Martin Somerville Embracing Vocal Role for WVU Basketball, Mentoring Top Freshman

WVU basketball may have found its “glue guy” already, as junior guard Martin Somerville has impressed head coach Ross Hodge.

Hodge praised Somerville in a press conference on Monday, highlighting his ability to make connections with his teammates. He said that is an important trait to have in an era of college athletics where there is so much turnover from year to year.

“He cares about other people and he’s interested in knowing other people’s stories. In this time period when you’re going to have a lot of turnover in your locker room, I think it’s important to find ways that can bring locker rooms together,” said Hodge. “And having people in there that naturally do that, it’s just kind of a natural gift that he has.”

Somerville said helping the team any way he can is something he takes pride in. Now, he aims to do so by helping mentor the younger players on the team, like freshman guard Miles Sadler.

“Wherever I’ve gone, I’ve just hanged my hat on how can I help and how can I help my teammates and how can I help us win? So this year we have a mix of ages, a lot of different ages, but I think at the guard spot specifically, I have a freshman who’s really talented. I know you guys know him, Miles Sadler, who I’ve just been really hard on, right? Like, but he’s like my little brother and I know he’s going to be really great,” Somerville said during his own time to talk to the media.

As a player who has seen three teams in three years, Somerville knows how chaotic it can be to adjust to new situations. He said he aims to help them adjust to playing college basketball and prepare for the season.

“I think just with him and the rest of the younger guys in general, just being that older vocal leader, being able to help calm them down in a space like this. ‘Cause it’s a lot going on, right? It’s a lot you have to learn from the summer till when we play our first game. And I think my role is just, how can I help everybody be as prepared as possible when game 1 starts? And then what can I do for us to win, to win games,” Somerville said.

Somerville had a chance to apply his mindset last year at Florida State. Hodge discussed how his former coaches praised Somerville for his attitude that helped Florida State turn around a 0-5 conference play start.

“Everything’s not necessarily as smooth sailing as you thought it would be. For me, like I said, just being the even-keeled, positive attitude, understanding that we may have lost 5 games, we have 10 more, right? Like, we have 10 more ahead of us. How are we gonna take our attitude and change it so we can be able to win games,” Somerville added.

Somerville is not just a vocal leader, but he is dependable on the court too.Last year, he appeared in all 33 games, starting 10, and averaged eight points, three rebounds and 2.4 assists per game.

Ball control is a significant aspect of Somerville’s game, with an assist to turnover ratio of 2.3 to one. He also set the Division I record of assists in a single game as a freshman at UMass Lowell with 13.

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