Height just a fact for Miami star Lykes
Even at 5-foot-7, guard stands tall
For years, as his basketball profile rose and thousands of people across the country began seeing him play, Chris Lykes has heard the question in any number of forms. At this point, he expects it.
How do you do what you do?
It’s a loaded query.
At 5- foot- 7, the Miami guard exists as an anomaly, a short player who has excelled at every level of a sport seemingly designed so that people like him don’t excel, at least not to the extent he has. But even on a court with players who tower over him, Lykes has stood tall.
A handful of games into his final season with the Hurricanes — should he not use the extra season of eligibility the NCAA has granted winter- sport athletes in wake of the COVID-19 pandemic — Lykes remains one of the most exciting, captivating players in the country. Last season, he finished among the top 10 scorers in the ACC at 15.4 points per game and he was ninth in the conference in field goal percentage. The shortest player to finish ahead of him in the latter category was 6foot-5, a full nine inches taller than Lykes.
Lykes won’t be playing Wednesday against Pitt, bothered by a left ankle injury he suffered earlier in the month. It’s undoubtedly a hit for Miami, which lost to Florida Gulf Coast over the weekend without its star guard. Beyond that, though,
it deprives Pitt fans of what is very likely the last chance they’ll get to see their team face off against one of the more enthralling ACC players of the past several years.
“I’ve always been on the shorter side in terms of when we’re playing basketball,” Lykes said. “I’ve always had to figure out ways to do what I wanted to on the court. I feel like I’m a really determined person. That’s kind of what guided me into how I play today. My game hasn’t really changed. I’ve just adapted to each level.”
Lykes’ achievements can be appreciated beyond his height.
An ACC all-conference honorable mention inclusion last season, Lykes has a captivating set of skills. His handle is remarkable. His speed and quickness are as good as anyone’s in the country. He’s a three-level scorer, someone who can catch-andshoot, shoot effectively off the dribble and from deep, which is to say nothing of his abilities once he gets to the free throw line, where he shot 81.4% last season. If he scores 493 points this season, which isn’t a guarantee with an abbreviated schedule in perpetual danger of being interrupted, he’ll finish among the top five scorers in program history.
“When he’s right and healthy and he’s going, there is not a better guard in college basketball,” Pitt coach Jeff Capel said.
Lykes’ relatively small stature, however, is inseparable from his excellence. It’s at the root of his legend, the thing that makes it so difficult, if not outright impossible, to keep one’s eyes off him when he’s on the court. He shoots strong percentages from the field even as virtually any player that marks him is at least a few inches taller. That same disparity exists on the other end of the floor, where he is disruptive defensively and fouls at a low rate. Oh, and he can dunk, too.
It’s not just that Lykes puts up the numbers he does; it’s that he does so at what would, for many, be an insurmountable disadvantage.
“If he were 6-5 or 6-6, he’d be Michael Jordan,” Miami coach Jim Larranaga said in December 2017, early in Lykes’ freshman season.
What Lykes has been able to do, while rare, isn’t unprecedented. Even in his own league, there have been figures like 5-foot-3 Muggsy Bogues at Wake Forest and 5-foot-6 Spud Webb at N.C. State.
In his time with the Hurricanes, he has added to those stories, showing a new generation of college basketball fans what can be accomplished with the right combination of skills and physical gifts, regardless of height.
“It’s definitely a big part of the reason why I play, just to inspire others to pursue their goals no matter what limitations people try to put on you,” Lykes said. “But that’s only a part of it. As I’ve gotten older, it’s more that I just want to be the best player I can. That comes from believing in myself. If I put those two together — being motivated to prove others wrong and believing in myself — that’s a great combination for me to move forward.”
His story isn’t quite that of a traditional underdog. He arrived at Miami as a fourstar recruit, ranked among the top 100 players nationally in his class. At Gonzaga College High School in Washington, D.C., where he’s the program’s career scoring leader, he was a twotime Washington Catholic Athletic Conference (WCAC) player of the year and was the Washington Post All-Met player of the year as a senior in 2017.
For all the accolades he collected, there was still a feeling that he was discounted, that, as his college coach said, he would be viewed more as a potential NBA superstar than an endearing oddity if he were a more traditional size. It has, in some ways, made him more determined, a character trait Lykes said borders on stubbornness.
Those qualities have shaped him as a player, allowing him to lean heavily on his strengths to maximize his on-court effectiveness. His size has its perks, too, allowing him to get lost in the coordinated chaos of games and get low when pestering a player he’s defending. It has worked for him throughout his career, giving him a remarkable level of consistency. Whatever level he’s playing at, and no matter who he’s playing against, he’s the guy constantly capable of scoring 20 on any given night.
“To me, he’s the same player,” said Pitt guard Xavier Johnson, who played against Lykes for two seasons in high school. “He’s always been the same player. He’s always been him.”
Johnson estimated that he and Lykes have played against each other about 20 times, the most memorable of them being a 2017 meeting when the two baby-faced high-schoolers combined for 57 points — Johnson had 32, Lykes 25 — while matching up against one another in Gonzaga’s win over Johnson’s Bishop O’Connell team.
With Lykes a senior this season, Wednesday’s game between the Hurricanes and Panthers could very easily have been the last matchup between the two speedy guards. It’s a moment that fate in the form of an ailing ankle prevented, but, as Johnson sees it, there are more that await them.
“Honestly, it feels real, but I feel like it was supposed to happen,” Johnson said of the upcoming matchup, before Lykes was ruled out. “We both work hard. We both beat the odds. I’ll see him at the next level when he’s there.”
Given the odds Lykes has overcome to get to this point, it’s hard to bet against him. Questions inevitably persist for a 5-foot-7 player hoping to make it in professional basketball, especially in the NBA, where anyone below 6foot-1 is considered diminutive.
If Lykes is used to anything, though, it’s questions about his height.
“It’s expected,” he said. “A lot of people have questions. Sometimes, I don’t really have the answer other than it’s just what God blessed me with.”