Cully Payne won’t play his first basketball game for Iowa until November, but credit the Hawkeye freshman with his first assist.
Payne helped Iowa add a talented shooting guard to its 2010 recruiting class.
Ben Brust, a sharp-shooting 6-foot-2 prep from Mundelein, Ill., made a verbal commitment Wednesday to sign with the Hawkeyes in November, the earliest date 2010 high school seniors can sign a binding NCAA letter of intent.
He averaged 28 points per game at Mundelein last season before a broken right ankle ended his junior season in January.
Brust has been acquainted for several years with Payne, who starred at Schaumburg. The pair played for the same AAU program and Payne lobbied for Brust to join him at Iowa.
“I think he’d be a great fit for the system here and for the team,” Payne said following a recent Prime Time League game. “I’d like to see him in an Iowa uniform and I’m letting him know that.”
Brust reached a decision to do just that one day after returning home from a two-day unofficial visit to Iowa City, where Brust took a closer look at the campus and attended Monday’s summer league games.
“I liked everything about it, from the campus to the academics to the chance to play in the Big Ten,” Brust said. “I needed to make sure everything felt right, and that’s why I went back out earlier this week. I feel like I’ve made the right decision.”
Brust selected Iowa over offers from Butler, Northwestern and Stanford ,with the final choice coming down to the Hawkeyes and the Butler program formerly headed by Iowa coach Todd Lickliter.
“I can see myself in that system helping the team and making a difference. It was a tough decision, but I feel I’ve made the right one,” Brust said.
Brust is the second high school player to become a member of Iowa’s 2010 recruiting class.
Cody Larson, a 6-9, 225-pound forward from Roosevelt High School in Sioux Falls, S.D., committed to the Hawkeye program last fall.
