Michigan State University Athletics
Janai Crooms: Feeling Right at Home
3/18/2021 10:24:00 AM | Women's Basketball
Getting to this point has been a journey, but Michigan State junior guard Janai Crooms knows she has found the right destination. Crooms, who was a mainstay in the Ohio State line-up for two seasons, decided to transfer to the Spartans last May.
It was a big decision, and Crooms is seeing the results. She is an emerging presence for MSU, thanks to her passing and defensive abilities. She is willing to do the things that don't light up the stat sheet.
"Passing and energy, that's one thing you never have to question me on," Crooms, who stands 5-10, said. "Defense too, I love playing defense. I would rather get an assist over anything, especially a dime, I think I have really nice passes."
She is averaging nearly 3.0 assists per game, along with 5.0 points and 3.2 rebounds. Crooms had a season-high five steals against Northwestern, showing off her speed and good hands.
Her MSU teammates have noticed Croom's abilities to change the game's flow.
"She definitely enjoys making good passes and really good decisions," sophomore guard Alyza Winston said. "That's her game, she's an amazing passer. Definitely the best passer we have in my opinion, and that really helps us."
Crooms started playing didn't get started basketball in fourth grade, inspired by one of the best guards in NBA history – her cousin Allen Iverson. It seems speedy guards with great passing abilities runs in her family.
"Him (Iverson) being my cousin I got introduced to it at a young age," Crooms, a native of Rhode Island, said. "I just continued to play, my mom's side played a lot, dad's side played a lot, so my family played a lot."
Crooms didn't fall in love with basketball right away. And she wasn't a shining star at the start. She just kept playing, and her development found its own pace.
"After I found out I wasn't very good I stopped for a summer," Crooms said. "I came back, and it was just natural to me, everything came to me. I said I'll try to find people around me that know basketball and I started working out and I realized I can get far with this. That's when I fell in love with the game of basketball."
From that point on, Crooms grew serious about her game and made major strides. She turned into a highly-recruited prospect in high school. She was a four-star recruit, ranked No. 36 in the 2018 national class according to Prospect Nation.
The recruiting process can be tense, but Crooms enjoyed the ride.
"Recruiting process was really fun actually," Crooms said. "You get to build so many connections with so many coaches and hear different things about facilities. It's a whole other learning process that I'm glad I got to take part of."
In the end, she had a decision to make between two Big Ten programs: Ohio State and Michigan State.
"It had to come down to one decision," Crooms said. "…At Ohio State, I really liked the assistant coach, he was really involved in my recruiting process. That's when I picked Ohio State because I thought they had a lot of trust in me and thought they could get me where I wanted to be in the near future."
Making a huge life decision sometimes means a re-examination of things later. Ohio State wasn't the fit she hoped it would be, and she felt she needed to make a big decision.
She chose to enter the transfer portal, and she soon learned that MSU was still an open option for Crooms,.
"I always knew I wanted to come here, and I was in contact with some of the players," Crooms said. "Ever since I came here, they never switched up on me. Another reason I wanted to come here was (Coach) Suzy (Merchant). She's been really invested in me since I was 15-years-old. When I entered the transfer portal, she was the first person to call me. From there I was like 'Michigan State is the place I want to be,' and now I'm here and I'm happier than ever."
Crooms connected with her MSU teammates and felt at home in East Lansing. She is majoring in Media and Information.
"We all just got really close, really fast," Winston said. "She's a very easy person to talk to. I think she fits in well with us, really, really well when it comes to basketball and just the type of person she is. It's really been good since the jump."
Crooms is putting in the work to improve her game, showing a strong commitment to basketball on and off the court.
"Even when I'm not playing basketball, I always find to watch it, learn it, anything," Crooms said. "Just try to learn because that's where you get better. I just love watching it, hanging out with teammates, hanging out watching Netflix, nothing crazy especially with COVID."
It was a big decision, and Crooms is seeing the results. She is an emerging presence for MSU, thanks to her passing and defensive abilities. She is willing to do the things that don't light up the stat sheet.
"Passing and energy, that's one thing you never have to question me on," Crooms, who stands 5-10, said. "Defense too, I love playing defense. I would rather get an assist over anything, especially a dime, I think I have really nice passes."
She is averaging nearly 3.0 assists per game, along with 5.0 points and 3.2 rebounds. Crooms had a season-high five steals against Northwestern, showing off her speed and good hands.
Her MSU teammates have noticed Croom's abilities to change the game's flow.
"She definitely enjoys making good passes and really good decisions," sophomore guard Alyza Winston said. "That's her game, she's an amazing passer. Definitely the best passer we have in my opinion, and that really helps us."
Crooms started playing didn't get started basketball in fourth grade, inspired by one of the best guards in NBA history – her cousin Allen Iverson. It seems speedy guards with great passing abilities runs in her family.
"Him (Iverson) being my cousin I got introduced to it at a young age," Crooms, a native of Rhode Island, said. "I just continued to play, my mom's side played a lot, dad's side played a lot, so my family played a lot."
Crooms didn't fall in love with basketball right away. And she wasn't a shining star at the start. She just kept playing, and her development found its own pace.
"After I found out I wasn't very good I stopped for a summer," Crooms said. "I came back, and it was just natural to me, everything came to me. I said I'll try to find people around me that know basketball and I started working out and I realized I can get far with this. That's when I fell in love with the game of basketball."
From that point on, Crooms grew serious about her game and made major strides. She turned into a highly-recruited prospect in high school. She was a four-star recruit, ranked No. 36 in the 2018 national class according to Prospect Nation.
The recruiting process can be tense, but Crooms enjoyed the ride.
"Recruiting process was really fun actually," Crooms said. "You get to build so many connections with so many coaches and hear different things about facilities. It's a whole other learning process that I'm glad I got to take part of."
In the end, she had a decision to make between two Big Ten programs: Ohio State and Michigan State.
"It had to come down to one decision," Crooms said. "…At Ohio State, I really liked the assistant coach, he was really involved in my recruiting process. That's when I picked Ohio State because I thought they had a lot of trust in me and thought they could get me where I wanted to be in the near future."
Making a huge life decision sometimes means a re-examination of things later. Ohio State wasn't the fit she hoped it would be, and she felt she needed to make a big decision.
She chose to enter the transfer portal, and she soon learned that MSU was still an open option for Crooms,.
"I always knew I wanted to come here, and I was in contact with some of the players," Crooms said. "Ever since I came here, they never switched up on me. Another reason I wanted to come here was (Coach) Suzy (Merchant). She's been really invested in me since I was 15-years-old. When I entered the transfer portal, she was the first person to call me. From there I was like 'Michigan State is the place I want to be,' and now I'm here and I'm happier than ever."
Crooms connected with her MSU teammates and felt at home in East Lansing. She is majoring in Media and Information.
"We all just got really close, really fast," Winston said. "She's a very easy person to talk to. I think she fits in well with us, really, really well when it comes to basketball and just the type of person she is. It's really been good since the jump."
Crooms is putting in the work to improve her game, showing a strong commitment to basketball on and off the court.
"Even when I'm not playing basketball, I always find to watch it, learn it, anything," Crooms said. "Just try to learn because that's where you get better. I just love watching it, hanging out with teammates, hanging out watching Netflix, nothing crazy especially with COVID."
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