Iowa State was riding high. The Cyclones were 14-0 and had the most dominant player in college basketball, getting bucket after bucket after bucket in the paint. The team looked set for a deep NCAA Tournament run.
Then conference play began and it's been all downhill from there. After a way-too-close win over Kansas, the Cyclones dominated Houston to move to 2-0 in Big 12 play. They haven't won since, dropping three consecutive games, including what might be the worst loss all season by a ranked team, falling 71-63 to Cincinnati.
Something's wrong with the Cyclones, who've dropped all the way down to No. 19 in the AP poll. Let's talk about what's broken.
Teams are guarding Audi Crooks differently
Audi Crooks was just going out there every night and destroying the competition, putting up huge numbers because teams couldn't stop her in the paint. The nation's leading scorer looked unstoppable and while she remains a liability on defense due to her lack of speed, it didn't really matter when she was scoring like she was.
But over the past three games, teams have figured something out about Crooks. Now, that's not to say they've "solved" the Crooks issue. She scored over 20 points in each loss, but there are some things that stand out as different. First is that the 26 points she scored in the loss to Baylor ended a five-game streak of games with 30 or more points for Crooks. She was still an elite scorer, but she wasn't doing historic things.
Second is the losses all have something notable about her efficiency. In the first loss, Crooks shot 55 percent and 47.6 percent, which are the two lowest field goal percentages from her this season. In the most recent loss to West Virginia, she shot 88.9 percent, but only had nine field goal attempts.
So, what's going on? Well, teams have figured out a way of attacking Crooks that doesn't fully stop her, but that makes life more difficult on her. Baylor switched to a defensive approach that tried to wall Crooks off, putting a player in front of her and behind her to try to prevent the ball from coming her way and to crowd her shot attempts if the ball did get to her. That was a big part of her scoreless fourth quarter in the two-point loss, and it's a recipe that other teams are now following. It works because Iowa State's other players aren't making teams pay for essentially trying to play four-on-three basketball, though part of that is because of a key injury that's limited Iowa State's effectiveness.
Addy Brown's injury takes away a key offensive threat
Iowa State is currently without Addy Brown, its second-best player, because of a back injury. She's missed two games, and it's no coincidence that Iowa State lost those two games by a much bigger margin than the Baylor loss.
Without Brown, defenses can sell out more to slow down Crooks, leaving Iowa State to rely on a host of disappointing shooters. This is especially true right now because Arianna Jackson is sidelined as well, so the team is being forced to rely more on players like Sydney Harris and Reese Beaty, which just isn't what you want to be doing when you're trying to stem the bleeding of a losing streak. Until Brown can get back out there, Iowa State is likely to continue struggling.
Jada Williams has struggled to shoot
With Brown out, the Cyclones need Jada Williams to step up. Instead, she shot 27.3 percent against Cincinnati and 31 percent against West Virginia.
In the Baylor loss, Williams almost shot over 40 percent for the first time all season, but part of that is that she spent much of the second half open. It was her defender who switched off to double Crooks, leaving Williams with clean looks that still weren't falling like you'd expect clean looks to fall.
Williams is a good playmaker, but her inability to create her own shot is a major issue, and Brown being out really magnifies that. Williams needs to step up to be the No. 2 option until the team gets Brown back on the floor, but as long as she keeps bricking her shots, there's only so much that the Cyclones can do.