Jon Axel Gudmundsson leaving Davidson basketball with ‘treasure trove of memories’

As Jon Axel Gudmundsson’s basketball career at Davidson winds down, he’d like to be remembered in a simple way:

“Hopefully, just as a guy who came to fight every game he went into,” said Gudmundsson, who plays in his final regular-season game Friday when the Wildcats (15-14, 9-8 Atlantic 10) face Virginia Commonwealth (18-12, 8-9) at Belk Arena. “Someone who hated to lose and when he stepped on the floor gave it everything he’s got.”

There’s more to Gudmundsson than that, of course. He will leave Davidson as one of the program’s most accomplished players, a do-everything guard who was the best player in the Atlantic 10 for at least one season.

The Wildcats have won 20-plus games and played in the postseason twice so far during Gudmundsson’s career. And while hitting those milestones again will be a challenge as they head into next week’s A-10 tournament, Davidson has in Gudmundsson a leader who understands what it takes to get there.

“He’s left me with a treasure trove of memories,” Wildcats coach Bob McKillop said. “He’s so resilient, so coachable. He’s a guy you’d want in your foxhole 24 hours a day. He’s gotten better and better as his career has gone on.”

The Atlantic 10 Player of the Year in 2018-19, Gudmundsson is the is the only player in Davidson history with at least 1,000 career points, 500 rebounds and 500 assists. He will finish as the first NCAA Division I player since 1992-93 with at least 1,600 career points, 750 rebounds, 550 assists, 200 3-pointers and 150 steals.

He needs 11 points to pass Dick Snyder (1,693) as the 10th-leading scorer in program history, and he’s already in the top 10 in rebounds (780, seventh), assists (564, third), steals (157, sixth), 3-pointers (216, tied for eighth) and starts (124, second).

He also has been durable. The only game he has missed was during his freshman season, when he sat out against VCU with a bruised back.

When McKillop talks about Gudmundsson’s improvement over his career, he’s not referring only to the physical aspect. When Gudmundsson arrived from Grindavik, Iceland, in 2016, his English was limited. And as a point guard used to playing in a more deliberate, European style of game, that was tough to overcome.

“The adjustment for a European point guard to the American game is probably the hardest of any in the sport,” McKillop said. “There are a lot of subtleties as a point guard and that makes it doubly challenging for international players. Jon had to distribute the ball, work on his decision-making, communicate what (offense or defense) we’re in. That took some time.”

Gudmundsson has blended an Icelander’s “Viking” mentality of playing with a relentless ferocity with McKillop’s mantra for the Wildcats program — TCC (trust, commitment, care).

“I feel like in the culture of Davidson basketball, there’s some of the Viking mentality,” Gudmundsson said. “But it’s really built around TCC. I don’t think you can have the Viking mentality walking down the street, but you can have that with TCC. I think living that TCC code is something major, and I’ll do that for the rest of my life.”

▪ Joining Gudmundsson during the Wildcats’ senior night Friday will be walk-ons Cal Freundlich, Malcolm Wynter and Pat Casey. There will certainly be an emotional farewell for guard KiShawn Pritchett, who is out this season with a knee injury.

VCU at Davidson

When: 9 p.m., Friday.

Where: Belk Arena, Davidson.

Watch: ESPN2.

Listen: 730-AM.

This story was originally published March 5, 2020 at 3:39 PM.