Illinois freshman D.J. Richardson had a quick question for Iowa’s freshman point guard.
“He texted to say, ‘What’s up?’ and remind me he was headed this way this week,” Payne said. “These are my guys. D.J., Brandon (Paul), Jeff (Jordan), they’re my buddies, guys I’ve gone against growing up.”
Richardson, Paul and Jordan join Payne at Carver-Hawkeye Arena today when the Hawkeyes and Illini renew their border rivalry at 7:30 p.m. It also is a chance for Payne to move beyond a shaky outing last weekend at Michigan.
Payne leads Big Ten freshmen in assists and minutes played, and while coach Todd Lickliter says he has seen more good than bad from the Schaumburg (Ill.) grad, his transition to the college game continues.
“We don’t have a lot of depth at the point, but Cully doesn’t get a free pass,” Lickliter said.
That was apparent in the first half of Saturday’s 60-46 loss to the Wolverines.
Iowa haad the basketball after cutting Michigan’s early edge to 24-13. Payne launched a quick 3-pointer, the Wolverines rebounded, and DeShawn Sims scored on a breakaway layin that prompted a Lickliter timeout.
The Iowa coach spent the majority of the timeout in the ear of Payne, trying to get him to understand the importance of a poor decision at a critical time.
“Instead of having a chance to cut the lead to single digits, we were back down by 13,” Lickliter said. “It wasn’t like things had been going our way to begin with.”
Payne understood his error in judgment and doesn’t disagree with Lickliter’s method for getting his message across.
“It was an iffy shot. It was something I needed to hear,” he said. “Coach Lickliter doesn’t get on guys like that much, but when he does you know he’s making a good point. I definitely need to keep learning.”
Growing up as the son of a longtime high school and junior college coach, Payne was pushed to succeed.
As a sixth- and seventh-grader, he frequently shared the court with players four of five years older in order to accelerate the development of his skills.
“I’m out there now against guys four years older than me, so from that standpoint this is nothing new,” Payne said. “The tests I’m receiving now are pushing me to improve, and that will be beneficial in the long run.’’
Those tests have toughened Payne, who said the earful of advice he received from Lickliter paled to compared to what he experienced while he was growing up.
He recalls being whacked on the head with a plastic clipboard by his father as he tried to pound home a point when Payne was in seventh grade.
“Mom didn’t like that very much, but that was nothing compared to the time when he ignored me for a couple of days,” Payne said.
“He told me that I wasn’t good enough to play on his team and he didn’t say another word for like two days. Now, that was tough. I didn’t like that at all — that was the worst — but it helped me become the player I am today. It helped give me the toughness I need to compete.”
By the numbers
Cully Payne’s statistics for the Iowa basketball team:
Points per game: 8.2
Rebounds per game: 3.0
Assists per game: 3.6
Turnovers per game: 3.2
Steals per game: 0.5
FG percentage: 36.5
3-point FG percentage: 31.8
FT percentage: 64.6
