When the 2026 college basketball transfer portal slammed shut, few programs underwent as radical a metamorphosis as Oklahoma State. Head coach Jacie Hoyt faced an alarming foundation after losing nine players to the portal and graduating two more, leaving rising senior and two-time All-Big 12 selection Stailee Heard as the lone returning piece alongside three incoming freshmen. Building a functional rotation from a single veteran seemed a daunting arithmetic puzzle, yet within a two-week span, the Cowgirls re-engineered their entire roster into a high-octane machine.
The blueprint started with methodical precision rather than flashy headlines. Hoyt first targeted floor-spacing excellence, securing Ellie Brueggemann from Lindenwood, Division II national player of the year Talexa Weeter from Fort Hays State, and Nene Ndiaye from Rutgers. Each of these additions shot better than 40 percent from beyond the arc during the previous season. But the tactical ceiling skyrocketed when Florida transfer Liv McGill committed to Stillwater. McGill brings high-volume scoring and playmaking, coming off a sophomore campaign where she averaged 22.5 points, 6.3 assists, and 6.1 rebounds while leading the nation with 20.8 pick-and-roll possessions per game at a 54.6% frequency. That profile matches Hoyt's offensive system seamlessly; the Cowgirls ranked 14th nationally in pick-and-roll frequency (32.8%) and seventh in pick-and-roll possessions per game (27.5) last season.
The undisputed centerpiece of the transformation, however, arrived when Iowa State star Audi Crooks announced her commitment to Oklahoma State. Crooks, the consensus No. 1 player in the transfer portal, enters her senior year with a staggering 22.8 points per game average across 99 career games in Ames. Standing at a bruising 6-foot-3, the dominant center boasts elite hands and touch around the rim, drawing immediate praise from her new head coach.
“We are thrilled with the addition of Audi,” Jacie Hoyt said, per TSN. “She has been one of the country’s most dominant scorers the last few years and to think she will be in a Cowgirl uniform feels surreal. She has elite size and strength paired with elite hands and touch that allow her to be an automatic bucket around the rim. The last three years I’ve watched team after team strategize and game plan around stopping her and almost all have failed miserably.”
Crooks herself acknowledged the heavy emotional weight of leaving a region where she became a household name just 100 miles from the Iowa State campus, noting in a social media statement when she entered the portal, “I still believe the grass is greener where you water it, and I’ve done that here. It’s why I want you to hear from me directly that I have decided to enter the portal and explore what it means to take root again in new ground.”
Now rooted in Stillwater, Crooks joins an ecosystem custom-built to maximize her interior gravity. With McGill operating out of the pick-and-roll and elite perimeter shooters like Brueggemann and Weeter forcing defenses to stay honest on the perimeter, Oklahoma State projects as a brutal matchup for any Big 12 opponent.
Sources
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- nytimes.com original
- cbssports.com original
- tsn.ca original
- si.com original