Isaac Likekele Nursing a Foot Injury, Should Play Against Texas
STILLWATER – Ever since he put up a season-high 22 points against West Virginia last month, Isaac Likekele has been in a downward trend.
The junior point guard put up 15 points against Kansas State, 10 against Kansas, nine against Baylor, seven against both Iowa State and Arkansas and just four against TCU earlier this week.
Well, there’s been a reason for his diminished play recently and Oklahoma State head coach Mike Boynton revealed that in his media availability on Friday.
“I never worried about Ice — ever,” Boynton said. “On the list of guys that I’m concerned about, he’s literally last because I know who he is at his core, and I know the pride he has to go out and do whatever he needs to do for our team. The kid’s literally just been playing on really one and a half feet in the last month. He’s a kid who’s a warrior. He wants to do everything he can, that means that sometimes his numbers don’t always reflect his ability.
“But he wants to be out there to help us win. so, I knew the other night when he couldn’t go back in, it must have been pretty serious. I think he’ll give it a go [Saturday]; we’ll see how it goes to start, but I certainly expect him to be in the right space mentally and certainly ready to help us.”
It’s unclear when Likekele initially suffered the foot injury, but the good news is there doesn’t appear to be any structural damage.
“It’s a foot [injury], just some pain; I don’t think there’s anything structural,” Boynton said. “We’ve done an x-ray and MRI, so there’s nothing broken, but that’s what you deal with sometimes going through a season. You get banged up; you get bruised. Some guys have a little bit more tolerance for pain and can fight through, some guys have less and I think he’s going to try and give us everything he can.”
The Cowboys face the No. 6 Texas Longhorns in Stillwater today, Saturday Feb. 6. Tipoff is scheduled for 2:00 p.m. CT on ABC and should be a good one. The Cowboys lost the first matchup of the season back in Dec. as they allowed the Longhorns to go on a 17-0 run and ended up winning 77-74.