Oklahoma State’s women’s basketball team just got a national-stage date that fits the moment.
The Cowgirls’ matchup with South Carolina on Dec. 6 in Columbia, S.C., will air on ABC, according to an ESPN release Thursday. For a program that wants to measure itself against the best, that’s a prime-time kind of spotlight, even with a 3 p.m. tipoff.
Earlier this week, head coach Jacie Hoyt made clear she views the Gamecocks as the standard. She said she expects South Carolina to be the nation’s No. 1 team - or very close to it - when the teams meet. That’s the kind of nonconference game Hoyt said she wants on the schedule every year.
ESPN’s announcement of its men’s and women’s college basketball slate for ABC included nine women’s games and four men’s games. Every women’s game on the list includes at least one SEC team, and Oklahoma State is the lone Big 12 representative.
South Carolina brings plenty of weight to the matchup. Dawn Staley has built the Gamecocks into one of the country’s premier programs, with three national championships on her résumé. Last season, South Carolina went 36-0 before falling to UCLA in the national title game, and it has reached each of the last six Final Fours.
Hoyt said this week that she and Staley don’t really have much of a relationship, but her admiration for the former Virginia guard, U.S. Olympian and WNBA star is enormous.
“I have so much respect for her, what she has done for women's basketball as a player, as a coach. I mean it's incredible,” Hoyt said. “I'm just really excited to get the opportunity to you know coach against her and get to see kind of what we're made of.”
Before that showdown, the Cowgirls will spend more time away from Stillwater than usual in nonconference play. Their November schedule includes trips to Tulsa and South Dakota State, plus a stop in Kansas City to play Wichita State and a trip to Coconut Hoops in Fort Myers, Fla., over the Thanksgiving break.
Then comes Bedlam. Oklahoma State will play Oklahoma in Oklahoma City the Saturday after the South Carolina game.
Big 12 play opens for the Cowgirls at Kansas on Dec. 20, and they’ll host Arizona in their conference home opener on Dec. 30.
The rest of the Big 12’s national television assignments are due later this month. Hoyt and selected players will also be in Kansas City for Big 12 media days on Oct. 20-21.
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