Rutgers center Lathan Sommerville plans to enter NCAA Transfer Portal

Rutgers center Lathan Sommerville plans to enter the NCAA Transfer Portal. He’s only spent one season with the Scarlet Knights.

Sommerville made 32 appearances and 15 starts this past season. He averaged 8.2 points, 4.1 rebounds and 0.6 blocks per game while shooting 50.6% from the field. He only shot nine 3-pointers this season and made one.

Sommerville perhaps had his best game of the season in Rutgers’ season-ending loss to USC in the Big Ten Tournament. In the loss, Sommerville recorded 16 points and five rebounds on 6-11 shooting from the floor.

Sommerville only improved as the season went on. He lost 50 pounds since arriving at Rutgers in June and was in excellent shape by the end of the year.

“Lathan was rock solid from the beginning [of the Wagner game],” Rutgers head coach Steve Pikiell said after Somerville’s debut in November. “He is improving every day. College is not an easy adjustment.

“He has lost weight, gotten into better shape. He’s learning he can do a lot more things. He can pass, he can rebound, his best days are ahead of him too.”

Unfortunately for Pikiell, it appears those best days won’t be at Rutgers. Lathan Sommerville played high school basketball at Richwoods (IL), where he was a four-star prospect. He was the No. 117 overall player and No. 23 power forward in the 2024 recruiting cycle, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies.

Sommerville averaged 26.3 points, 14.4 rebounds, 4.2 blocks, and 4.1 assists per game at Richwoods. In turn, he finished as a runner-up for the prestigious Illinois “Mr. Basketball Award.” Now, he will look to reach his potential at the next level.

Coming out of high school, Sommerville chose Rutgers over Bradley, Missouri, Seton Hall, Villanova, Virginia Tech and Xavier. He was part of a historic freshman class at Rutgers, which included five-star prospects Dylan Harper and Ace Bailey.

With Bailey and Harper expected to move onto the next level, Rutgers will have plenty of work to do this offseason. Rutgers finished the year with a 15-17 overall record and an 8-12 mark in conference play. The Scarlet Knights season came to an anticlimactic end in the first round of the Big Ten Tournament.

It was Pikiell’s ninth season at the helm of the program. The Scarlet Knights have earned three bids to the NCAA Tournament during his tenure.