Pryce Sandfort Captures Iowa's Mr. Basketball

Hawkeye Recruit Wins '23 Award as State's Top Prep Player

Author:
Rob Howe
Publish date:
Mar 15, 2023 4:00 PM EDT

In this story:

There's been a brotherhood within Iowa Basketball in recent years. The Hawkeyes featured twins, Keegan and Kris Murray, and also siblings Connor and Patrick McCaffery, sons of head coach Fran McCaffery.

Next season, the Murrays and Connor will be gone. A new pair of brothers enter the picture. Waukee (IA) Northwest standout Pryce Sandfort will join Payton Sandfort, a junior-to-be, on the 2023-24 roster.

Big brother holds seniority over little bro. The younger Sandfort one-upped his sibling, however, when learning he'd been named Iowa's Mr. Basketball for '23, an honor that eluded Payton.

"I won't brag about it to Payton too much because he had his own amazing accomplishments in his high school career," Pryce said. "Both of us were really fortunate throughout our high school careers with the opportunities and accomplishments we had."

Pryce's prep career ended last Friday when he and his Waukee Northwest teammates fell to West Des Moines Valley in the Class 4A State Championship Game. He'd won a title at Waukee playing with Payton two years ago.

"I'm very proud of what our team accomplished," he said about his final campaign. "We had a group of really great guys and had lots of success. It's going to hurt for a very long time that we came up just short, but we have nothing to be ashamed of as a team."

Pryce Sandfort (6-7, 190) averaged 24.9 points, 11.0 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 2.7 blocks and 1.7 steals as a senior. Sandfort wrapped up his prep career with 1,695 points.

Pryce became the 15th future Hawkeye to capture Iowa's Mr. Basketball since the award began in '81. That list included Carlton Reed, who transferred to Northern Iowa, Jarrod Utoff, who began his college career at Wisconsin, and Brennan Cougill, who left Iowa for Green Bay.

"I actually was told in the media room after our game on Friday," Sandfort said of winning Mr. Basketball. "I was a little surprised that they already decided, but with what just happened in our game, it didn't really process to me for a couple days."

Valley topped Waukee Northwest, 75-67, in Des Moines with Sandfort scoring 19 points and grabbing a game-high nine rebounds. He earned all-tournament honors.

Pryce and his family drove to Birmingham, Ala. on Tuesday to watch Payton and the Hawkeyes take on Auburn in Thursday's NCAA Tournament. He planned on preparing for college basketball when he returned home.

"I'm going to get back to work as soon as I can. I'm going to be working on speed and strength along with everything overall within my game," he said.

Hawkeyes to Win Iowa's Mr. Basketball

Todd Berkenpas, '81 (Maple Valley)

Al Lorenzen, '84 (Kennedy)

Wade Lookingbill, '88 (Fort Dodge)

Jess Settles, '93 (Winfield-Mt. Union)

Dean Oliver, '97 (Mason City)

Glen Worley, '00 (Iowa City West)

Jeff Horner, '02 (Mason City)

Carlton Reed, '04 (Waterloo East)

Matt Gatens, '08 (Iowa City High)

Brennen Cougill, '09 (Heelan)

Jarrod Uthoff, '11 (Jefferson)