Iowa State center Audi Crooks is scoring at an unprecedented rate just 10 games into the season.
Crooks is averaging more than a point per minute this season. The junior has scored 276 points in 245 minutes, putting her on pace to be the first Division I women’s basketball player this century to average at least one point per minute. She would be only the second DI (men’s or women’s), NBA or WNBA player this century to achieve that stat in a single season – joining the Philadelphia 76ers’ Joel Embiid.
The Cyclones star is on pace for one of the greatest single seasons in women’s basketball history. She set the Iowa State single-game points record earlier in November with 43 points in a victory over Valparaiso, scoring 44 percent of her team’s points in just 20 minutes. Crooks’ 27.6 points per game leads the nation, and she has the second-highest field goal percentage in the country.
Although she’s averaging just 24.7 minutes per game and will likely see her workload increase, the center has never played more than 30 minutes per contest. Crooks has led Iowa State to an undefeated record and the No. 10 ranking in the country.
To try and put Crooks’ early-season dominance in perspective, The Athletic collected some of college basketball’s wildest stats over the past 20 years.
A 61-point game … without a 3-pointer
We’ve seen several 40-plus point game explosions from some of women’s college basketball’s biggest stars over the years. Sabrina Ionescu, Caitlin Clark, Hannah Hidalgo and Kelsey Plum have all posted incredible scoring nights. Yet, none of them set the NCAA Division I women’s basketball single-game scoring record.
That came from Kansas State’s Ayokaa Lee in 2022, when she scored 61 points in a win over No. 14 Oklahoma. And she did it without making a 3-pointer.
The Wildcats center went 23 of 30 from the field and 15 of 17 from the foul line. She also had 12 rebounds and three blocked shots.
To score 61 points without one triple feels like a near impossibility in the modern game, but Lee dominated a small Sooners team. She still holds the scoring record three years later.
10 points in 23 seconds by one player
Javier Gonzalez did his best Tracy McGrady impression in 2009 against Arizona. With NC State trailing 70-64 with 36 seconds left, the Wolfpack guard scored 10 points in 23 seconds to tie the game at 74 apiece.
He recorded an and-one layup, a 3-pointer from the right corner, a spinning mid-range shot while falling over and a game-tying layup with seven seconds remaining. Unfortunately for Gonzalez and NC State, the Wolfpack failed to capitalize on the guard’s record-breaking scoring run, losing to Arizona 76-74.
Angel Reese’s rebounding dominance
The “Bayou Barbie” set an NCAA record for the most double-doubles in a single season by a Division I women’s basketball player. In 2023, Reese delivered 34 of them, including one in the national championship game against Iowa.
She broke the previous record of 33, held by Oklahoma’s Courtney Paris in the 2007 season. During that same season, Reese also set an LSU single-game rebounding record with 28 boards.
Jack Taylor’s 138-point night
While Taylor didn’t play Division I basketball, scoring nearly 150 points is worthy of inclusion on this list. On Nov. 20, 2012, Taylor scored 138 points for Grinnell College (D-III) against Faith Baptist Bible College. He set the NCAA record for most points by an individual player in a game.
Taylor went 52 of 108 from the field, converting 27 of his 71 3-point attempts. He led his team to a 179-104 win over Faith Baptist Bible in a game that featured a 70-point scoring output from Faith Baptist Bible’s David Larson.
Taylor was one of the most prolific scorers in the game’s history, as he tallied a pair of 100-plus point games.
“Jack Taylor you deserve a shot of Jack Daniels after that performance lol … wow,” Kevin Durant tweeted about the game.
