Bridge Too Far From Norway to Wake
And I already had his nickname ready for when he arrived, Torgrim Sommerfeldt, the Norse Force.
But then again I always suspected that Coach Dino Gaudio took a bit of a flyer on a player from a long plane flight away when they got a verbal commitment from Sommerfeldt, a 6-6 guard from Bekkestua, Norway. Gaudio, like all college coaches, is not allowed by NCAA rules to talk about a player until he signs a Letter of Intent, but what I had heard about Sommerfeldt was he was a deadly outside shooter.
He caught the eye of college recruiters while playing last summer in the same Nike Summit Tournament in Portland that featured Al-Farouq Aminu, a freshman forward last season for the Deacons. And what little solid evidence I had of his shooting ability was the two 3-pointers he made in Portland on three attempts. But I had also read that he needed to improve his ball-handling and ability to finish at the rim, that he wasn’t an NBA prospect and that his career in Europe had been marred by bad knees.
So when Sommerfeldt sustained another knee injury serious enough to require surgery, he and Gaudio apparently reached a mutual decision that he won’t be signing with the Deacons’ after all. That might explain why the Deacons suddenly signed Konner Tucker of Lon Morris Junior College in Texas, who had earlier committed to Kentucky but opened his recruitment back up when John Calipari replaced Billy Gillispie as the Wildcats’ head coach.
Tucker, I’ve heard, is a smart tough player who, Sommerfeldt, can nail the open jumper. He may turn out to be just the player the Deacons need to remain in contention next season in the ACC. But he’s from Texas, and I’ve covered players from Texas. I’ve never covered one from Norway, nor am I about to this season.
Bummer.