“When I was younger, I really didn't have anybody to look up to besides my dad, and I know there's little kids out there that are in the same situation,” Waters told The Oklahoman. “I want to be the person they look up to.”

Waters, of Cherokee and Kiowa heritage, grew up with few Native Americans to idolize in sports. For that reason, Waters, a Norman native on the Oklahoma State basketball team, strives to be that idol for others.

Waters, who ranks first nationally in free-throw percentage and third in the Big 12 in 3-point percentage, won't be alone in that effort when OSU plays at Texas Tech on Wednesday. Of the five walk-ons the Cowboys have added to their roster since mid-January, two are Native American. In Waters, Gabe Simpson and J.K. Hadlock, OSU has more Native American players on its roster than any Division I basketball conference had last season. A year ago, Waters was one of only two in the Big 12 and 14 in Division I, per data the NCAA released in December.

Simpson, a Cherokee Nation citizen from Jay, is also a walk-on member of the Cowboy football team. He and his teammates regularly played pickup basketball, and when OSU announced it was holding walk-on tryouts the day after coach Mike Boynton dismissed three players, Simpson’s teammates urged him to go for it.

Simpson ended up being the only football player at the tryout, and because he was already cleared through athletic compliance, he was the first walk-on out of the tryout added to the Cowboys’ roster.

After doing a class project on Jim Thorpe, Simpson grew up admiring the legendary multi-sport athlete, who was born in what eventually was Oklahoma and became the first Native American to win an Olympic gold medal. Now, Simpson is a collegiate dual-sport athlete himself.