The Payton Brown Senior Season Scoring Tour will be making four stops in Northwest Arkansas the next couple of weeks.
Brown (6-3, 180) and Waldron (13-3, 2-0) will play at Lincoln (3-10, 0-3) this Friday, at Greenland (7-6, 1-2) on Tuesday, Jan. 21, at West Fork (5-9, 0-3) on Friday, Jan. 24, and at Elkins (15-1, 3-0) on Tuesday, Feb. 11, in Class 3A Region I West conference play.
Brown recently broke his dad Jason's school single-game scoring mark with 60 points and is one of the state's most prolific point-getters with 2,352 in 75 career high school games or an average of 31.3 points per game.
He is coming off a 42-point effort Tuesday night in which he knocked down eight 3-pointers in a 76-47 win over Cossotot River, a school located in Cove.
That came on the same day that he de-committed from UCA after news that Bears head coach Russ Pennell, who was on a leave of absence, would not return.
Brown noted Wednesday via text that he is now receiving interest from Vanderbilt, TCU, Tulsa, Indiana State, Troy, Tennessee Tech and Pittsburg State, but has not had any contact with the new Arkansas staff.
You can find several people who think he has ability to play at the highest level and plenty of others who see him as more of a mid-major talent.
All I know for sure is it doesn't seem if there are as many sharpshooters as there used to be and that he is one heck of a high school player.
Brown has spent the last two springs and summers playing for the Arkansas Wood AAU squad alongside future Razorbacks Davonte Davis (6-4, 175) and Jaylin Williams (6-10, 235), as well as Auburn signee Chris Moore of West Memphis (6-6, 220).
His 60-point outburst earlier this season included netting six 3-pointers, tossing in 11 2-pointers and downing 20-of-26 free throws in an 84-64 win over Mansfield.
It broke his dad's mark of 56 that stood for the past 27 years and something that he had been pushing toward.
The younger Brown, quick to praise his teammates for his success, has shot over 52 percent from the field, 37 percent from the 3-point line and 87 percent from the line during his high school career.
But his talent is not limited to just bombing away from the outside as evidenced by the fact that he has made over 600 free throws while knocking down 229 3-pointers.
Waldron, 48-27 over the last three seasons, was 11-14 when Brown was a sophomore, 23-10 last season and has a chance to break that mark this season.
He's gone over 50 on many nights, all with the support of his teammates, many of whom he has been playing alongside since the eighth grade.
So do yourself a favor and take the opportunity to see Brown before he becomes a collegian. I will be there.
Sports on 01/09/2020