Luke Nevill grew up playing basketball for the Stirling Senators in Western Australia. After struggling to get noticed by elite coaches in Australia he moved to the United States to play high school basketball with Kell High School in Marietta, Georgia.
Nevill walked onto the team as an exchange student and in 2003–04, he averaged 17.6 points, 8.9 rebounds, 3.7 blocked shots and 2.5 assists per game.
It didn’t take long to be noticed by the University of Utah and accepted a scholarship in 2004. He decided to redshirt his first year as a Utah Ute and developed his skills during training sessions against fellow big man Andrew Bogut.
After Bogut nominated for the NBA draft Nevill stepped into the team and in his freshman season, he earned he averaged 11.6 points and 6.6 rebounds per game.
His sophomore season, he stepped into the starting line-up and averaged 16.8 points, 7.7 rebounds, 1.6 assists and 1.1 blocks per game which gained the interest of a number of NBA scouts.
He became just the 19th Ute to score 1,000 points and grab 500 rebounds during his junior season as he averaged 15.2 points, 6.7 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 1.6 blocks across 33 games.
Although NBA interest was growing around Nevill he decided to return to college for his senior season, leading the Utes to the NCAA Tournament. At the conclusion of the season, he was named the Mountain West Conference Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year after averaging 16.8 points, 9.0 rebounds, 1.3 assists and 2.7 blocks per game.
Although he did receive some NBA interest the big man had started to decline in the NBA and after participating in a training camp invitation from the Cleveland Cavaliers he became one of the first Australian’s to go on to play in the NBA D-League, signing with the Utah Flash in 2009.
He played 48 games, started 43 of them and averaged 11.9 points, 5.5 rebounds, 1.4 assists and 1.2 blocks per game.
In 2010 Nevill returned to Australia, signing a deal with the Melbourne Tigers. It was a tumultuous season for the Tigers, after recruiting multiple big men (Cam Tragardh, Wade Helliwell and Matthew Burston had also signed deals that season) the team had an unbalanced roster and failed to make the playoffs.
Nevill averaged 12 points, 7 rebounds and 1 block in only 25 minutes per game.
Prior to the end of the season, the team axed coach Al Westover, who was replaced by Darryl MacDonald and Nevill asked for a release to play with BC Triumph Lyubertsy of Russia for the rest of the year.
The following year Nevill returned to Perth when the opportunity to play for his hometown Perth Wildcats came along. In the 2011–12 NBL season, Nevill averaged 10 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 block per game and helped the team reach the NBL Grand Final where they narrowly lost to the New Zealand Breakers.
In July 2012, NBA interest returned and Nevill joined the Orlando Magic for the Orlando Summer League, the Minnesota Timberwolves for the Las Vegas Summer League before signing a pre-season deal with the Indiana Pacers. He narrowly missed out on making the team, making the final roster cuts but was waived a week before the NBA season started.
Nevill would return to the NBL, signing with the Townsville Crocodiles mid-season. The Crocodiles had started the season 0–10 and in Nevill’s debut notched up their first win of the season over the Adelaide 36ers. The team would narrowly miss out on the NBL finals despite finishing the year with a losing record but Nevill delivered 13 points, 5 rebounds and 1 block for the season.
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Nevill signed with the Taiwan Mobile Clouded Leopards for the 2013–14 season before returning for his last NBL season with the Wollongong Hawks in 2014.
It was a difficult season for Nevill who averaged the lowest numbers of his NBL career, 7 points, 6 rebounds per game in a team that finished dead last with a record of 6-22.
Nevill would play two seasons with the Bank of Taiwan next, averaging 21 points, 13 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 blocks per game in 2015-16 and 18 points, 15 rebounds, 1 assist and 1 block in 2016-17.
Nevill played with Al Rayan of the Qatari Basketball League and then returned to Taiwan and played with the Yulon Luxgen Dinos before retiring from basketball in 2018.
Listen to Aussie Hoopla podcast on the links below.
Topics include;
- Coaching in the US High School system during COVID-19 (2:00)
- Junior basketball playing for the Stirling Senators in WA (10:00)
- Playing high school basketball in the states (12:00)
- Attending Utah University (14:30)
- Entering the NBA Draft and reflections on if he stayed at college too long (20:00)
- Lebron James and Shaquille O’Neal stories from Cleveland Cavaliers training camp (28:30)
- Returning to Australia to play with the Melbourne Tigers (33:00)
- An opportunity to play in Russia (36:00)
- A last-minute signing with the Perth Wildcats and narrowly missing out on an NBL championship (44:00)
- An opportunity to play in the NBA with the Indiana Pacers (48:30)
- A year with the Townsville Crocodiles (51:00)
- Playing in the SBL with the Kalamunda Suns (53:00)
- Representing the Australian Boomers in 2013 (54:00)
- Why his final season in the NBL with Wollongong was the toughest year of his career (58:00)
- The decline of the big man and how it impacted Luke’s career (102:00)
- The culture shock of playing in Taiwan (104:30)
- The biggest mistakes of his career and what Luke learnt from them (109:00)
- The highlight of his career (1:12:00)
All of this and a whole lot more…
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.
