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Colorado State guard Isaiah Stevens surpasses Pat Durham as all-time leading scorer at CSU

Damon Cook, Sports Editor

December 22, 2023

Collegian | Avery Coates

Isaiah Stevens (4) walks onto the Colorado State University basketball court before the game Nov. 10. Stevens ended the game with 14 assists, breaking the school in game assist record for the fourth time and the Mountain West Conference career assist record.

Coming into the season, it was only a matter of time.

Isaiah Stevens entered into his final season at Colorado State just 206 point shy of Pat Durham’s record of 1980 points. After Averaging 17.5 points per game it was apparent that he would break that record against LMU on Dec. 22.

Needing 14 points to break the 1980 point threshold, Stevens scored his 1981st point in the green and gold at the line with a free throw. The Rams would go on to win the game 76-67.

A career that no doubt lands Stevens as one of the best to ever play in Moby Arena.

While he still has the entire non-conference slate to solidify himself atop the record books, it’s never a bad time to take a look back at the legendary career of Stevens.

Coming out of Allen, Texas, Stevens came to CSU after winning the 6A state title and was a 247sports three-star recruit. Just a star rating as undoubtedly plenty of power-five programs would love to have the guard playing for them.

Stevens also holds the record for most assists by a CSU player in program history. He has also been a part of some other incredible milestones for the program including: making it to the NCAA tournament in 2021, being a key driver in coach Niko Medved surpassing 100 career wins and many, many more.

Stevens declared for the 2023 NBA draft while retaining his eligibility and was even invited to take part in the G-League combine, before eventually forgoing the draft and coming back to CSU for his final year of eligibility.

That decision has so far paid off as he was chosen to be the Mountain West pre-season Player of the Year and could very well be a finalist again for the Bob Cousy point guard of the year award.

Stevens has the Rams ranked No. 16/17 and was apart of the squad that got ranked as high as No. 13 earlier in the season, the highest the program has ever been ranked.

With Stevens phenomenal play this season, they look primed to make yet another NCAA tournament come March 2024.

Reach Damon Cook at sports@collegian.com or on Twitter @dwcook2001.

About the Contributor

Damon Cook, Sports Editor

Damon Cook is returning as one of the sports editors for fall 2024 at the The Collegian. He's been at the paper since August 2022. After starting as a construction management major at Colorado State University, Cook quickly found out he didn't have a passion for it. After taking a year off, he realized he could work in sports — something he has always been passionate about. So with newfound aspirations, he switched his major to journalism and media communication to chase those dreams. After a year of working as a beat writer covering volleyball and women's basketball, Cook took over as sports editor in summer 2023. Since then, he has become established in reporting on football and men's basketball and looks forward to providing that coverage this upcoming season. Cook will begin his third semester as the sports editor before graduating in December, having borne witness to some of CSU's historic feats. His passion for bringing readers the best coverage has only grown. Having started in the wake of a complete overhaul of The Collegian sports desk, Cook has watched the desk grow considerably, thanks to the efforts of so many amazing people he gets the pleasure of working alongside. Having learned so many things from so many people, including to never wear a tie, Cook looks forward to helping The Collegian sports desk reach heights never imagined before. With a much greater understanding of the power of words, one of Cook's inspirational quotes for this upcoming year has been from Eric Cartman in South Park: "Respect my authoritah."

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