Ex-Iowa State star Audi Crooks has found a home, ending weeks of speculation by announcing she’ll transfer to Oklahoma State for her senior year.
Crooks finished the 2025/26 NCAA season second in DI scoring with 25.8 points per game while shooting 64.9% from the field, building on a career 22.8-point, 7.7-rebound-per-game average.
"We are thrilled with the addition of Audi," said Cowgirls head coach Jacie Hoyt in a team statement.
"She has elite size and strength paired with elite hands and touch that allow her to be an automatic bucket around the rim. The last three years I've watched team after team strategize and game plan around stopping her and almost all have failed miserably."
The 6-foot-3 center joins touted Florida transfer Liv McGill in Stillwater, after the rising junior averaged 22.5 points, 6.1 rebounds, and 6.3 assists last season.
"Liv is arguably the most exciting player to watch in all of college basketball. She has elite quickness and an unbelievable finishing package around the rim," Hoyt said, praising the 5-foot-9 guard.
"Liv can score at all three levels, but she is so much more. She has great court vision and can deliver a pass on a dime. Her speed and athleticism allow her to jump passing lanes on the other end of the floor."
NCAA Transfer Portal Closes as Top Players Find New Teams
The 2026 NCAA transfer portal closed Monday night, ending its official entry period — though players already in the portal can still commit to new schools.
Some big names opted to stay put, as Virginia guard Kymora Johnson announced she’ll exit the portal and return to the Cavaliers under new coach Aaron Roussell.
Others are heading out, as Texas guard Jordan Lee goes to South Carolina, Iowa State guard Jada Williams joins LSU, Georgia guard Dani Carnegie moves to Iowa, and Tennessee guard Talaysia Cooper lands at Ole Miss.
Audi Crooks is headed to Oklahoma State, giving the Cowgirls a major boost out of the women's college basketball transfer portal.
The former Iowa State star announced her commitment in a video wearing an Oklahoma State uniform, dancing alongside Cowgirls head coach Jacie Hoyt.
Crooks entered the portal earlier this month, immediately becoming one of NCAA basketball's most sought-after players.
She leaves Iowa State following a dominant junior season. The 6-foot-3 center averaged 25.8 points and 7.7 rebounds per game while shooting nearly 65% from the field. She finished 2025/26 as the second-leading scorer in the country while earning Second Team AP All-American honors.
That production made her the portal's top player — as well as a potential game-changer for Oklahoma State.
The move keeps Crooks in the Big 12, where she has already established herself as an elite interior players. Oklahoma State is coming off a 24-win season and NCAA tournament appearance, while Iowa State finished seventh in the conference on a 22-10 record.
Crooks's impact goes beyond scoring. Her efficiency in the paint, footwork, and ability to control tempo make her one of the most unique frontcourt players in the country. She also brings consistency, earning multiple All-Big 12 honors during her time at Iowa State.
Now, the focus shifts to what this means for Oklahoma State women's basketball.
Crooks joins a roster that is continuing to build through the transfer portal, positioning the Cowgirls as a team to watch heading into the 2026/27 NCAA season.
For Crooks, the move offers one more year to build on an already-standout college career — this time with a new program and elevated expectations.
The women's college basketball transfer portal opened this week, immediately reshaping the NCAA landscape as top players explore new programs.
The transfer portal now operates on a condensed timeline. It opened the day after the NCAA women's championship and will remain open for 15 days, running through April 20th.
That shorter window has accelerated movement across DI basketball. Programs are evaluating rosters while players enter the portal in waves, creating a fast-moving offseason that mirrors WNBA free agency.
At the top of the early transfer portal rankings is Iowa State center Audi Crooks. The 6-foot-3 post averaged 25.8 points and 7.7 rebounds this season while shooting nearly 65% from the field, earning AP Second Team All-American honors.
Crooks headlines a group of impact players expected to shift conference standings, including nine additional Cyclones. Her production makes her one of the most sought-after players in the portal, with multiple top programs expected to pursue her.
Meanwhile, rosters are already experiencing plenty of turnover. Some programs face significant rebuilds, while others are looking to add experienced talent via the portal.
That dynamic has been central to roster construction in the new NCAA era. Coaches can balance recruiting, retention, and portal additions at the same time, often reshaping entire lineups in a matter of weeks.
The portal's timing adds urgency. With just two weeks to enter, players must make decisions quickly, while programs have to move just as fast to book visits and secure commitments.
The focus soon shifts to the future. As players begin to commit, the women's college basketball landscape will then start to take shape heading into the 2026/27 NCAA season.
As Women's March Madness nears its end, the NCAA transfer portal has already started making waves, with players hunting new opportunities across the DI women's basketball landscape.
Iowa State star Audi Crooks emerged as the biggest name to enter the portal to date. The 6-foot-3 center finished second in DI scoring this year, averaging 25.8 points and 7.7 rebounds per game while shooting 64.9% from the floor. Crooks joins nine other Cyclones in announcing their departures following a disappointing first-round NCAA tournament loss to Syracuse.
Tennessee also faces a mass exodus, with six Lady Vols entering the NCAA transfer portal. Freshman twins Mia and Mya Pauldo announced their departures April 1st, joining earlier announcements from Deniya Prawl, Alyssa Latham, Kaniya Boyd, and Lauren Hurst. The moves come after Tennessee finished 16-14 and ended the season on an eight-game losing streak.
Iowa also took a hit when five-star recruit Addie Deal entered the portal after averaging 5.1 points, 1.2 rebounds, and 1.6 assists per game in her first and only season with the Hawkeyes. Deal made the Big Ten All-Freshman team but struggled to find consistent minutes after showing early promise.
The floodgates appear ready to burst ahead of Friday's Final Four tipoff. More than 500 players have already announced intentions to enter when the transfer portal officially opens April 6th. The window subsequently closes April 20th, giving players just 15 days to find new programs.
The compressed timeline creates urgency for both players seeking new programs and coaches scrambling to fill roster holes through the portal.
No. 1 UConn has aced every test in the 2025/26 NCAA basketball season so far, as No. 23 Notre Dame looks to disrupt the undefeated Huskies' national title defense in Monday's nonconference lineup.
Fresh off a 79-66 ranked loss to No. 9 Louisville on Thursday night, the Irish will lean hard on star guard Hannah Hidalgo on Monday.
The junior is averaging 6.2 rebounds and 5.5 assists on the season, while Hidalgo's 25.1 points-per-game rate trails only No. 19 Iowa State star Audi Crooks on the NCAA stat sheet.
"It's a long season, and I can't dwell on the loss for too long because my team needs me," Hidalgo said after Thursday's fall to the Cardinals.
On the flip side, UConn is racking up blowout wins, with the team's last single-digit victory dating back to a pre-Thanksgiving 72-69 win over No. 8 Michigan on November 21st.
The Huskies are now riding a 34-game winning streak, fueled by consistent output from sophomore Sarah Strong and senior Azzi Fudd.
"I've been trying to tell the girls that UConn is a different beast," Hidalgo said. "If we think certain teams that we have lost to were tough, then we're going to have a rude awakening [against] UConn."
How to watch Notre Dame vs. UConn women's basketball
The No. 1 Huskies will host the No. 23 Fighting Irish at 5 PM ET on Monday, with live coverage airing on FOX.
NCAA upsets rocked the AP Poll again this week, with significant Top 10 movement as women's basketball underdogs muscle their way up the 2025/26 table.
LSU's Sunday victory over once-unbeaten Texas saw the Longhorns fall two spots to No. 4, while the Tigers returned to the Top 10 to claim No. 6 in a six-spot jump.
No. 7 Kentucky fell one spot after a loss to No. 21 Alabama and a Top-10 win over then-No. 5 Oklahoma, with the Sooners exiting the single-digits in an eight-spot plummet to No. 13 after two losses of their own.
Meanwhile, No. 1 UConn earned unanimous first-place votes after Texas's defeat, with the Huskies joined in the Top 5 by the also-undefeated Vanderbilt Commodores.
Three teams left the AP Poll entirely, as Washington, USC, and North Carolina continue to struggle — with the Trojans snapping a 51-week ranked streak as they strive to find their footing without injured star JuJu Watkins.
No. 19 Iowa State also saw a precipitous eight-rank drop, losing three games in a row as injured starter Addy Brown watched from the bench.
On the flip side, Alabama, No. 23 Notre Dame, and No. 25 Illinois broke back into the Top 25 with Monday's rankings drop.
How to watch Top 25 NCAA basketball this week
Though ranked matchups will resume on Thursday, Tuesday night puts one of the three remaining undefeated Division I seasons to the test when No. 17 Texas Tech takes the court against unranked Houston.
The clash tips off live at 7 PM ET on ESPN+.
2025/26 AP Top 25 Women's College Basketball Poll: Week 10
1. UConn (17-0, Big East)
2. South Carolina (17-1, SEC)
3. UCLA (15-1, Big Ten)
4. Texas (18-1, SEC)
5. Vanderbilt (17-0, SEC)
6. LSU (16-2, SEC)
7. Kentucky (16-2, SEC)
8. Michigan (14-2, Big Ten)
9. Louisville (16-3, ACC)
10. TCU (16-1, Big 12)
11. Iowa (14-2, Big Ten)
12. Maryland (16-2, Big Ten)
13. Oklahoma (14-3, SEC)
14. Ohio State (15-2, Big Ten)
15. Michigan State (16-1, Big Ten)
16. Ole Miss (16-3, SEC)
17. Texas Tech (18-0, Big 12)
18. Baylor (15-3, Big 12)
19. Iowa State (14-3, Big 12)
20. Tennessee (12-3, SEC)
21. Alabama (17-1, SEC)
22. Princeton (14-1, Ivy)
23. Notre Dame (12-4, ACC)
24. Nebraska (14-3, Big Ten)
25. Illinois (14-3, Big Ten)
Another unbeaten NCAA basketball team fell over the weekend, as No. 2 Texas suffered their first loss of the 2025/26 season at the hands of No. 12 LSU on Sunday.
Junior guard Mikaylah Williams led LSU with 20 points, with five Tigers registering double-digit points en route to the team's first win over an AP Top-2 opponent since 2008.
"They played much harder than we did, and they were way tougher than we were," Texas head coach Vic Schaefer said after the 70-65 defeat. "By far our worst game of the year, and we'll give them credit for that."
Just three Division I teams remain undefeated in the 2025/26 campaign — No. 1 UConn, No. 7 Vanderbilt, and No. 17 Texas Tech — with high-profile upsets continuing to shake up college basketball's top ranks.
Sunday also saw unranked West Virginia hand No. 11 Iowa State their third straight loss in an 83-70 upset, while No. 19 Ohio State took down No. 8 Maryland 89-76 and unranked Minnesota shocked No. 21 USC 63-62.
"I think we have a lot of potential to be really good, but not if we don't figure some things out," said USC head coach Lindsay Gottlieb, after the Trojans went 0-2 against unranked programs over the last week — leaving the team still hunting their first win in 2026.
How to watch Texas women's basketball this week
The No. 2 Longhorns don't have much time to regroup from their season's first loss, as Texas prepares to visit fellow SEC titan No. 3 South Carolina on Thursday.
The clash will tip off live at 7 PM ET on ESPN2.
Only four Division I basketball teams remain unbeaten after a wild week of early NCAA conference play upsets handed seven programs their first defeats of the 2025/26 season.
Now-No. 12 LSU dropped games against SEC rising stars No. 6 Kentucky and No. 5 Vanderbilt late last week, with fellow top-ranked teams No. 8 Maryland, No. 13 TCU, and No. 11 Iowa State also falling for the first time this season.
"We're not tough enough," Tigers head coach Kim Mulkey said after Sunday's 65-61 loss to the Commodores. "And toughness is, you either have it or you don't."
LSU's struggles highlight key differences between scheduling approaches, with the inevitable SEC competition leaving few places to hide despite significant nonconference success.
"If we hadn't played that [easier nonconference] schedule, we might would be sitting here with a lot of losses," Mulkey told reporters.
Elsewhere, other conferences also showed their depth, as unranked Utah defeated TCU in Big 12 play while the Big Ten saw unranked Illinois take down Maryland and No. 23 Washington beat No. 9 Michigan.
Meanwhile, top-ranked UConn, No. 2 Texas, the aforementioned No. 7 Vanderbilt, and No. 17 Texas Tech are holding strong in 2025/26 play, avoiding upsets to become the last undefeated NCAA basketball teams still standing.
Stakes are sky-high for Wednesday night's Cy-Hawk Series clash, as undefeated No. 10 Iowa State welcomes unbeaten No. 11 Iowa to Ames for the highest-ranked NCAA women's basketball matchup in the cross-state rivalry's history.
"[If] you grew up in the state, just there's nothing like it," Iowa head coach Jan Jensen said of the historic series. "You've dreamed, you've watched those big football matchups when you're little, you watched the basketball games when you were little, and to get to be in one — boy, it doesn't get much better."
"[It's] one of those things where it truly is a rivalry, because teams [go] back and forth and have their streaks and wins and losses," echoed Cyclones boss Bill Fennelly.
The red-hot Hawkeyes enter Wednesday's game with the head-to-head advantage having won three straight against the Cyclones — and eight of the last nine in the series.
That said, the Cyclones have the nation's leading scorer on their side, with junior center Audi Crooks's 27.6 points per game showcasing unmatched efficiency in the 2025/26 NCAA season.
"Audi's tough," Jensen said about the Iowa State star. "She's just really, really incredible…. When you let her get it, she's pretty accurate."
How to watch Iowa vs. Iowa State in the 2025 Cy-Hawk Series
The No. 11 Hawkeyes will visit the No. 10 Cyclones in the 2025 edition of the Cy-Hawk Series at 7 PM ET on Wednesday, with live coverage airing on ESPN.
Two years after her breakout NCAA tournament performance as a freshman, No. 10 Iowa State center Audi Crooks has become an unstoppable force for the Cyclones as they look to better their first-round exit from last year's postseason.
The junior is leading the nation in scoring with a career-high 27.3 points per game, all while smashing her own Iowa State single-game scoring record with a 47-point performance against Indiana on November 30th.
"These scoring records are really team records, especially for me as a post," Crooks told the Des Moines Register after the Cyclones' 106-95 win over the Hoosiers. "I don't bring the ball up. Somebody else does that and I don't pass the ball in the paint. Somebody else does that."
Crooks, who will turn 21 years old this Saturday, continued her scoring pace with a 30-point game against Northern Illinois on Sunday — registered in only 19 minutes of playing time during the 105-52 blowout win.
Her efficiency has been on full display in the young 2025/26 NCAA season, with Crooks currently sitting first in field goal percentage at 73.8% while averaging only 25.3 minutes of playing time per game.
"It's always fun to watch her cook. When you get the ball to her hands and it's going in, it's Audi-matic," said Iowa State guard Reagan Wilson following Sunday's victory.
How to watch Crooks and Iowa State in action this week
Crooks and the No. 10 Cyclones will take on their season's biggest test yet on Wednesday, when they'll host in-state rival No. 12 Iowa.
The two unbeaten programs will clash at 7 PM ET, airing live on ESPN.