Iowa State is a team on the rise in Big 12
KANSAS CITY, Mo. – Iowa State wasn’t up to Texas’ level this season, and that’s to be expected. As for the future of Bill Fennelly’s women’s basketball program?
With all that’s returning, by golly, the teams that face the Cyclones just once next season should consider themselves lucky.
With Texas and Oklahoma bolting to the SEC, who wins the next Big 12 women’s title next season? Iowa State? Kansas State? West Virginia? Kansas?
“That’s a heck of a team Bill Fennelly’s got,” Texas coach Vic Schaefer said. “Obviously that’s a team of the future.”
Yes, this Cyclones program is on the rise, despite Tuesday’s 70-53 loss against Texas in the Big 12 championship game at the T-Mobile Center.
Go back and read your messages from last summer, when people were saying negative things about Iowa State women’s basketball. Defectors felt they saw better things elsewhere. People wondered how long it would take the program to return to its lofty Big 12 position.
Guess what? It never left. If you hang out inside the walls of the locker room or are close to the team, you knew Fennelly and the longest-tenured women’s basketball staff in the nation would figure something out. You just knew it.
They recruited five wonderful freshmen – the Fabulous Freshmen, if you will. They hit the transfer portal for Hannah Belanger. Still, there was doubt. How long would it take all of those soonto-be-relied-upon newcomers to adapt to another brand of ball? A higher-caliber, more structured and a lot more physical game than they’d been used to?
What transition?
Ask that question to Jennie Baranczyk, coach of regular-season champ Oklahoma, whose team lost a conference tournament semifinal-round game by 27 against a determined bunch of energetic, hot-shooting and well-meshing women who many thought were a year or so away from being competitive.
Actually, the whole season was just the beginning of what can be another long and storied run for Iowa State women’s basketball, continuing with next week’s NCAA Tournament.
Losing Tuesday night certainly wasn’t the end of the world. They’ll be back. Maybe even for a third championship-game appearance in a row a year from now.
Don’t put anything past this team and their wily coach who, at least from afar, looked to be having the time of his life after the strangest of offseasons during which outsiders wondered
what the hell was happening.
The Cyclones reloaded with five of the best freshmen you’ll find – on and off the floor. These women have fun. They love to play the game. They get along with each other. There doesn’t appear to be a smidge of jealousy.
They could be Fennelly’s Dream Team, assuming they all stay together.
“It’s fun to watch them come to work every single day and see how much they want to get better and how much they want to be pushed,” said Emily Ryan, the team’s leader.
Ryan said before Senior Day that she’ll be around one more season. Her number someday deserves a spot in Hilton Coliseum’s rafters; that’s how valuable to the program she’s been. And she’ll be around next season to lead a talented roster.
“It’s not always smooth for the team and for individuals, but regardless of how the day before went, they’re showing up the next day wanting to get better with the same attitude every day regardless if they’re coming off a good day or a bad day,” she said. “It’s a credit to them and the way they work and show up every day, and then it’s a credit to everyone else around them.”
Speaking of showing up and working every day, that’s one of Audi Crooks’ many fine traits. The freshman from Algona was double-teamed for much of the evening, sometimes tripleteamed, to the extent that I wonder how she keeps her cool.
The post player scored six of Iowa State’s first eight second-half points. Texas pushed. Crooks pushed right back, to the tune of 25 points and nine rebounds.
She’ll be the Big 12’s MVP someday. Maybe even a couple of times. How long do you think it is before she drives around Ames in a brand-new Audi?
“This week has been an absolute blast,” Ryan said after Tuesday’s game. “To do it with these guys, and then with the crowd behind us like we had − it’s super special. It’s moments like this that you play for and why you come to Iowa State. I’m just lucky that I was able to be a part of it and experience it with these guys.”
Fennelly put it best as Texas was on the floor celebrating a trophy the Cyclones won last season.
“They’ve never made excuses. They accomplished a lot of things that very few people thought they could. Our freshmen are phenomenal people who are turning into great basketball players, and they are led by the best leader (that’d be Ryan) I’ve ever been around.”