Oklahoma State transfer Tyrek Coger, 21, dies after workout

— -- Oklahoma State basketball player Tyrek Coger died after a 40-minute team workout on the football stadium stairs in hot weather, university officials said Friday.

The Raleigh, North Carolina, native was 21 years old. No cause of death was cited.

Oklahoma State basketball coach Brad Underwood broke down in tears at a Friday news conference as he remembered Coger. Underwood said he was in Las Vegas on a recruiting trip when he learned of Coger's death Thursday.

"This is the hardest couple of days I've ever experienced in my coaching life. You say goodbye to players when they graduate and that's one thing," Underwood said, pausing to wipe away tears with a towel. "Making that phone call to a mother is -- there's no words."

niversity spokesman Gary Shutt said the team held a 40-minute workout at Boone Pickens Stadium on the stadium stairs. Shutt said Coger did not appear to be struggling, but sat down after and the team went to check on him and noticed there were issues. Shutt said 911 was called and paramedics arrived at 5:08 p.m. Coger was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead at 6:23 p.m.

The Stillwater News Press reports that the temperature was 99 degrees with a heat index of 105 degrees at 5 p.m. Thursday. 

Coger moved to Stillwater earlier this month after transferring from Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington, North Carolina, where he averaged 12.2 points and 7.0 rebounds per game last season.

The 6-foot-9, 240-pound power forward initially signed with Ole Miss in November but was ruled ineligible due to an SEC rule that bars junior college transfers from competing unless they have played three consecutive semesters at the same school. Coger then chose Underwood and the Cowboys.

"Tyrek was excited to be at Oklahoma State and had such passion for the game and was looking forward to being an OSU Cowboy," Underwood said in the statement Thursday. "Losing a member of the team is like losing a member of the family. But we know our loss pales in comparison to the pain his family is going through."

Last month, Coger told the Tulsa World he was excited about joining Underwood's program and playing with standout point guard Jawun Evans this season.

"They look for me as a threat to come in with me and Jawun being a good pick-and-roll [combination]," Coger told the newspaper.

OSU athletic director Mike Holder says the team will thoroughly examine its practices following Coger's death. The NCAA's Sports Medicine Handbook does not provide specific guidelines for when teams should avoid practicing in extreme temperatures.

The handbook says heatstroke is the third-leading cause of sudden death in athletes, and that athletes should be gradually introduced to activity in warm temperatures over a "minimum period of 10 to 14 days." Coger had been in Oklahoma since July 5, the school said.

The NCAA handbook also provides a list of signs and symptoms of heat injury, notes that heatstroke is most likely to occur at the start of preseason practices and says that some athletes with certain health conditions or athletes who are not adequately in shape can be more susceptible to heatstroke. It was not clear whether that was the case with Coger.

In an interview with the Stillwater News Press published earlier this month, Coger spoke of frequent headaches that plagued him during his high school days. He said he underwent surgery several years ago to drain fluid from around his brain.

"At the moment, I'm thinking, 'Basketball is over,'" he told the newspaper, recalling his feelings at the time of the surgery. "'I gotta think beyond basketball now.'"

Coger's death is the not the first tragedy suffered by the Oklahoma State athletic department.

A 25-year-old woman was charged with four counts of second-degree murder after she plowed into a crowd of people during the school's homecoming parade in October. Four people died.

In 2011, women's basketball coach Kurt Budke and assistant coach Miranda Serna were killed, along with two others, when their plane crashed during a recruiting trip in Arkansas.

In 2001, 10 people were killed -- two men's basketball players, six staffers and two pilots -- when their plane crashed during a snowstorm as they traveled to Stillwater following a road game in Colorado.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.