Montverde BB player Haukur Palsson of Iceland is one cool customer on the court

[Mama_Bull]

He's one of the Montverde BB players who visited USF during the FB game when Austin gave his verbal. He now has an offer from USF. Hopefully, we can land him and some of his other teammates:

Montverde basketball player Haukur Palsson of Iceland is one cool customer on the court

By Joe Williams ORLANDO SENTINEL

December 15, 2009

Montverde senior basketball player Haukur Palsson is from Iceland and averaging 11.5 points per game for the Eagles. (Stephen M. Dowell/Orlando Sentinel)

MONTVERDE – Let's clear up these falsehoods about Haukur Palsson's home country of Iceland right away: He doesn't live in an igloo, never has seen a reindeer and does have electricity in his home.

"You wouldn't believe what I have been asked since I have been here," said Palsson (6-6/215), a senior guard/small forward on Montverde's nationally ranked boys basketball team.

One other fallacy Palsson is disproving: There are no good basketball players from Iceland. He already has been offered a basketball grant to USF and is being recruited by Vanderbilt, Virginia Commonwealth, Notre Dame, Harvard and UCF.

He ranks eighth on the Sentinel's list of Central Florida's Top 25 senior players.

"He has a very high basketball IQ," Montverde coach Kevin Sutton said. "He is a complete player. His ability to shoot is outstanding. He has the ability to play all around the perimeter as well as playing inside."

Palsson's interest in basketball began as an 11-year-old in Reykjavik, Iceland's capital. Though the country's national sports are soccer and handball – a sport his father, a former police officer-turned plumber, once played – it was basketball that interested Haukur and his two older brothers.

His brothers first came to the United States as foreign-exchange students, played basketball (one at North Laurel, Ky., the other at Miami Palmer Trinity) and now play for Fjolnir, a club team in Iceland's top league, the Express League.

"When I was 11, I knew I wanted to try high school basketball," Palsson said. "Coaches [in Iceland] told me that I needed a change. I needed a higher level of competition. That is why I came here. I think it was the right move. . . .

"It [basketball] is a passion here."

Palsson is averaging 11.5 points and 5.5 rebounds a game for the Eagles, putting him third on the team in both categories. Montverde's next game is at 1 p.m. Saturday against Greensboro (N.C.) Dudley in the City of Palms Classic in Fort Myers.

Montverde prides itself on the international flavor of its student body. The 13-player basketball team has one player from Senegal, one from Nigeria, two from Cameroon and one from New Zealand, but in Sutton's 23 years of coaching college and high school basketball, Palsson is his first player from Iceland.

Palsson's roommates at Montverde, a private, boarding school, are Papa Samba Ndao, the basketball player from Senegal, and Brazilian Matheus Saroli, the soccer team's leading goal scorer.

"It's great we have three continents represented in one room, Africa, South America and Europe," Palsson said. "It is a chance to learn how other people are, what their customs are, how they live."

While Palsson, 17, has outstanding form on his shot, good court vision and a body that can withstand the pounding under the boards, the biggest adjustment he has faced is in the style of play.

The European brand of basketball to which he is accustomed is more about finesse and half-court play.

"It's a lot faster and a lot tougher here. The kids here are a lot more mature." Palsson said. "You can't be soft. There are more athletes here than in Iceland."

Palsson also is adjusting to life off the court, particularly the warmer weather.

"This is like summer at home," he said last week when temperatures dipped into the upper 50s. "We have some glaciers there and it is cold there, especially at this time of the year. The high this time of year is probably a negative-3 degrees Celsius.

"But we also have beautiful nature there. It really is an amazing country."

Joe Williams' Varsity blog can be read at SentinelVarsity.com, and he can be reached at jwilliams@orlandosentinel.com.

http://varsity.orlandosentinel.com/os-hs-center-1216-20091215,0,747857.story

[Vega]

After watching this guy play USF needs to pass on this guy imo. If Shaun Noriega can't get playing time here then no way is this guy going come in and play. This program desperately needs newcomers that can come in and make an impact not yet another guy 2 or 3 yrs away from being able to produce at a decent level.

The guy looked slow with awful footwork on defense. The old saying, "that he can't guard a telephone pole," applies to Palsson here.