Inside The Huskies

Sommerville Returns to Rutgers, Looking to Beat Former Team

The UW big man, however, has been injured for a big chunk of the season and is still trying to get his game in order.
Dan Raley|
Lathan Sommerville and a host of UCLA players battle for the ball.
Lathan Sommerville and a host of UCLA players battle for the ball. | Dave Sizer photo

Lathan Sommerville returns to Rutgers, his first college basketball stop, accompanying the University of Washington, his latest team, for a Big Ten game on Tuesday, probably wondering why he ever switched schools.

No doubt, it sounded like a good idea at the time, with Danny Sprinkle revamping his roster and bringing in Sommerville and a host of others, but the 6-foot-10 sophomore forward and most of his Husky teammates have been leveled by injuries.

For the 3:30 p.m. PST tipoff in Piscataway, New Jersey, Sommerville is available again after suffering a December knee injury, but he played just 3 minutes in the last outing at Maryland and 6 minutes the game before against Minnesota.

"The way they're trying to advance their program and advance that family brotherhood culture, that just intrigued me, as well," the Peoria, Illinois, product said of coming to the UW.

Lathan Sommerville tries to get a shot up against UCLA without getting it blocked.
Lathan Sommerville tries to get a shot up against UCLA without getting it blocked. | Dave Sizer photo

The comparative stats go something like this: he's appeared in 16 games overall for the UW this season and started once.

A year ago, Sommerville was a 15-game starter while playing 32 times for the Scarlet Knights.

One of those games was an 89-85 overtime win over the UW in Alaska Airlines Arena, one in which he scored 8 points.

He currently averages 3.9 points and 2.8 rebounds an outing for the Huskies.

Last year, it was 8.2 and 4.1 for Rutgers.

He has a season high of 11 points against Denver way back in December.

A year ago, it was 17 points against Michigan.

Sommerville has scored in double figures just three times for the UW.

Last season, he went for double digits 10 times for the Scarlet Knights.

If he's gained anything in by going coast to coast to advance his college basketball career, Sommerville has pickd up a game in the standings so far.

He currently plays for the No. 13 team (13-14 overall, 5-11 league) in the Big Ten while his old team (11-16 4-12) is tied for 14th.

Sommerville is down to four regular-season games and at least one Big Ten Tournament outing for the Huskies before an overly trying campaign comes to a close.

Along with his UW teammates, he'll no doubt want another season to show what he and the others can do if they can maintain their health for any length of time.

First things first, Sommerville certainly will want to show Rutgers he can still play.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

Published
Dan Raley
DAN RALEY

Dan Raley has worked for the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Atlanta Journal-Constitution and Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, as well as for MSN.com and Boeing, the latter as a global aerospace writer. His sportswriting career spans four decades and he's covered University of Washington football and basketball during much of that time. In a working capacity, he's been to the Super Bowl, the NBA Finals, the MLB playoffs, the Masters, the U.S. Open, the PGA Championship and countless Final Fours and bowl games.

Home/Basketball