Audi Crooks transferring to Oklahoma St is a big relief for the Big 12 and BYU

One of the best players in the Big 12 was heavily considering transferring to an SEC school, but they have decided to stay in the Big 12. And no, I'm not talking about Rob Wright. I'm talking about Audi Crooks, who is transferring from Iowa St to Oklahoma St.

Let's start by talking about just how special Audi Crooks is. This past season, according to big12sports.com, she was the Big 12's leading scorer, and it wasn't even close. She averaged 25.8 points per game, and no other Big 12 player averaged more than 20. Not only that, but she did it while shooting 64.9% from the field, which was also the best in the Big 12. You may think it's common for a conference's leading scorer to also have the highest shooting percentage in the conference, but it is actually extremely rare.

According to a study by RPubs, the more a player shoots, the lower their shooting percentage tends to be, presumably because defenders tend to prioritize defending people who shoot a lot. So the fact that Audi Crooks had the Big 12's biggest target on her back and still managed to lead the conference in shooting percentage is absolutely jaw-dropping.

Now, imagine how disastrous it would've been for the public perception of the Big 12 if this player who had dominated the Big 12 had transferred to the SEC's Oklahoma, which she almost did? As underrated as the Big 12 has been in football recently, it might be even worse in women's basketball.

This past season, the Big 12 was 19-15 against the other Power 4 conferences, including winning records against the ACC and the Big 10, and yet they got the fewest teams into the NCAA tournament out of all the Power 4 conferences. Almost every SEC, Big 10, and ACC team had a better NET Strength of Schedule than every Big 12 team, showing that the NET SOS has a lot more to do with who has the most "talent" than what actually happens on the court. So while one player changing conferences really shouldn't have any significant impact on how the conferences are perceived, it probably would have.

Now, obviously, the main winner here is Oklahoma St. Not only did they get an amazing player, but they stole her from their rivals. It's too bad for them that Achol Akot had to transfer away to North Carolina because she shot 63% from the field this last season, meaning Oklahoma St would've had the only two Big 12 players who shot in the 60's last year. (The only other player who even shot more than 50% was West Virginia's Kierra Wheeler, who shot 51.5%.)

But if the next season is anything like this last one, the next biggest winner might be BYU. No one was hurt more by the lack of credit the Big 12 got last season than the Cougars. (The fact that you can say that about both football and women's basketball is really sad.) They got left out of the tournament in favor of multiple teams with worse records from conferences that the Big 12 had a winning record against (if you want to see my full argument about how unfair this was, check out this article). Hopefully, Audi Crooks staying in the conference will help the Big 12 gain enough respect that something like this won't happen again.

Another reason this benefits BYU is because the Cougars are almost certainly going to be playing Oklahoma St in Provo this season, meaning Audi will be coming to the Marriott Center for the second straight season. The only way this would be better would be if Amari Whiting was also returning to Provo for this game, but unfortunately, she is transferring to Iowa. Still, if this game is anything like the Iowa St game this last season or the Oklahoma St game the season before, the vibes in the Marriott Center are going to be awesome.

This news adds to a long list of reasons I'm happy about BYU being in the Big 12. They get to play against some of the best players in college basketball, and that brings out the best in them. Hopefully the Big 12's leading scorer in men's basketball (AJ Dybantsa) will also decide to come back. But in any case, ride em' Cowgirl!

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