Jun. 12—LARAMIE — A few months removed from a breakout season that included first team All-Mountain West honors, an NCAA tournament appearance and the revival of University of Wyoming's basketball program, there's no doubt Graham Ike is one of the top big men in the country.
A little more than two years ago, however, his path to college basketball stardom hardly seemed certain.
After a slow start to his recruiting process, Ike got his first scholarship offer from Air Force the summer before his junior year. Northern Colorado, led by current Cowboys coach Jeff Linder at the time, quickly followed suit.
Attention started to increase amid a dominant junior campaign at Aurora Overland, with Arkansas, Washington State, Saint Louis, Pepperdine, Bucknell, Denver and Colorado State among the teams that showed interest. The following summer, he attended the Larry Hughes basketball camp, where he tested his talents against some of the nation's top big men.
According to his high school coach, Danny Fisher, "there were so many clips of Graham just absolutely dominating that camp. That's when his recruitment really started to ramp up, when the Pac-12 was coming around and his presence was really being established."
Despite not having any stars in 247sports' recruiting rankings, Ike's name was becoming more prevalent heading into his senior year — evidenced by Overland landing an invitation to compete in the platinum division of the famed Tarkanian Classic in Las Vegas.
Shortly into the season, though, he hit a significant setback.
Ike tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee and suffered partial tears of the lateral collateral and medial collateral ligaments. Suddenly, interest waned. CSU — Wyoming's Border War rival, located roughly 70 miles up the road from Ike's home — informed him they had signed a big man and would no longer be recruiting him.
Linder, who had been baffled at teams that overlooked Ike's talent and feel in favor of more athletic forwards, never backed off. He got the job at Wyoming in March 2020, and the rest is history.
"We had started recruiting him probably as early as anybody," Linder said. "I kept telling him how good he was going to be, kept telling his mom how good he was going to be, and that was at a time when he wasn't getting recruited by a lot of places. Going into the summer before his senior year, his recruitment started to pick up. He visited Washington State, Loyola Marymount, Bucknell and Saint Louis (unofficially), so it wasn't like he wasn't getting recruited. He wanted to bet on himself, so he was going to wait for the spring to sign.
"Then, in November, he tears his ACL, and that kind of changes everything. Then you really realize who really wants you. I was the one person who just continued to tell him you're going to be all right, and luckily he remembered that and appreciated that. When the opportunity came and I got here at Wyoming, the first phone call I made was to him to let him know that we have something here. Thankfully, he jumped onboard, and two years later, it's quite evident how good of a player he is."
Ike hasn't forgotten the faith his head coach showed at a time when few others did.
"(I saw) not the kind of coach he is, but the kind of person and man he is, and how much he really cares about us as human beings before players," Ike said. "His ability to stick with me and continue to believe in me is what ultimately has got me to this point.
"I think he knew where I would be, even after the injury, and that's why he stuck with me. I can't be more thankful and grateful for him, and I wouldn't be in this position without him."
Linder says this loyalty is a two-way street, something Ike displayed this offseason.
After showing flashes in limited action his freshman year, Ike exerted his dominance throughout his sophomore campaign. He shot 51% from the field, while averaging 19.5 points and 9.6 rebounds per game — figures only two other players in the country achieved. He had the nation's third-highest usage rate, as the Cowboys utilized an offense heavily centered on his post abilities. He even received Lute Olson National player of the week honors in February.
Given his versatility as a playmaker, scorer and rebounder, as well as the NCAA's new one-time transfer waiver, Ike's options would have been near limitless had he decided to enter the portal. A change of scenery, though, was never an option.
"Graham is a very, very loyal kid," Fisher said. "I've seen that firsthand with mine and his relationship, and, honestly, I think coach Linder's loyalty to Graham helped Graham develop an even stronger sense of loyalty. He got a true understanding that coach Linder believed in him through and through. That's why, after this last season he had, this breakout season at Wyoming, he never even talked to me about the transfer portal.
"Of course, we get calls and we get interest with people trying to check in and see what he's thinking. Graham and I never had a conversation around the transfer portal. That was due to his loyalty to coach Linder, but I think that loyalty was developed through the way coach Linder treated him throughout his injury."
Added Ike: "(It was) that faith he had in me, but also the faith he put in me and the trust he gave me with the team. With the ball in my hands and the guys around me, it's like, 'Why would I leave if I'm the highest usage guy in the country for most of the year?' That just doesn't make sense."
Finding his touch
Ike showcased his athletic abilities while overpowering opponents all last season, but these physical traits were far from apparent when he arrived at Overland as a freshman in 2016.
"The No. 1 thing I remember back then is he was out of shape, very unathletic, but just really, really skilled and had a high basketball IQ," Fisher said. "He just knew how to play basketball. We knew at that point he could be really good, but just didn't know how committed he was going to be to getting in shape, gaining some explosiveness and just working on it."
Unable to rely solely on athleticism, Ike was forced to find other ways to impact the game early in his high school career. The 6-foot-9, 252-pound forward credits this period of his development as one of the driving forces that allowed him to grow into the player he is today.
"Feel and instinct (are some) of the biggest parts of the game," Ike said. "That's the IQ part of the game. You can't think through everything. You want to try your best to, but if you can go off feel and instinct, it's way better.
"For me, if I can read that the double team is coming real quick and I have to spin, you have to know what moves you have at certain areas. That's what I understood."
His past two coaches agree with this assessment.
"Absolutely," Fisher concurred. "I remember when coach Linder first started recruiting Graham, the one thing he said that always stood out to me is, 'I see a lot of coaches recruiting guys that are seemingly more athletic than Graham, and I just can't understand how people don't understand how skilled he is, and how he has a natural knack to put the ball in the basket. His feel around the rim is uncanny.'
"I think that all was a result of Graham being more unathletic. He had to be more creative in his ability to finish, he had to understand how to use his body to shield defenders, and just how to get to his spots and be effective."
Added Linder: "The biggest thing with Graham is his feel for the game. You could just see that he saw the game quicker and clearer than most, especially for a post player. The fact that he was never the most athletic guy growing up, he couldn't rely on just going out and dunking on guys.
"He had to develop a skillset. He had to develop touch. Some guys' balls go in, and some guys' balls don't go in. The reason why he can go score 20 points and average 20 a game is that his ball goes in."
Coming back stronger
It didn't take long for Fisher to notice a change in Ike's body when he got to Overland, and, as a result, he placed him on the sophomore team as a freshman. A promising start to his high school career was delayed, however, when he broke his finger on a fall two games into the season.
This setback proved to be beneficial in the long run, as it was then that he truly began to focus on his pursuit of a dream to play college basketball. Ike spent countless hours on YouTube, analyzing a wide array of NBA post players and taking what he could from them. He watched "a lot of Shaquille O'Neal," while also modeling his game after the likes of Zach Randolph, Chris Bosh, a young Joel Embiid, Sam Perkins, Hakeem Olajuwon, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Russell.
Ike got a wake-up call from his mother around this time, as well.
"I was going into AAU, and I was at home, and my mother was like, 'If you don't really want to take this seriously, I'll just buy you a YMCA card, and you can go up there and fool around all you want,'" he said. "That's when it kind of clicked in my head that I don't want to be paying for college, and I just want to play the game that I love."
Three years later, Ike once again found himself sidelined with a season-ending injury. And once again, he came back stronger than he was before.
Fisher recalls how close Ike was with the team, despite dealing with a setback that threatened to derail a high-level basketball career. Once he was back on his feet, he was in the practice gym, cheering on and encouraging his teammates every day. Fisher points to Ike's mental fortitude as the thing he remembers most about his senior year — unlike the college coaches that counted him out, Ike never lost belief that he would play at the next level.
The experience also provided him with a new outlook on life.
"I learned who I was at that time, and what I stood for and what I wanted out of life," Ike said. "I understood that I can't take things for granted, and we only get one day, so cherish that. It really made me stay in the moment, and it showed me how to be present."
Unfinished business
Ike's success last season was bittersweet at moments for Fisher, who was proud to see his former player thrive, but also knew he had so much more in his arsenal.
"I wasn't surprised at all because of his work ethic, his ability to stick to it and his belief in himself," Fisher said. "For me, as a coach and someone that's close to Graham, in a sense, I was kind of critical of him because there's so much more that he has to offer. Seeing him continue to dominate over his right shoulder and literally be unstoppable, it was still frustrating for me because I've seen the time he's spent trying to play on the other side of the basket to his left shoulder, and him not apply a lot of that.
"There were times when I was just absolutely proud, then there were times when I was like, 'Come on Graham, show the rest of it.' Then there were times I was frustrated that he wasn't rebounding a lot better. I'm super proud of him, but I also realize this young man has so much more to offer."
Ike recognizes that he has room to improve, and has spent the off-season working to get better in a bevy of areas. Endurance has been first and foremost, he says, but he's also focused on his 3-point shooting, play-making, shot selection, perimeter defense and ability to play in space.
Linder recognizes traits in Ike that translate to the NBA. The next step, he says, is becoming even more dangerous by being able to stretch the defense.
"In terms of his development, and for him to be able to play at the highest level, we know he has to continue to develop his outside shot," Linder said. "With him being 6-foot-9, 6-foot-10, he's not overpowering Joel Embiid, (Nikola) Jokic and those guys in the NBA. (It will be pivotal) for him to have the ability to consistently make the three — he knows he's not going to be Drake Jeffries and shooting 10 threes a game, but if he can go out there and make one out of three and keep the defense honest.
"He's really good in a five-out open situation, where he's playing off the hand-off, fake hand-off. He's such a good passer, and he can do a lot of things that (mesh with) the way the NBA is playing at the post spot. We know he can go score on the block on anybody in the country, but can he make himself that much harder to guard by being able to stretch the defense out and make a couple threes?"
Ike makes it no secret that he is dead-set on playing at the next level someday. With the 2022-23 season approaching, however, only one goal is on his mind.
"(Winning a) Mountain West championship," he said. "That's it."
Josh Criswell covers the University of Wyoming for WyoSports. He can be reached at jcriswell@wyosports.net or 307-755-3325. Follow him on Twitter at @criswell_sports.
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