Iowa State star Audi Crooks drops 3-word reaction as Emily Ryan opens up about her mental health journey

Iowa State stars Audi Crooks and Emily Ryan were teammates for each of the past two seasons. Ryan spent the past five seasons with the Cyclones, establishing a legacy as one of the greatest players in program history. Crooks joined the Cyclones two seasons ago and immediately burst onto the college basketball scene as a star.

While Ryan had a great career with the Cyclones, she struggled with her mental health at times. On Tuesday, the NCAA Instagram account posted a video of Ryan speaking about her mental health journey and how she opened up about her struggles.

"As athletes, a lot of the time we're like, no that's not gonna happen to me," Ryan said. "Like, I can push through, I'm fine. But realizing that things come to the point where you need help and it's not shameful to ask for help and that getting help is oftentimes the biggest step in getting better and recovery."

"So, I think just being able to be brave enough to reach out to someone and accept that there are things going on that aren't going great. Just being able to be vulnerable with someone else and accept help and being able to get outside your comfort zone and then eventually it'll payoff in the end."

On Wednesday, Emily Ryan's former teammate, Audi Crooks, saw the video and reposted it to her story with a three-word reaction.

"My inspiration fr."

Audi Crooks will take the advice from her former teammate into her third season at Iowa State. She is coming off a stellar sophomore campaign where she averaged 23.4 points, 7.5 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game.

Emily Ryan is transitioning to a coaching role at Iowa State

Emily Ryan established an impressive legacy during her time at Iowa State. In 153 games played over five seasons, she averaged 10.7 points, 4.3 rebounds, 6.5 assists and 1.5 steals per game. On May 20, the Cyclones announced that Ryan is joining the team's coaching staff. Head coach Bill Fennelly spoke about his excitement for Ryan to stay with the team.

"Emily's loyalty to Iowa State and her passion for this program are truly special. Her work ethic is as good as I have ever seen. I am confident that she will impact our program as a coach, just as she did as one of the best players to ever play at Iowa State."

It will be interesting to see how Emily Ryan handles transitioning into a coaching role next season.

About the author

Alexander O'Reilly is a journalist at Sportskeeda from Kingston, Ontario with over seven years in the field at companies including SenShot, RVBlogger, Monarch Media, WordAgents, GSeC LLC, and IGC.

His favorite college team is Duke, and his favorite sporting memory was Duke winning March Madness in 2010. JJ Redick was Alex's favorite college player when he was young but more recently, Caleb Williams gets the nod. As the Chicago Bears are Alex's favorite NFL team, this was a perfect match.

Alex's proudest moment came when he was interviewed by a radio station in Ottawa on his opinion on recent moves by the Ottawa Senators, which gave him a confidence boost and the knowledge that he could succeed as a writer.

Aside from sports, Alex likes to spend his time playing games. He is also very passionate about running and strives to improve at the half and full marathon distances.

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Edited by Alexander O'Reilly