College Basketball: Is there a new recruiting hotbed in Iceland?

Could Iceland become the next country to take the college basketball recruiting world by storm?

In the ever-changing college basketball landscape, where winning is everything. Coaches will do whatever it takes to find a winning combination. That may include building a team full of Junior College transfers or finding a niche in the way they play to best maximize their talent. One thing is for sure — every coach will travel far and wide to find the next college basketball star and the next “hidden gem” on the basketball floor.

Lately, though some of these players have been coming from some unlikely places.

All fans know about the college basketball players who come from Australia and those players of Nigerian descent. Australian players are common these days, as the sport has taken off in that country, especially with players like Andrew Bogut and Matthew Dellevadova in the NBA. The surprising country

The surprising country where some unknown and talented players are coming from is Iceland.  Iceland is an untapped hotbed of NCAA basketball talent.

Since 2014, 17 Icelandic players have been signed to play college basketball. For the first time ever, Nebraska, a power 6 school, signed an Icelandic player.  The rest of the Icelandic Division 1 players have played for small mid-majors. Marist and Davidson are the other current Division 1 schools with Icelandic players on their roster. If these players can show coaches on American soil that they can play and adjust to the American game, then Iceland could be the next potential go-to country when looking for players to fill a roster.

Everyone should learn the name Thorir Thorbjarnarson. Thor, as he is popularly known, is a freshman guard for the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Coach Tim Miles has proven in his tenure that he will travel everywhere to find guys that he believes can play his brand of basketball. Coach Miles’ first commitment to Nebraska ever was a foreign player from New Zealand named Tai Webster, and Miles currently has an Australian born player in three-point specialist Jack McVeigh.

Thor is a lot like many other players of the foreign origin, he is a raw talented kid who needs some fine tuning and needs to learn how to play the American game. The basketball in Iceland is more of an old school dribble drive and pick and roll type game. They focus on the fundamentals. Thor is a player who is good with the ball in his hands and is a good finisher at the rim. He is not a great shooter, but playing against the Icelandic competition he didn’t have to be.

If Thor can adjust to the American game, he could be a very talented player. The one concerning aspect is that the level of basketball in Iceland is so far below the talent level in the US. At least the talent level in the Australian leagues is somewhat comparable. Thor could struggle against the kids from the power 6 conferences. Those players are usually the best of the best and the talent level is much greater than that of the mid-major teams not named Middle Tennessee or Wichita State.

If this works out for Coach Miles and Thor shows that he can play quality minutes against superior competition then a whole new avenue of basketball recruiting could be opened up. There are many more kids shooting and playing in Iceland, and surely there are more talented kids in Iceland than Thor.

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Icelandic athletes are something to be aware of for college basketball coaches when it comes to recruiting. Hopefully, this works out because an international talent pool that expands to numerous different countries is only going to help grow the game and create new fanbases. Iceland could soon be known as more than just a set location for Game of Thrones — a hotbed of college basketball recruting talent.