BIO: Dexter Kernich-Drew was born in Melbourne (VIC) and began playing basketball as a junior with the Waverly basketball program.

He attended Caulfield Grammar School, where he competed in basketball, volleyball and track and field.

He led the school’s basketball team to the 2008 McDonald’s Cup Senior Boys State Championship, where he was named the tournament MVP.

Caulfield went on to capture the National School Basketball Tournament (NSBT) Championship, defeating Mountain Creek State High School.

He spent four years playing college basketball at Washington State before spending a year playing in Brazil before signing his first NBL deal.

NBL EXPERIENCE

Dexter Kernich-Drew made his NBL debut with the Perth Wildcats at 24 years of age. He went scoreless in his first NBL game.

The Wildcats’ 2016 offseason saw a lot of change in personnel, with three key players from the 16 championship team (Nathan Jawai, Tom Jervis and Jermaine Beal) moving on. To replace them, coach Trevor Gleeson brought in Kernich-Drew, Angus Brandt, Jameel McKay and Jaron Johnson, and headed into the 2016/17 season attempting to secure the team’s first back-to-back championships since 1991.

The Wildcats started the season off strong with a 4–1 record, but things went south quickly after that.

The Wildcats slumped to last spot in December with a 7–9 record and as a result import Jaron Johnson would be released ust three games into the season and replaced with three-point specialist Andre Ingram.

In a bizarre twist, Ingram left the team and returned to the US after just two games, citing mental issues, and Johnson was brought back into the team. It was at this time Perth legend Shawn Redhage announced that the 2016/17 season would be his last.

Johnson’s reinstatement was a temporary solution, and he was shown the door again in December with the Wildcats seizing the opportunity to sign former NBA guard Bryce Cotton.

With the addition of Cotton, the Wildcat’s became a completely different team and went on to win eight of their remaining twelve regular-season games as Kernich-Drew averaged 2.3 points, 0.6 rebounds, and 0.2 assists as the team squeezed into the playoffs behind after winning two must win games to finish in fourth place.

From there, the Wildcat’s rolled through the Finals undefeated to claim the title, a incredible achievement in what was arguably the closest season in NBL history. Not only did Perth extend their finals streak into a record 31st straight season, but their 3–0 Grand Final sweep of the Illawarra Hawks saw them claim their eighth NBL Championship. The Wildcats went back-to-back for the first time since 1990/1991, while Gleeson became the first coach to guide the Wildcat’s to back-to-back championships.

2017/18
The Wildcats were able to re-sign Grand Final MVP Bryce Cotton for the 2017/18 season but lost two-time Club MVP, Casey Prather, to Melbourne United. The team replaced Prather was Devondrick Walker, but when he suffered a foot injury during the pre-season, the Wildcat’s replaced him with JP Tokoto. Other changes to the roster included Derek Cooke Jr. coming in to replace the outgoing Jameel McKay, and Lucas Walker stepping up from a training player role to a full-time squad member in place of the retired Shawn Redhage.

The Wildcats started the season with a 10–3 record, before dropping to 13–9 in mid-January. They finished the regular season in third place with a 16–12 record, with Kernich-Drew averaging 2.2 points, 0.6 rebounds, and 0.3 assists for the season.

In game one of the semi finals series against second-seeded Adelaide 36ers, the Wildcats were soundly defeated (109–74) in what was their second biggest finals loss in club history. The only time the Wildcat’s have lost by a larger margin in their 32-year finals streak was in 1989, when they lost to North Melbourne by 55 points. Game two saw a much closer contents but Perth fell short by one point (88–89), ending this season prematurely.

CAIRNS TAIPANS
2018/19
In 2018, Cairns chose to go in a new direction, parting ways with long-time coach Aaron Fearne after eight years of him patrolling the sidelines. Mike Kelly was brought in as his replacement and was tasked with rebuilding a roster that had already lost key players Cameron Gliddon (to Brisbane), Mitchell McCarron (to Melbourne), Jarrad Weeks (to New Zealand), and Stephen Weigh (retired).

With only a short time before the season kicked off, Kelly bolstered the roster by adding free agent Rob Loe (via New Zealand) and a new import trio consisting of Melo Trimble, Devon Hall, and DJ Newbill, while Nathan Jawai, Alex Loughton, and Jarrod Kenny were retained for their experience and leadership. With the Wildcats deciding not to re-sign Kernich-Drew, the young guard headed north and joined the Cairns Taipans.

Cairns started the season with a dominant victory over Brisbane (88-70) in their opening game, but consistency soon became an issue. The team endured a six-game losing streak between 21 October and 9 November 2018. Despite these struggles, the Taipans managed some impressive wins later in the season, including a surprise victory over Perth (81-79) and a dominant win over Brisbane (109-80), but an inability to consistently win at home (3-11) or away (3-11) saw them finish the season dead last.

While wins were few and far between, Melo Trimble (21.9 points, 3.8 rebounds, 4.6 assists, and 1.2 steals) and DJ Newbill (14.3 points, 4.0 rebounds, 2.5 assists, and 1.1 steals) formed a powerful one-two punch this season. Trimble earned a spot on the All-NBL Second Team and was named the Taipans’ club MVP at the end of the season.

Alongside him, a healthy Nathan Jawai (10.0 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 1.9 assists), who saw his minutes and production nearly double compared to the previous season, and Devon Hall (8.8 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2.5 assists) were also key contributors.

Dexter Kernich-Drew (3.3 points, 1.4 rebounds) provided depth on the wing and contributed with perimeter shooting and hustle plays off the bench. Although his minutes were limited, Kernich-Drew made his presence felt in key moments throughout the season.

Kernich-Drew’s best performance of the season came in a game against Adelaide (26 Oct 2018), where he recorded 17 points, 3 rebounds, 2 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block, showcasing his shooting ability and defensive contribution.

The lack of pre-season preparation and large roster turnover prevented the Taipans from building momentum, leading to one of the worst records in franchise history (6-22).

SYDNEY KINGS
2020/21
After a season spent without a NBL Kernich-Drew was called up by the Sydney Kings to help cover a number of injuries and health and safety related outs during the covid impacted 2021 season.

This season, Sydney had faced a major roster turnover after finishing runners-up to Perth in a Covid induced conclusion to the 2020 Grand Final. The team looked to recover from the loss of both All-NBL First Team forward Jae’Sean Tate and head coach Will Weaver, who both inked contracts with the NBA’s Houston Rockets while veterans Kevin Lisch, Andrew Bogut and Lucas Walker all retired. Kings assistant Adam Forde took up the reigns this season after being with the organisation since 2019 and replaced the outgoing talent with import Jarell Martin and rookie Dejan Vasiljevic (via college). During the preseason, Sydney lost promising forward Xavier Cooks to a foot injury and signed Tom Vodanovich (via New Zealand) as an injury replacement just before their opening game. The team’s injury woes continued when Angus Glover tore his ACL and would miss all but two games for the season.

As the season kicked off, the Kings looked to their young core to step up in the loss of key veterans and struggled early as a result. Losing three of their first four games, the team sat at the bottom of the ladder in seventh place. Mid-season, the league made the decisions to move all teams to Melbourne for a in-season tournament (NBL Cup) created to avoid COVID-related travel issues. It was here Sydney began to find some form, winning as many as they lost during the Cup (4-4) and then once the tournament was over, consecutive wins at home saw Sydney reach the top four by round 12.

Co-captain Casper Ware (17.7 points, 3.1 rebounds, and 4.4 assists) and Martin (17.9 points, 7.0 rebounds, and 1.0 assists) became the focal points on offence. Martin’s best game coming against New Zealand, where he finished with 29 points.

Dejan Vasiljevic (15.4 points, 3.6 rebounds, and 1.8 assists) and Jordan Hunter (9.0 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 1.1 blocks) both became major parts of the King’s core rotation, Hunter finishing runner-up in the voting for the Most Improved Player award and Vasiljevic being selected as Rookie of the Year. Xavier Cooks (10.3 points, 5.1 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.0 blocks) also showed what type of impact he could have during the King’s back end of the season win the league, producing a career high 19 points and 11 rebounds against the Hawks in Round 21.

The Kings’ limitations this season were primarily their perimeter shooting, where they were equal worst in three-point percentage (tied with Illawarra with 33.4%) and inability to win on the road, where they lost 50% of their games away from home. With four rounds to go, Sydney was firmly entrenched inside the top four but a stretch of five losses in seven games that included two by over 20 points ultimately saw them fall short. Sydney ended the season on a three-game winning streak but would finish in fifth place (19-17) and fail to qualify for the playoffs.

Kernich-Drew would appear in 8 games for the Kings, averaging 0.9 points, 0.1 rebounds, and 0.1 assists.

Dexter Kernich-Drew played four seasons across three NBL teams. This included the Perth Wildcats, Cairns Taipans and Sydney Kings. He averaged 2.3 points, 0.7 rebounds, and 0.3 assists in 74 NBL games.

Dan Boyce (811 Posts)

Dan Boyce is a die-hard Sydney Kings fan who grew up in Melbourne during the roaring 90's of Australian Basketball and spent far too much time collecting Futera NBL Basketball cards.