What you grow up dreaming about: Payton & Pryce Sandfort reunited as Hawkeyes
It’s no secret that Iowa men’s basketball is a family business. Well, maybe not just men’s basketball — did you know Lisa Bluder’s daughter Hannah is the director of basketball operations for the women’s team?
Nepotism jokes aside, family runs deep in Iowa sports — particularly with men’s basketball. The McCaffery brothers of Connor and Patrick played alongside each other for three seasons — for their father. Keegan and Kris Murray came into the Iowa basketball program together, and played two seasons together, and as of last month both are in the NBA.
And now it’s time for the Sandforts, Payton and Pryce, to join the Iowa family business. Payton broke through as an impact player last season for the Hawkeyes, shooting 34% from three-point range and impacting winning in clutch situations.
His younger brother, Pryce, was impacting Waukee Northwest as the best player in the state of Iowa. The 2022-23 Mr. Basketball winner averaged 24.9 points per game, 11 rebounds and shot 53.6% from the field in his senior season. He reached the state tournament all four years, and won a championship with his brother in 2020-21.
The two sharpshooters have only been practicing against each other for a few weeks, but it’s safe to say there’s no love lost.
“It’s pretty bad,” Payton admitted. “A lot of hard fouls and physicality. We’ll call it that.”
“I feel like I have an edge every day to show him what this league is and how different I am from high school and he has the same mentality.”
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Pryce is still the new man on campus, and — as his older brother said — he has something to prove as well.
“Usually there won’t be much trash talk because it’ll probably end in a fight.” Sandfort said.
But as far as who outplays the other at practice, there’s two sides to that story.
“One of the practices I think I hit two or three threes right in his face and said, ‘Welcome to the Big Ten,” Payton recalled.
“I don’t remember that,” Pryce rebutted. “But I do remember hitting like five in a row on him.”
While the Sandfort brothers aren’t taking it easy on each other, they seem to be happy they’re back together on the same team. Pryce committed to the Hawkeyes last August, and while he enjoys the free rides from his brother, he wants to have the same success his brother had in his first two seasons.
“Seeing him succeed like that last year and his freshman year, it shows me a path that I can have here,” Sandfort said.
And yes, while Payton is enjoying ‘welcoming his brother’ to the Big Ten, he’s also happy to have his younger sibling back in the fold.
“It’s been awesome,” Payton said. “It’s what you grow up dreaming about and seeing him walk into practice has been a little weird but I’m getting used to it. It’s been great, the chemistry went back to how it was in high school so it’s been really fun.”
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