PHOENIX — Dawn Staley is preparing her team for a Final Four clash with UConn on Friday night. She is also, almost certainly, preparing for what comes next.
On Thursday, Iowa State junior center Audi Crooks announced via Instagram that she is entering the transfer portal — and according to reporting from Michael White of the All-Girls Sports Report, South Carolina is among the programs expected to pursue her aggressively, alongside UConn, Texas, and Vanderbilt.
The timing is notable. Staley is in the middle of a championship run, and the transfer portal window closes April 20. Two major roster decisions are already on the horizon: seniors Raven Johnson and Madina Okot are both expected to exhaust their eligibility this season. Crooks, if Staley can land her, would address both gaps simultaneously — a scoring center who can anchor a frontcourt and operate as a primary offensive option.
Who Audi Crooks Is
The numbers alone make Crooks one of the most coveted players in the portal. She averaged 25.8 points and 7.7 rebounds per game this season while shooting an extraordinary 64.9 percent from the floor — finishing second nationally in scoring behind only Vanderbilt’s Mikayla Blakes. She earned Associated Press and USBWA All-American second-team honors for her efforts.
This was not a breakout year in isolation. Crooks is a two-time All-American who has spent three seasons at Iowa State, helping the Cyclones reach three consecutive NCAA Tournaments and winning a Big 12 tournament title in 2023. Iowa State entered this year’s tournament as a nine seed and fell to Syracuse in the first round — an outcome that likely accelerated Crooks’s decision to seek a new environment with championship aspirations.
A player averaging nearly 26 points per game at 64.9 percent shooting, entering the portal with two-time All-American credentials, will not lack for suitors. She will come with a significant price tag, and every program in this conversation knows it.
The Financial Reality Staley Is Already Navigating
What makes this pursuit particularly interesting is that Staley addressed the economics of the transfer portal landscape directly just last week — before Crooks even entered the portal — in terms that were unusually candid for a coach in the middle of a tournament run.
“How much is it going to cost us? That’s the conversation,” Staley said via ESPN. “You’ve got to lead with that. Because you don’t really want to waste your time. You either are going to have enough to pay players, or you don’t. And you move on.”
She continued with a level of transparency that reflects how fundamentally the portal has changed recruiting at the elite level.
“Because although you can promise a young person this or that, if your budget says otherwise — I don’t like to promise anything that isn’t available to us. I don’t want to have to go out and get the money because you could be told no and then your back is against the wall. So you have to lead — I won’t say I lead with that question, but I get to it fairly quickly. After the pleasantries are done, you have to get to the question so you’re not wasting your time and spinning your wheels on somebody that you can’t afford.”
The honesty in that framing is striking. Staley is not pretending the financial conversation happens after the relationship is built — she is acknowledging that it happens early, because everyone’s time is too valuable for anything else. It is the language of a coach who has learned to operate efficiently in a landscape that rewards decisiveness.
What Crooks Would Mean for South Carolina
The fit is compelling on multiple levels. South Carolina built its Final Four run this season around Madina Okot’s interior presence — a 6-foot-6 center who gave Staley a true post anchor she had lacked in previous years. With Okot’s eligibility situation unresolved and her potential departure looming, Crooks would provide a ready-made replacement who is arguably a more polished offensive player.
The track record also supports optimism. Staley has proven she can recruit and integrate portal talent at the highest level — Okot, Ta’Niya Latson, and Maryam Dauda all came via transfer and all contributed meaningfully to a program operating at championship level. Adding Crooks would continue a pattern of Staley identifying high-upside portal talent and placing it within a system that amplifies production rather than diminishes it.
The portal window closes April 20. South Carolina has two games left to play before then, and potentially a national championship to win. Staley is doing both things simultaneously — competing for a title today while building the roster that will compete for the next one.
That is what sustained excellence at this level actually looks like.
