Audi Crooks has been impossible to stop. She’s hit double figures in scoring for 77 straight games, the longest active streak in the country. The Iowa State Cyclones star also had a staggering 47-point outing against the Indiana Hoosiers. She broke her own record of 43 points from earlier in the season. But here’s the thing: she might not be guaranteed WNBA success just by playing offense…

Robin Lundberg, a popular college basketball analyst, says the professional game needs more than what made her a college star. It goes beyond her historic production on the hardwood.

“Traditional bigs have trouble guarding in space,” Lundberg explained on his YouTube channel. “Defensively, they can be a negative because they can’t switch and they can’t guard on the perimeter. So they have to play drop coverage. That means essentially on all the screen and roll actions up top, they’re staying back to protect the rim. But that can lead to a lot of open shots up top, and now that people are making and taking them at a greater rate, it just punishes defenders who have to sit and drop coverage.”

This point is vital because Crooks only got four rebounds in her 30-point game against the Northern Illinois Huskies. She’s averaging 5.7 rebounds for the season. The modern WNBA’s rising number of three-pointers puts defenders locked in on drop coverage at risk, which is something Crooks needs to address before she can go pro. Although she’s been dominant on offense and in her field shooting, she needs to balance offense and defense.

“Audi is also not necessarily in the condition she may need to be in going forward, and that’s fine,” Lundberg analyzed Crooks’ prospects. “She’s still a very young woman and plenty of room for that to grow.”

Lundberg called her 73% shooting accuracy at the Cyclones staggering, but he also knew that being a great scorer alone can’t keep a WNBA career going. What happens when opponents consistently take away the post-shooting aspect from the game by blocking the lane? Crooks needs to have the agility and passing efficiency to really make those quick doubles. Her physical advantage is a blessing to her game, but there’s still fine-tuning to be done.

But none of this changes the fact that Crooks is currently on one of the most impressive runs in college basketball history. She scored 23.4 points per game last season, which was the most in the Big 12. The Cyclones started this season with a perfect 10-0 record, their best start since their 14-game winning streak in 2013-14. They shot 62% from the field and 57% from three-point range in the dominant victory earlier this week.

Audi Crooks and the Cyclones face the Iowa Hawkeyes in the ultimate ‘undefeated’ battle

The Cyclones (7-0 at home) aren’t taking it lightly when it comes to their clash in Ames on Wednesday night.

Even though Crooks leads D1 in scoring with her 27.6 points per game stat line, her supporting cast is also highly effective. In fact, the rival Hawkeyes’ head coach, Jan Jensen, felt that the No. 10 side would still fall in the top 20 bracket even if it weren’t for Crooks having a record-breaking year. Addy Brown’s steadiness and the energy that came with Jada Williams’ arrival have generated some absurd scores for the Cyclones this season.

The Hawkeyes are 2-0 on the road and rank fourth in college basketball with 21.7 assists per game, led by sophomore Taylor Stremlow, averaging 3.7.

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“They’re at home, so they’re going to come out firing with high energy,” Stremlow said. “They always bring a great crowd, especially versus us. They’ll try to be on things from the jump, but we’re going to do the same. Just staying even-keeled throughout the whole game is going to be important for us.”

The Hawkeyes average 95.8 points per game. But the Cyclones allow only 53.7. That’s a significant 42.1-point gap!

With just one win over the last nine Cy-Hawk games, a victory is long overdue for the Cyclones. Looking at the motivation driving them this season, it is sure to be a close contest between both sides.