Fran McCaffery claims opponents are getting away with 'mugging' Payton Sandfort

Iowa fell back to .500 in Big Ten play on Tuesday, dropping the first of two games in Los Angeles. USC was on the winning end this go-round, taking down the Hawkeyes 99-89. Head coach Fran McCaffery was not too happy postgame, specifically when discussing Payton Sandfort.

McCaffery claims teams are “mugging” Sandfort, making it difficult to run things through the senior guard. But to this point, officials have done nothing about it. To Sandfort’s credit, emotions have not boiled over on the court but McCaffery felt strongly enough to make comments after the USC loss.

“It’s hard for him,” McCaffery said. “Because he’s getting mugged. You try to screen for him, he’s getting held. But to his credit, he keeps moving and he keeps screening and he figures out a way. We’ll keep coming to him. We ran some stuff for him, we want to run stuff for him. But teams are really, really mugging him. I’m proud of the fact that he’s maintaining his composure because it’s easy not to.”

Even through the frustrations, Sandfort put up good numbers against USC. He finished with 20 points, shooting six of 11 from the field and four of nine from three. Three rebounds and four assists were not too bad either. Although, there was some foul trouble to deal with, picking up four.

Sandfort is tied as Iowa’s leading scorer on the year, averaging 17.1 points per game. Assists is an area where he leads the team, dishing out 3.4 a night.

Leaving in favor of the NBA Draft was certainly an option this past offseason for Payton Sandfort. The process took some time but he eventually decided to stay with Iowa. Now, McCaffrey is hoping opposing defenders will stop “mugging” him and the Hawkeyes are able to run some more offense through him.

The second leg of a West Coast trip will take place Friday, taking on UCLA. Iowa needs a win to stay the course of potentially getting an at-large bid in the NCAA Tournament. Before the USC loss, ESPN’s Joe Lunardi’s latest Bracketology had the Hawkeyes as one of the final four teams in. Not the place they want to be in mid-January but there is still time.

McCaffrey will certainly be looking for some more freedom for Sandfort.