By Mike Hlas

IOWA CITY, Iowa – We look at results, but don’t always see or know barriers teams have faced.

For instance, the Iowa men’s basketball team went 17-16 last season, 7-13 in the Big Ten. Senior forward Payton Sandfort played part of the season with a broken wrist, and while delaying getting needed shoulder surgery. He still averaged 16.7 points per game, but couldn’t be the complete player he wanted to be.

Sandfort is the first to tell you his trials didn’t compare to those his former Iowa teammate, guard Josh Dix. Last week, Dix’s mother died after a 3-year struggle with colon cancer. She was 45.

The day she died, Dix’s Creighton team was in Washington, D.C., to play Georgetown. Creighton offered to fly Dix home, but he chose to stay and play that night. In Omaha Saturday, he scored 16 points in the Bluejays’ 69-68 win over Seton Hall. His mother’s funeral is in Council Bluffs this Friday.

“Toughest kid I’ve ever met,” Sandfort tweeted after the Georgetown game. It was similar praise to what Sandfort gave Dix in a postgame press conference last year at Iowa.

“I’m not sure I could have done that,” Creighton Coach Greg McDermott said. “I’m not sure many people could do it. But he’s a special young guy. That’s the thing people don’t understand sometimes, some of these challenges these guys are going through off the floor, and too often, they’re judged for whether the shots go in or don’t go in. He truly cares about this program, and I’m not sure I’ve ever had a player show it in the way that he did tonight.”

“I don’t know I ever respected somebody so much,” Bluejays forward Isaac Traudt said.

Monday, Sandfort spoke to me by phone from Oklahoma City, seven hours before his Oklahoma City Blue NBA G League team had a home game. He discussed Dix’s heartbreaking situation, his brother and Hawkeye teammate Pryce Sandfort’s fabulous season to date with Nebraska, and his down-and-now-up first pro season. First, about Dix:

Dix transferred from Iowa to Creighton last spring for his senior season. The overriding reason was to be near his mother. The Dix family is from Council Bluffs.

Dix is averaging 11.8 points this season after scoring 14.2 per game at Iowa last year. It’s been a disappointing season for Creighton thus far, but Dix has quietly persevered.

“I know it’s been going on for a long time,” Sandfort said. “It was stuff I’m sure he struggled with last year. I know it was going on. I know there was a lot of a lot of bad news that came during last year, and he never really let it like show. He showed up the same every single day, always brought a positive attitude and never let anybody else really know about his problems.

But you could kind of see there was something going on, and it was really heartbreaking. The first year he was here, I remember how healthy his mom was, how nice she was to talk to after games, and just how close they were. And then, you know, seeing her go through it, you could kind of see her get sick throughout last year, and she always kept a very positive attitude.

“It was just really hard for all of us to see him, him and her go through that, and jhey were such a good family. I know a big part of his decision (to leave Iowa) was going back closer to see her. I’m really happy he got to spend that time with her, but I know that it was really a hard thing for him to do.”

What kind of season was the last one for the Iowa men? Dix and Sandfort suffered broken wrists in the same game, against Washington State in Moline, Ill., in the season’s first month.

“Neither of us batted an eye,” Sandfort said. “But you know, what he dealt with mentally was obviously much tougher.”

Sandfort’s spirit lifted when the subject turned to brother Pryce, The junior wing has been more than everything Nebraska could possibly have wanted after he transferred there from Iowa after last season.

Pryce is averaging a team-high 17.1 points for the Huskers and has a Big Ten-high 80 three-pointers while shooting 40.6 percent from that distance. He scored 32 points at Illinois in December. He is averaging 20,6 points over his last seven games.

Nebraska, ranked seventh, will take a 21-2 record into its game against No. 13 Purdue Tuesday in Lincoln.

“It’s been really special,” Payton said. “I’m going to go see him play during the All-Star break.”

“My family was really close with Fred (Nebraska Coach Fred Hoiberg), which was huge in the decision, and I’ve got all sorts of family littered throughout Nebraska, especially in Lincoln. It’s been really cool for so much of our family to really be able to watch him play.

“He’s worked incredibly hard, both mentally and on his game, just to get to this point. And they’ve got a great, great group to watch, a lot of really likable guys.”

Pryce scored just three points in Nebraska’s season-opener against West Georgia, but Payton told his brother the truth as they watched game film of it together afterward.

“I was like ‘You’re doing a lot of really good stuff. You’re getting great looks. You’re going to have a great year.’ I told him ‘You just look so much more comfortable.’ And obviously he’s a lot more confident at this level now. And then, as he had some big games, gained some confidence, he just continues to explode.

“It’s been special to watch him. Even in that red.”

Pryce averaged 8.8 points for the Hawkeyes last year as a sixth-man. He scored 10 or more points in the season’s last four games, two of them at the Big Ten tournament. He’ll wear “that red” on Feb. 17 when Nebraska plays at Iowa in what could be a doozy of a matchup.

By the way, Payton said he also has enjoyed watching this season’s Hawkeyes play.

As for his own basketball career, things are going well for the first time in a while. After last season ended, Sandfort had surgery on one shoulder and then the other within a 6-week period.

Which meant no NBA Summer League after he signed as an undrafted free agent with the Oklahoma City Thunder.

He played the season’s first five games with the Thunder’s G League team, the Blue, but had to sit out for about two months because of an injury suffered in a game at Mexico City.

Sandfort is back and has been playing very well. He averaged 19.3 points and 7 rebounds over his last three games.

“I had been out from the Illinois game (at the Big Ten tourney in March) to November,” he said. “I was out of shape, obviously. And the pro game is so much faster. Then I ended up having to get a hernia surgery right away, and I still wasn’t in a rhythm or anything. So I was out for two more months, and then really just got back to playing about three weeks ago.

“I will say it’s a much-different game being healthy. I can be so much more physical. I’m a much-better defender, much-better rebounder. I can get myself open, you know, just in ways that I couldn’t last year. And, you know, I don’t think I quite realized the extent to which I was letting my injuries hinder me until I was healthy.”

Sandfort made 16 of 36 three-pointers in those last three games. He had six assists in his most-recent contest. A 6-foot-6 wing who can makes NBA threes, is a good passer and likes to rebound is someone NBA teams won’t quickly dismiss. If the world-champion Thunder like you enough to have you somewhere in their organization, that’s  a good sign.

“This organization in Oklahoma City is special,” Sandfort said. “It’s a special culture, a special place to develop. I’m just trying to learn as much as I can every single day and just continue to get better. And I’m around, obviously, great, great coaches, great people every day that are helping me out. So it’s been a great start to my pro career.

“The way that we play, there’s so much space on offense. I’ve really learned a lot defensively this year, and I’ve taken huge strides. It feels like a different game at first, but I’ve really enjoyed it.”

Getting a roster spot in the NBA obviously is his goal, but Sandfort said “I have a  short-term focus right now on just continuing to improve and get myself to be that NBA player some day in the future. And seeing those rewards in the future from the work I’m doing today.”