Hoyt bringing UMKC’s Alnatas, Williams to OSU
STILLWATER — The Oklahoma State women’s basketball team has added a star and a legacy.
New Cowgirl coach Jacie Hoyt secured the first two commitments to her program by bringing in a pair of her former players at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.
Naomie Alnatas, a two-time AllSummit League first-team selection, and Landry Williams, a Tulsa native whose mother played at OSU, announced on Sunday their commitments to OSU via social media.
Both players had been in the transfer portal following Hoyt’s departure from UMKC, which hired former OU player and Texas assistant Dionnah JacksonDurrett as its new head coach.
Alnatas, a 5-foot-7 point guard who will be a sixth-year senior next season, averaged 18.6 points and 5.3 assists per game while shooting 41.8% from 3-point range last year.
Williams, a 5-foot-9 shooting guard who played high school ball at Metro Christian in Tulsa, appeared in 10 games as a true freshman last season. She made seven of 13 3-point attempts. Her mother, Megan, played at OSU and her father, Shawn, played at Tulsa. Hoyt likely isn’t finished with her recruiting for next year’s team, which will mostly be done through the transfer portal.
As of now, OSU has five players from last year’s roster in the transfer portal: Lauren Fields, Brittany Reeves, N’Yah Boyd, Tracey Bershers and Tori Garza.
Hoyt completed her coaching staff late last week. She hired former Baylor star and SMU assistant coach Jhasmin Player as associate head coach, and stayed in the program to fill the other two spots on staff.
Hoyt retained assistant coach Taelor Karr, a Kansas native and former Gonzaga player who had joined the Cowgirls prior to the 2021-22 season.
And Hoyt elevated Jack Easley to assistant coach after he spent the previous 10 seasons as OSU’s director of player development. He had also served as an OSU assistant from 1983-2002. In between stints in Stillwater, Easley had coaching stops at Providence and Iowa State.