Jacie Hoyt, Oklahoma State 'Want the Smoke' Next Season

Oklahoma State is gearing up for another season with high expectations.

Last season, OSU women’s basketball was one of the top surprises in the country. That won’t be the case next year. Led by Stailee Heard, the Cowgirls will be looking ot make some noise on the national scale.

With year four of Jacie Hoyt’s tenure in Stillwater on the horizon, the Cowgirls are hoping to pay off a successful offseason. Although it wasn’t always clear how the Cowgirls would look after their breakout season in 2024-25, OSU has retooled the roster well throughout the offseason.

Going into next season, the Cowgirls will have plenty of key returning players. While OSU will miss some veterans that helped last year’s team ascend into the top 25, such as Anna Gret Asi and Tenin Magassa, Hoyt and company have also made some huge additions. Although it’s never easy to create a roster, Hoyt clearly has confidence that the mix of returners and newcomers should bode well for the Cowgirls.

"Part of the reason why I'm so excited about this upcoming season is that we have more continuity,” Hoyt said. “Last year, I felt really good about our continuity; this year, I feel even better. That just goes such a long way, and then we were able to add a really elite [transfer] portal class, seventh-best portal class by ESPN, so of course that's exciting.

“I feel like every single player who transferred was so intentional with their decision of wanting to be here and wanting to be a part of what we have. I think we have a unique way of doing things and a culture that a lot of people are attracted to right now, and so to see those veteran players really come together with the portal kids that are so talented, it's just been really cool to see.”

With such a talented roster, the Cowgirls will enter the 2025-26 season with potentially the highest expectations in program history. Considering OSU has already been to the NCAA Tournament twice in three years under Hoyt, that is the expectation moving forward.

With the Cowgirls narrowly missing out on a trip to the Big 12 title game last season, they have some high hopes of winning the conference in 2026. While OSU’s high expectations bring some pressure to perform next season, Hoyt knows it’s exactly where her team should.

“The kids who stayed here or came here, they want the smoke,” Hoyt said. “We're not shying away from that, we understand that the target is on our back in a different way than what it has been, ever, since I've been here. But we're leaning into that, we're attacking it, we're running to it, we're not running from it. We're very excited."