Cowgirls Basketball’s Huge Transfer Haul Doesn’t Move Bracketology Needle Much

The Oklahoma State women’s basketball team pulled in a great transfer class. But in one area that class hasn’t moved the needed that much.

Oklahoma State coach Jacie Hoyt. | BRYAN TERRY/THE OKLAHOMAN / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

After losing most of its 2025-26 team to the transfer portal or eligibility, the Oklahoma State Cowgirls’ basketball team went to work putting together one of the most impressive transfer classes in the country.

But while the class is impressive, it hasn’t moved the needle that much in one regard — bracketology.

ESPN released its first offseason bracketology for the 2027 NCAA women’s tournament on Tuesday and based on the Cowgirls’ offseason work, OSU was seeded No. 6 and playing a sub-regional in Nashville.

Considering OSU was a No. 8 seed in the NCAA Tournament this past season, that’s only a two-seed jump based on the work that head coach Jacie Hoyt and her staff have done so far. It would amount to a Top 25 rankings, though Hoyt and her staff have their sights set higher.

OSU’s Impressive Offseason

Iowa State Cyclones' center Audi Crooks. | Nirmalendu Majumdar/Ames Tribune / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

The only holdover player from last season’s roster is guard Stailee Heard, who has earned all-Big 12 honors in each of her three seasons in Stillwater and is back for her senior season. She’ll be surrounded by one of the highest-ranked transfer classes in the country, led by the No. 1 player on the transfer portal board, former Iowa State center Audi Crooks.

Crooks is a three-time all-Big 12 selection, a former all-America selection and left the Cyclones second in program history with her 2,256 points, first with 22.8 points per game and second with her 907 made field goals.

The Cowgirls landed another highly touted transfer in former Florida guard Liv McGill. She was considered a Top 5 prospect in the transfer portal by most services. She was an honorable mention all-America selection last year. She averaged 22.5 points and 6.1 rebounds per game last season, with her scoring average No. 11 in the country.

OSU also landed the Division II player of the year, guard Talexa Weeter out of Fort Hays State. She led Division II in scoring at 27.5 points per game and broke her conference’s single-season scoring record with 852 points, the 13th-best all-time.

Oklahoma State also landed former Lindenwood guard Ellie Brueggemann, who was a 44% 3-point shooter last season; former Utah guard LA Sneed, who figures to contend to help work the point with McGill; former Rutgers guard Nene Ndiaye, who averaged nearly 15 points per game; former Baylor guard Yuting Deng, who averaged nearly seven points per game; and former Missouri State guard Zoe Canfield, who missed most of last season due to injury.

OSU also announced three prep signings in November. That included guard Addisyn Bollinger from Frenship High School in Lubbock, Texas; Annie Kibedi, a forward from Antwerp, Belgium; and forward Bralyn Peck from Decatur, Texas.