ESPN Women's Basketball

Everything is bigger in Texas, including the 6-foot-1 point guard guiding TCU toward national prominence in the wake of wins against Maryland and California.

But when it came to finding his latest floor general, Horned Frogs coach Jeff Mittie went well beyond the borders of the largest state in the contiguous United States. Or more accurately, he picked up the phone when an extremely long-distance call came from a group looking for a summer basketball camp that fit their schedule and their budget.

"I got a phone call from somebody in Iceland," Mittie said of the fortuitous ring about six years ago. "They wanted to bring 10 Iceland girls over … and we were the only camp they could find that went Sunday to Saturday, straight. So they come over, and they said, 'Is it OK if we reserve the spot, but we really don't want to send a check; we'll just bring the money?' And I'm like 'Yeah, sure, bring me the money, whatever.'

"Sure enough they flew over … and she ends up MVP of the camp in her age division."

The "she" in question is current TCU sophomore Helena Sverrisdottir, then a young teenager from the island nation in the far North Atlantic whose entire population is equal to about 5 percent of the population of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. Sverrisdottir's hometown of Hafnarfjordur (try saying that three times fast) is the third-largest city in Iceland, but with slightly more than 25,000 residents, its populace wouldn't even fill Amon G. Carter Stadium in Fort Worth, home of the Horned Frogs football team.

Sverrisdottir had always dreamed about playing basketball in the United States, but her initial introduction to the Lone Star State was still an eye-opening experience. One that had her camera permanently poised to click, as if in photographic triple-threat position.

"Everything was just really big," Sverrisdottir recalled. "I mean, I'm coming from a really, really small country -- we only have 300,000 people -- and coming here to Fort Worth, everything was just extremely big. That was just really amazing to me."

In addition to her success on the court at the basketball camp, Sverrisdottir recalled her instant affinity for both the coaching staff and the school's campus in Fort Worth. And the feeling was mutual about the big guard -- she was tall for her age even then -- with the good handle. Mittie stayed in touch with her in the years that followed and eventually made the trek (roughly 12-13 hours, with a connection) from Dallas to Iceland.

"They used to come up to see me play in Iceland, too, which was really impressive to me, because I know it's a really long trip and all that," Sverrisdottir said.

Mittie took over at TCU in 1999 after stints at Missouri Western and Arkansas State. He transformed a moribund program into a postseason lock, advancing to the NCAA tournament seven times and the WNIT last season. The Missouri native talks in the sort of cordial, confident drawl that is easy to imagine making inroads in homes throughout the region -- eight of his current players are from Texas or Louisiana. But one of his biggest recruiting wins came far from home, when he traveled to Italy to watch Sverrisdottir compete for Iceland in a tournament and offered her a scholarship.

One of the tallest players in Iceland, Sverrisdottir still grew up playing point guard in a European style that stressed getting up and down the court -- "We have a 24-second shot clock, and it's kind of like we only use 10 of them a lot of the time," she laughed.

But on a TCU team last season that had seniors Adrianne Ross and Moneka Knight in the backcourt, the newcomer found herself playing more as a power forward as she adjusted to the size and pace of the American college game. The results were nevertheless impressive, as Sverrisdottir won Mountain West Freshman of the Year honors and ranked second on the team in rebounding and third in assists and points.

But with Ross and Knight having moved on, the former to the San Antonio Silver Stars in the WNBA, Mittie entered this season with a plan to return Sverrisdottir to the point. That was no small challenge on a team that lost another starter in addition to the two guards and six of the 10 players who averaged at least 10 minutes a game last season.

"I knew it was going to be a big challenge for me, because over here, I knew I was going to get some smaller people guarding me," Sverrisdottir said in impeccable English. "I knew it was going to be tougher than what I'm used to, but I like to be challenged, and I thought I could help the team by being the point guard."

And in her second season, Sverrisdottir is putting up numbers that make you wonder if there's some sort of metric conversion mistake on the stat sheet. Entering Sunday's game against Oklahoma State, she was averaging 17.1 points, 6.2 rebounds, 5.1 assists and 1.5 steals and shooting 54 percent from the field, 57 percent behind the arc and 84 percent from the free-throw line. And those aren't cupcake-inflated numbers. She opened the season with 18 points, seven assists and four rebounds in an 80-68 win against Maryland and totaled 17 points, 10 assists and four rebounds in an 82-73 win against Cal.

Even for a program that has produced individual talents like Ross and Sandora Irvin, Sverrisdottir is playing as well as anyone Mittie has coached in a decade at the school.

"No question, she's affecting the game in every area," Mittie said. "You're not going to find a stat line -- she can fill up a stat sheet. She's going to shoot the 3, she's going to go inside, she's going to rebound the basketball. Her and I talked about a week ago about improving her rebounding; it was the only stat area that she really hadn't improved much from a year ago. She turns around the next night and gets, I think, 12 boards. She's just a very coachable player and really wants to get better every single day."

Although certainly not solely because of their point guard, the result has TCU in the top 25. A team that looked like a potentially slow-developing mix of returning players in expanded roles and new faces on the court for the first time -- transfers TK LaFleur, Rachel Rentschler and Chantelle John have all started at least four games after sitting out last season -- is off to an 8-3 start with two profile-boosting wins against ranked teams. Sunday brought an 85-80 setback at Oklahoma State, but one more showcase game looms with a trip to Texas A&M on Sunday, and a repeat of last season's NCAA at-large snub looks unlikely if the Horned Frogs duplicate that campaign's 13-3 conference mark.

"This team was a little bit of a mystery to me in the fall," Mittie said. "We were trying to figure out where all the pieces fit, and we changed some things offensively. And as we learn more about them, I think we're able to fit the offense better toward their skills. This group came on much quicker than any team I've ever had. We went from barely winning an exhibition game against Oklahoma City to playing seven days later Maryland and beating Maryland by double-digits. … So this team [had] to grow up very quickly and really had to find their identity very quickly. And they really did."

Mittie wants to see his team improve on the boards -- the Horned Frogs were being outrebounded by their opponents even before Sunday's rebound deficit in Stillwater -- but the offensive efficiency is impressive. The system relies on secondary pressure and players recognizing mismatches on the fly. LaFleur, Rentschler and Sverrisdottir have all been the leading scorer at least twice in the first 10 games, and the Horned Frogs are turning the ball over fewer than 14 times per game.

And while Sverrisdottir grew up playing another variety of football in addition to basketball, Mittie sees some gridiron corollaries in how his offense is operating.

"That's where Helena is so valuable, because she's such a smart player, has such great vision," Mittie said. "And because she's a great rebounder, there are many times where the ball comes off the glass that our point guard rebounds the ball and she's got it in her hands right away. And she can really see that play develop and she can make that call. It's like a quarterback in football walking to the line of scrimmage and making an audible. She can call that audible and take advantage of whatever mismatch we have."

Those calls are almost as valuable as the one that first set in motion a journey from Hafnarfjordur deep into the heart of Texas.

Graham Hays is a regular contributor to ESPN.com's women's basketball coverage. E-mail him at Graham.Hays@espn3.com.