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OSU player dies after team workout

In this November 24, 2015, photo provided by Cape Fear Community College, forward Tyrek Coger (15) looks to pass during a game against Wake Tech Community College in Cape Fear, N.C. Coger, who transferred to Oklahoma State University, died after collapsing during a team workout Thursday, July 21, 2016, in Sillwater, Okla.

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The temperature at 5 p.m. Thursday in Stillwater was 99 degrees with a heat index of 105 degrees.

Later on Friday, a spokeswoman with the state medical examiner’s office said Friday afternoon the cause of Coger’s death was cardiomegaly (an enlarged heart) with left ventricular hypertrophy (enlargement) and the manner was natural.

Coger sat down after the drills and the team noticed later he was having issues and called 911 about 5 p.m.; he was pronounced dead at a hospital at 6:23 p.m., Shutt said.

Coger had an operation during his senior year of high school to remove fluid around his brain, according to the Stillwater (Okla.) News Press.

When he chose to play basketball again, it was in junior college with Eastern Florida State College.

Coger told the newspaper that the surgery kept him out of basketball for about a month but was able to continue playing. “I gotta think beyond basketball now”.

The basketball team was running stadium stairs at Boone Pickens Stadium.

Coger transferred to OSU from Cape Fear Community College in Wilmington, North Carolina. The 6-foot-8 player arrived at Oklahoma State on July 5.

“I’ve got a lot a lot of questions about this”. NCAA spokesman Christopher Radford confirmed that was the case, and noted that staff members are allowed to conduct and supervise that activity.

“There’s no worse feeling that getting a call about one of your players that is like this”, said Underwood, who spent the previous three seasons at Stephen F. Austin University before joining OSU.

Wall also posted a photo of the two from the 2012 Reebok Breakout Challenge.

On Instagram, Wall posted a screenshot from the YouTube video and wrote: “Rest in peace to the lil homie who always had the competitive spirit”.

Ten people, including two men’s basketball players, six staffers and two pilots, were killed when their airplane crashed during a snowstorm as the team returned to Stillwater after a road game in Colorado in 2001.

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Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Fran McCaffery