This week on The IX Sports Podcast College Basketball Edition, hosts Melissa Triebwasser and Michael Waterloo sit down with Oklahoma State Head Coach Jacie Hoyt.
Hoyt began by explaining how much she of a “basketball purist” she is.
“I just, I love playing the game the right way, just being fundamentally sound, making the best — you know, the extra pass for the best shot on the floor. Those types of things probably has a lot to do with my upbringing and learning the game from my mom, who was a longtime high school coach and Hall of Famer, but I just don’t really know how to teach the game any other way than playing fast, being aggressive, and moving and sharing the ball,” Hoyt said.
Then, Triebwasser jumped right in and asked Hoyt what the conversations looked like when she went to administration at Oklahoma State to ask them for their support in recruiting top talent to the program.
Hoyt said she has some “really amazing donors” but that things really got rolling when she landed Liv McGill, a transfer from Florida.
“I’m grateful for an administration who had my back and stepped up. I’m grateful to donors who stepped up, and I’m really just grateful to all the players who have played here and helped us build something, build a brand, whether that’s on the floor or off the floor, that you know people want to be a part of,” Hoyt said.
Audi Crooks (who transferred from Iowa State University) and McGill are both offensive powerhouses, Waterloo pointed out.
“How can you work both of these players into your system instead of trying to build a system around them?” he asked Hoyt.
“I think the beautiful thing about both of those players is they just want to win, and that’s the number one priority for them, [and] for the rest of the team that we have,” Hoyt explained, adding that McGill has never played in the NCAA Tournament, and Crooks has only won one game.
“I’m not naive to think that it’s always going to be easy when games start and things get a little bit more challenging,” Hoyt said. “But when the priority is winning, you don’t really care how that happens, and I do think that that’s the top priority for our team.”
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