Sandfort adjusting to a new basketball experience

There’s a whole lot of new in the life of Pryce Sandfort these days.

The standout 2023 guard is switching high schools and he is also getting comfortable with a new AAU travel team as he heads into his junior year.

The 6-foot-6 guard, along with his brother, helped lead Waukee to a state basketball title in March and now older brother Payton is in Iowa City preparing for his first year with the Iowa program and Pryce is moving on to play at the new high school, Waukee Northwest.

“They made it so you couldn’t choose which school to go to, so we had a few guys from the team who are still at Waukee, but we have a couple who moved over too,” Sandfort said.

Sandfort also switch to play AAU basketball with the OSA program out of Omaha, so he is adjusting to new teammates there as well. Both teams require the talented guard to do different things on the court.

“At the high school level I am more the guy and when with my AAU team, there are more guys who can really score.”

Last week was the first time in more than a year that Sandfort and other prospects could play in front of college coaches that would be evaluating them on the court in-person.

“That was different because we haven’t been able to play in front of coaches for so long, but it was good. Most of the coaches and programs who reached out to me in early June were there,” he said.

The schools mentioned most by Sandfort were Iowa, Iowa State, UNI, Drake, South Dakota State, Clemson, and Butler.

The Hawkeyes are certainly catching Sandfort’s attention since he already has a relationship with the Iowa program via his brother, Payton.

“He (Payton) says he loves it at Iowa. He loves being around his teammates and the coaching staff.”

Once phone calls could begin from college coaches to prospects in the Class of 2023, Fran McCaffery was contacting Sandfort directly.

“I think it was sometime in the early afternoon and I saw the call from Iowa City and I was hoping it was Coach McCaffery and it was. He told me he had been looking forward to making the call and that they were going to continue to evaluate me as far as an offer.”

Sandfort said that this fall he has been invited to visit for a football game weekend at Iowa and Iowa State, but he has not set a date for either visit.