Jacie Hoyt Built Oklahoma State Roster to Break NCAA Tournament Ceiling

Oklahoma State women’s basketball coach Jacie Hoyt has taken her team to the NCAA Tournament in three of her four seasons in Stillwater.

That’s a success in many circles. It’s just not all the success she wants. Her teams have only reached the second round once in three tries, and that has taught her something about the type of team she needs to break through to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament and hopefully beyond.

That was her driving force in building her team this year, one that had a transfer class named the No. 1 in the country by every major recruiting service.

Jacie Hoyt on Her 2026-27 Team

Adding the right pieces or March🧩
Coach Hoyt and the Cowgirls have been BUSYYY

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“It comes down to talent and there’s definitely a ceiling when you get to that tournament and you’re playing against the best of the best — it’s just what it is,” Hoyt said to Big 12 Radio on Wednesday from the Big 12 annual meetings in Frisco, Texas. “You have to have the players that can get you over the hump and I believe that we’ve done that.”

Hoyt and her staff landed the top two players in the transfer portal this cycle — Iowa State center Audi Crooks and Florida guard Liv McGill. Both averaged more than 20 points per game last season and both have claimed previous all-America honors. After losing most of her team to either graduation or the transfer portal, delivering a pair of players like Crooks and McGill to Stillwater would have been enough.

But the staff brought in several more talented transfers because it’s not just about talent in March Madness, Hoyt has learned.

“Depth is really important,” she said. “I think that the best teams have a bench that they can go to later in the season. I know we’re talking about the Audis and the Livs, but my goodness we have so many incredible pieces around them and the depth is by far the most I’ve ever had here in my career. I really believe that’s going to translate into us playing deeper in March.”

Three other transfers were ranked among the Top 100 by USA Today — Lindenwood guard Ellie Brueggemann was ranked No. 36, former Baylor guard Yuting Deng was ranked No. 80 and Rutgers guard Nene Ndiaye was ranked No. 95.

Those rankings don’t include Talexa Weeter, the Fort Hays State star who was the Division II player of the year after she averaged 27.5 points per game last season, or Utah guard LA Sneed and former Missouri State guard Zoe Canfield.

It also doesn’t account for the one holdover that Hoyt has — three-time all-Big 12 star Stailee Heard.

Hoyt and her staff have built a team to compete not just in the Big 12 but in the NCAA Tournament. That was the whole point of luring these transfers to Oklahoma State.

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