Jacie Hoyt Ready to Launch Season Two as Oklahoma State Cowgirls Coach with New Look

STILLWATER – The other day I was interviewing Oklahoma State Cowgirls basketball head coach Jacie Hoyt and I told her that I hoped she took my comment the right way. I called her a “bad a**” as in she is a highly competitive and cut throat competitor. I consider that a compliment, so did she.

“That is a compliment to me,” Hoyt said. “I hate to lose and I love to win.”

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Hoyt is confident if anything.

Hoyt will stop at nothing to do whatever she can within her power and the rules to make her team the best it can be. There are Oklahoma State Cowgirls fans that were taken back when the program saw a heavy number of players depart including homegrown talent like guard Lexi Keys (9.4 ppg and 2.4 apg) and Taylen Collins (9.5 ppg and 9.1 rpg). Hoyt is the kind of coach that draws the line in the sand, or in this case on the maple hardwood of Gallagher-Iba. Hoyt is going to work the portal and she has shown that. She is going to make sure the Cowgirls get out of it better than they end up putting into it. 

Now, with practice underway, she gets to see if it worked out that way.

“I can’t believe this time of year, it always comes so fast,” Hoyt said of the start of practice.

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Anna Gret Asi (4), Quincy Noble (0), and Kennedy Fauntleroy at practice.

Incoming. the Cowgirls have 11 new players to go with holdovers in three-point shooter and clutch player Anna Gret Asi, three point shooter extrordinare Lior Gorzon, and lightly used Landry Williams. The bonding and team building got an early start with the summer exhibition trip to Italy and Greece.

“It was amazing. I had never been over there, so I didn’t know what to expect,” Hoyt said of the trip to Italy and Greece in August. “It surpassed any expectations that I had. It was an amazing opportunity for our players to see all of those places and that history. Then from a basketball standpoint it was great for us to have all those games and practices. That team bonding that is the most valuable thing we took away from it.

“It was a great experience for us as a coaching staff to see what this new roster was going to look like,” Hoyt added on the trip. “You always think you know, but until they are out there in the heat of competition you don’t really know.”

What she found was a lot of weapons with all the new players. Of course, the nation knows about point guard transfer Kennedy Fauntleroy from Georgetown as the Big East Freshman of the Year is rated the 10^th best transfer portal pickup going into this season. The 5-7 athlete averaged 11.9 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2.9 assists, 2.7 steals a game as a box score filler. She can do it all.

“That was a huge pickup and incedibly impactful not just because of her talent, but she is a point guard,” Hoyt explained and knows all too well how important as a former point guard. “The point guard has such an impact on your team. For her to be number 10 on that list. That is such a big deal. A lot of the other players on that list were playing deep into the NCAA Tournament and in the Final Four last season. We were really, really proud of that and she has a bright future for us.”

Former Kansas guard Chandler Prater, who did a number in Lawrence at the end of the season on what is now her new team averaged 9.5 points and 6.1 rebounds at Kansas.

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The Cowgirls have added size for this season.

On the Italy and Greece excursion freshman Stalee Heard from Sapulpa had 30 points in her first game on the tour. Welcome to college basketball Stalee!

LSU transfer Hannah Gusters is a 6-5 post that had a huge game in the second win on the tour.

Mainstay holdover Lior Garzon hit 12-of-14 three point shots in the finale as the Cowgirls aced Italy and Greece.

“First, we have a lot of weapons and I do think that while we lost some really great scorers, I think it is going to be more by committee this year,” said the head coach. “We had every game someone really took over and took off.”

Practice seems like it is fun. Transfer portal, some coaches may dread it, but Jacie Hoyt thrives in it.

“We have a lot of different pieces to put together,” Hoyt previewed. “I think we’re really going to be more defensive oriented this season, and I feel good about that.”