This is not a late offer. Fran usually has a great eye for talent, and he often offers undervalued kids before they start getting noticed by others. This is a really weird year for recruiting.
Payton Sandfort
- Thread starter slipHawk
- Start date
yes. He close to 6-8 with a high release and great step back.
Patrick Ingram nor Brady Ellingson were BT players and I don't believe either were late offers, I know Ingram was not as I watched him against Gary Harris in HS after he was committed.
It is like business hiring, sometimes you just miss the call and get the guy who interviewed great but cannot deliver. Happens to everyone in management or recruiting. Just cannot let it happen very often or you will be on the street.
While I never saw Ingram, Ellingson, or Hutton for that matter play in HS, I can tell you that Sandfort is a different kind of kid. He has a quiet confidence to him, but shows emotion on the court. Works his tail off in everything he does... and reminds me a lot of Nick Baer as far as upside goes. Payton just has more skills coming out of high school.
Regarding the step-back shot, Payton can take that and shove it imo. I guess there will be some times in college when it is an appropriate shot, but I sure hope he doesn't overuse it.
I about puked when I saw him shooting and missing that side step James Harden 3pter in his state championship game that he lost. Then every time he would just drive it to the basket the sea would part and he would score like a man against boy's. Really made me question if Payton gets it or not. Anyway I'm probably overreacting and should be directing my disappointment at his coaching. Other than an end of quarter situation, in the high school game that has no shot clock there is NEVER a time a would let a player shoot a step back or side step 3
I about puked when I saw him shooting and missing that side step James Harden 3pter in his state championship game that he lost. Then every time he would just drive it to the basket the sea would part and he would score like a man against boy's. Really made me question if Payton gets it or not. Anyway I'm probably overreacting and should be directing my disappointment at his coaching. Other than an end of quarter situation, in the high school game that has no shot clock there is NEVER a time a would let a player shoot a step back or side step 3
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How can you possibly know that when you didn't see them? And Ellingson played big school ball, I believe it was big schools, in Milwaukee.
I hope the kid is good enough to play here and does great but you have no idea if he will or will not.
1) People are allowed to have opinions just as you have yours.
2) By different kind of kid - I am saying that he is different than your average d1 athlete
3) I have the knowledge to speak confidently about this kid.
Fran has had his share of whiffs ..especially in his first ~6 years.... Ingram, Ogelsby, Meier, Hutton, Ellingson, Flemming, Wagner, Uhl..
Fran gets a lot of credit for All B1G Aaron White, but he also got lucky in that Aaron grew from 6'6 PF to 6'9 PF after the offer. His other All Big10 players like Marble and Gatens were already in the fold when Fran arrived.
Fran has been on more of a role the past few years. Cook, Garza, Jbo, Fredrick, JoeW, JoeT….those are all high level talent guys.
This latest class is risky but a lot of upside. I was really pleased with JoeT signing and he looked the part when he got on campus. This latest class is following that theme and a lot more athletic than past classes.
Meier, Ellingson and Uhl played major minutes on major teams. Uhl lost his confidence and was never the same. Meier left for whatever reason and ended up playing on a very good Houston team. Ellingson was a very good contributor on Drake's team. Some guys develop early and some late but I agree that Fran has missed his share.
I don’t remember Meyer ever actually playing. At least not in any actual games right?
Edit: I looked and Meyer played 51 minutes total in his one season and they were all garbage minutes. 4 minutes total in the final minute of 4 B1G games. Ellingson and Uhl played a lot of minutes though
This is not surprising. If you spend time with the kid at all, you will believe in him. Regardless, he is going to be a really good pickup for somebody.
I'm hearing Virginia is getting involved. Could you ask his uncle about that?
Did not see any HS video of Uhl or Meyer but Ellingson's HS video was impressive. Ellingson rarely looked confident at Iowa. Some of these guys were huge misses and they clustered into consecutive bad classes.
Meyer transferred down and played only two more seasons. Hutton and Ingram transferred way down and still only played two seasons. Fleming ended up in some place called Libscomb.
Uhl seemed almost entirely disinterested most of the time on the bench and in games. He was a net negative most of the time.
But every class in the last four seasons has featured one or more 4* recruits and a should have been 4* in CJ. F Mac's recruiting has, on the whole, been very good for a guy who inherited a terrible program with nothing to offer but a chance to play in the Big Ten.
Meyer transferred down and played only two more seasons. Hutton and Ingram transferred way down and still only played two seasons. Fleming ended up in some place called Libscomb.
Uhl seemed almost entirely disinterested most of the time on the bench and in games. He was a net negative most of the time.
But every class in the last four seasons has featured one or more 4* recruits and a should have been 4* in CJ. F Mac's recruiting has, on the whole, been very good for a guy who inherited a terrible program with nothing to offer but a chance to play in the Big Ten.
BirdistheWord
HB Legend
Most of the whiffs are from out of state. We still have to try and bring in talent from anywhere, cannot only rely on state of Iowa.
With that said, you cannot mention some of the positives without calling out 1st Team All B1G players Peter Jok and Jarrod Uthoff, with Jok leading the conference in scoring as well. This has been covered ad nauseum, but Fran's inability to more consistently recruit athletic guards was his Achilles.Heading into this year, I think we have some serious guard talent. Hallelujah.
Payton is a great student. I imagine that an offer from one of the best schools in the country would be attractive.
Texted him earlier today. Payton’s uncle stated a few things that I found interesting. The Butler interest stems from a camp he attended there before his sophomore year. The Virginia interest is a little surprising.
With covid and the dead period, its going to be difficult for any other program to gain ground on Iowa and Utah. Blair could probably speak to this more as I am not the expert on contact periods in recruiting. I do know that Iowa and Utah, according to what I was told, are the top two still and due to timing and the situation with not being able to take visits, solidly plant IA and Utah as club house leaders for his services.
I also found it interesting that Andrew Brommer was giving props to Fran and the program. I guess Payton’s dad works with Payton’s dad. Andrew wanted to express how much he liked Fran and how much he loved and valued his experience and lived his time while playing in the Iowa program.
Unless there was a very recent job change Andrew doesn’t work with Payton’s dad (which I assume is what you meant)
that said, I played golf with Andrew last year and he raved about Fran, and said the feeling was consistent about everyone that’s played for him.
hoiberg offered Schetter which is interesting because Payton’s dad is a husker fan- I would think that Sandfort would look hard at Nebraska
Ha, maybe I didn’t type it correctly but Brommer’s Dad works with Payton’s Dad is what I meant to say if it didn’t come through clearly... sorry about that.
Playing for Virginia is pretty rewarding as far as program success, but you have to be prepared to play that style of ball, and that's not appealing to every player.
A 6’8” kid growing into his body is far from a finished product. Most big men are projects with need to hit the weight room hard and it will take a while for the athleticism to catch up. I’m going with Fran’s judgement on this one. I grew 6” the summer of my freshman year in high school and my quickness and coordination took a step back.
