Iceland import can fill stat sheet

One summer day in the early part of this decade a team of teen-aged girls from Iceland showed up at coach Jeff Mittie's basketball camp at Texas Christian University.

"All the kids in the camp were really excited,'' Mittie said Friday. "They had no idea where Iceland was but that was the buzz of the camp.''

Today at 2:30 p.m., one of those campers, now a 6-foot-1 junior at TCU, will lead the Lady Frogs (22-8) into an NCAA tournament game at Thompson-Boling Arena against Dayton (24-7).

How did a nice girl from Hanarfjordur, Iceland (pop. 26,000) end up being the Mountain West Conference player of the year in 2009-10 - and TCU's first player to record 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 300 assists?

"It's actually a long story,'' blue-eyed, blond-haired Helena Sverrisdottir said in flawless English.

The condensed version is that Sverrisdottir and her 13-year-old club teammates wanted to test their game in America. They searched the Internet - warm climate preferred - for a summer camp and came up with TCU in Fort Worth.

Sverrisdottir felt at home and never really considered any other school when she became recruitable.

"I was looking for something different from Iceland,'' she said. "I loved everything from day one.

"I never feel lonely here, even though my family is 15 hours away.''

Mittie, who has been at TCU 11 years, never doubted Sverrisdottir could play Division I basketball. He just wasn't sure where.

"At the camp you could see Helena separate herself from her age group,'' he said. "Then when she was 16 I watched her (with Iceland's national team) in Italy.

"What I couldn't tell was would she play point, forward or the trendy "point forward?" I just knew she had really good skills.''

This season she averaged 13.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 5.2 assists.

"She's the (MWC) player of the year for a reason,'' Mittie said. "There's still a lot of growth in her game but she's got great vision.

"When she's playing good, her stat sheet is filled up across the board.''

Iceland hardly ranks as a recruiting hotbed, but the sport has a following. (It ranks up there behind handball in popularity, Sverrisdottir said).

Haukur Palsson recently committed to Maryland, but he plays prep ball in Florida. Sverrisdottir was imported straight from Viking country to Texas.

Iceland isn't as big a cultural adjustment as one might think. Sverrisdottir's hometown has a Taco Bell and KFC and the nearby capital Reykjavik has plenty of American brands.

"We call ourselves Europeans,'' she said, "but we're kind of like a tiny America. That's what we want to be.

"We get all the movies and TV shows.''

But not all the ESPN. Sverrisdottir's family typically watches TCU's televised games by streaming the Internet feed into the TV.

"I have a lot of family and followers who are excited about what's going on down here.

"Even though they're far away I feel like they're watching me.''

First Timers: Unlike No. 9 seed TCU, Dayton is making its NCAA tournament debut.

The No. 8-seed Flyers had to sweat out an at-large bid after losing to Temple in the Atlantic 10 tournament semifinals.

"Everyone told me I was in,'' said coach Jim Jabir, "but you don't believe that until you see your name up there.

"I was nervous, more for the players. I wanted them to be rewarded and it worked out.''

TCU has made eight previous appearances, including 2009 when it got blown out 90-55 by South Dakota State.

"Experience is a great teacher,'' Jabir said. "I would rather be the experienced team, even if I got my butt beat. You come back and you've got that experience behind you.

"Hopefully, the learning curve will be very short with us.''

© 2010, Knoxville News Sentinel Co.
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