 

[ISUnorth]

Big 12 semis-game. ISU dominated best in Big 12 [Oklahoma] 85-68...nowhere near that close overall.
Several good frosh for ISU...frosh Crooks had 25...could not be stopped inside...too tall/too wide...finished inside very well.
Guards were solid...lots of treys taken/lots made. OU was projected a 6 seed and ISU a 9. Looked the reverse.
If ISU plays like this they will be dangerous...at least the first weekend. Coach did a great job of giving Crooks
a brief rest regularly. One of the best performances I have seen all year.

ISU to meet the winner of Texas/Kansas State in the Big 12 Tuesday evening.

I would LOVE to see a home/home with ISU...great crowds both places.

Fennelly almost never schedules anything but cupcakes in non-conference except what he can't control in holiday tournaments and conference challenge series. Just the way he's always done it. Our fans incorrectly cite that no one wants to play in Hilton which is complete BS. The saving grace for our fans is that we do play Iowa, Drake and UNI every year and all of the Iowa schools are generally solid so it's slightly better than playing all the games versus schools you have to look up.

 

[ISUnorth]

And, it was sort of cool that Iowa State had all of their five freshman on the court at the same time in the 1st half. The five freshman make up 57% of the minutes this year and 63% of the scoring.

 

[LETTERL]

Young teams sometimes surprise and come together collectively to play above their normal level. I didn't see the game but it sounds like Iowa State played a fantastic game. Part of the ebb and flow that happens with younguns.

 

[Txhoopsalot]

I am expecting a good game tomorrow between ISU and Texas. I’ve enjoyed watching this ISU team. The way they work together to maximize Crooks’ strengths and mitigate the consequences of her weaknesses is interesting to watch. I even appreciate Emily Ryan’s game more. She facilitates for the young talent and makes some crafty moves to score when she needs to.

 

[GoChips20]

The Big 12 has been kind of a mess this year, but ranked wins are ranked wins and Iowa State now has 6 of them. They also took Iowa to the wire. It’ll depend on matchups but a Sweet 16 run wouldn’t shock me.

 

[Bone Dog]

I’ve watched Crooks for a couple years now. At first, when I only saw a few clips I assumed she’d never make it in D1. But then I saw a few full games, including one against Hopkins HS, and I saw how much stamina she has. Fennelly must have seen what I saw when he gave her an offer, and she’s really going to pay off for ISU for the next few years. She is strong and tenacious. She’s almost impossible to move off the low block. And her hands are REALLY strong. She will only get better.

 

[mred]

Fennelly almost never schedules anything but cupcakes in non-conference except what he can't control in holiday tournaments and conference challenge series. Just the way he's always done it. Our fans incorrectly cite that no one wants to play in Hilton which is complete BS. The saving grace for our fans is that we do play Iowa, Drake and UNI every year and all of the Iowa schools are generally solid so it's slightly better than playing all the games versus schools you have to look up.

I think you're overstating things. The holiday tournaments are specifically intended to have good competition -- it's not that he can't control the competition, it's that they intentionally play in tournaments have have other high-major schools.

ISU only played three teams this season worse than Butler's #133 NET, and one was a road game. ISU only played 2 Quadrant 4 games.

It might feel to home fans like the schedule is weak because a lot of the good opponents are either on a neutral court (various holiday tournaments) or are the same in-state teams we see every year (Iowa, Drake, UNI), but ISU's non-conference schedule has been consistently objectively solid the past few years.

Per warrennolan.com, here are ISU's non-conference strength of schedule ratings based on RPI going back to 2021 (which is as far back as he has it):

2024: #29
2023: #5
2022: #22
2021: #23

And thank goodness the non-conference schedule wasn't any harder this season, because it was a struggle without Emily Ryan, who was out due to injury until after all the hard non-conf games were over (and wasn't really at full speed until ~7 games into the conference schedule).