Isaac Likekele Undecided on Future, Will Go Down as an All-time Favorite

STILLWATER – I think you’d be hard-pressed to find too many more Oklahoma State basketball players with a crazier career than Isaac Likekele.

He arrived in Stillwater and was thrust into the point guard position, one he hadn’t played before, and he started to thrive. He was on the team when Mike Boynton and Co. had to hold walk-on tryouts just to be able to practice. He was quickly becoming one of the more dominate point guards in college basketball before he got sick in late November-early December of 2019 and missed a month of action.

He bounced back and was one of the main reasons the Cowboys had a shot at making the NCAA tournament before COVID hit in March 2020.

Likekele was shifted to a much different role upon the arrival of Cade Cunningham, in which he played at the two, the three, sometimes back at point guard, and everything else in between. He injured his foot early on in conference play, which greatly affected his play until he sat to rest it mid-way through Big 12 play. He was set to return against Oklahoma down in Norman, but sustained a hand injury, which forced him to miss a bit more time.

Not to mention dealing with the NCAA decision, then ultimately the postseason ban his senior season. Likekele’s had several opportunities, and reasons, to transfer out and try and find a better situation, yet he’s remained in Stillwater and has been one of the constants throughout the past four years.

“It’s been good, honestly,” Likekele said. “I can’t complain, I just feel blessed to even be in this position and really just everyday getting this opportunity that I’ve been getting. So, just looking back at it, I’m just blessed, honestly, regardless of how it went: If it was all good, all bad, I just really feel appreciative to have this opportunity.”

However, Likekele still has an extra year of eligibility left thanks to COVID. It’s kind of been everyone’s understanding, especially with how him and Mike Boynton and have talked about Likekele’s future the past few weeks, that this would most likely be his final year as a Cowboy. But the media met with Likekele on Monday, and he told us he’s still undecided.

“I don’t know, honestly,” Likekele said of making the decision this would be his last season. “Like I said, you never know how life plays out. Me and my family, we obviously haven’t talked about anything, we don’t talk about sports at all pretty much, unless it’s LeBron James. Other than that, I’m just looking forward to these last two games and we’ll see what happens after that.”

One thing’s for certain, whether Isaac Likekele is on next year’s roster, he’ll be one of the all-time best Cowboys to lace em up and play on the white maple floor of Gallagher-Iba Arena. He became the first player in program history to log at least 1,000 points, 600 rebounds and 400 assists, and one of only 14 players in program history to record at least 150 steals. He’s also now four all-time in career assists with 431, just one shy of tying Matt Clark for third with 432.

Imagine where his numbers would be had he not missed roughly two months of basketball due to injury or played a few months dealing with injuries.

As of right now, Isaac Likekele has one game remaining during his Cowboy career, a 2 p.m. CT tip on Saturday, March 5, against one of the best teams in the nation, No. 12 Texas Tech.