‘You’re Looking at a Generational Player’: How Liv McGill Is Already Setting the Tone for Cowgirl Basketball

STILLWATER — In the early morning of a June practice, Stailee Heard tossed her glasses to the side.

Heard was battling Florida transfer point guard Liv McGill in a one-on-one drill. McGill had taken the ball from the former All-Big 12 First Team selection, which — according to their coach — seemed to light Heard’s fire. That led to Heard’s glasses getting knocked off only for her to toss them to the side and keep going.

“We’re talking, this is 6:30 a.m. in June, and these two are just freaking going at it,” OSU coach Jacie Hoyt said. “But they’re loving it …

“Just to see the level of competitiveness get to where it is already is so exciting.”

McGill has apparently had that effect on a lot of people within the Oklahoma State women’s basketball program since her arrival.

On a team that is star-studded with the likes of Heard and Audi Crooks, McGill’s was the first name to leave Hoyt’s mouth when talking about the group’s leadership through their first few weeks of the summer. Hoyt said that Heard is having the best summer of her career, and Hoyt credited McGill as the “driving force.”

“She just has this incredible ability to lead people and get people to follow and instill confidence in people,” Hoyt said. “She’s incredibly confident as a player. Heck, she gives me confidence as a coach. She has that ability to change a room. Every time she walks in a gym, it’s like, ‘I’m here, and I’m ready to work.’ Everyone around her just rises to the occasion with her.”

Out of Minneapolis, McGill will be a junior for the Cowgirls this upcoming season after spending her first two seasons at Florida. She was an All-American honorable mention this past season after averaging 22.5 points, 6.1 rebounds, 6.3 assists and 2.6 steals a contest.

She was the fourth player to commit to the Cowgirls out of the portal but was perhaps the first big sign that Hoyt wasn’t playing around when it came to constructing the roster. The Cowgirls finished with the top portal class, according to multiple outlets.

“Stillwater has been great to me,” McGill said. “I’ve been enjoying meeting my new teammates and learning things about them, and then on the court, every day we get after it. It’s like we didn’t just join as a team, like we’ve already been playing and practicing. We already know our goal, and we’re just working at it each and every day.”

McGill mentioned a moment that touched her heart on her visit to OSU when she knew she wanted to be a Cowgirl. She elected to keep the contents of that moment private, but Hoyt noted that two share some similarities in their personalities. It sounds like an awesome start to a coach-point guard relationship.

“I think that Liv and I have really hit it off because we both are probably a little more competitive than your average person,” Hoyt said. “Sometimes that can be very misunderstood, can make people feel uncomfortable, but we don’t really know how to be any other way. …

“She is a special, special talent. I think that you’re looking at a generational player coming up here. She’s already proven herself to be very good, but I think that her future is still way brighter than what her last couple of years have been even. Her leadership, her maturity, she is wise beyond her years. She makes everyone in the gym feel invincible. That ability, that’s just different. That’s unique. The way that she can hype her teammates up, the way that she can communicate and verbalize things in the moment, she’s just a special leader.”