Injury blocking Nevels’ path to success
Posted on Friday, March 7, 2008
CONWAY — Reading Central Arkansas’ Durrell Nevels’ stat sheet, it’s easy to get the wrong impression.
The 6-6, 200-pound Nevels strikes an imposing figure in the lane for the Bears.
He set the school’s singleseason blocks record last season with 99 and the career record this season with 146. Watching him get up and down the court for a dunk, it’s easy to think that he’s a no-nonsense warrior.
Not so fast.
“I guess you could say I’m kind of goofy,” said Nevels, who had been cracking jokes with his teammates before practice at the Farris Center. “I’ve always been good-natured and I like to smile.” This season, though, it’s been tough to find reason to smile.
A year after Nevels set records for blocked shots at Central Arkansas, he seemed poised to break out offensively in his senior season.
“We were expecting big things out of Durrell this season,” Central Arkansas Coach Rand Chappell said. “But he’s had a rough go of it.” The Bears started their season at the 2 K Sports Hoops Classic in Lexington, Ky., where Nevels set a tournament record with 20 rebounds against Alabama A&M.
But then came an injury that slowed him down.
It’s hard to pinpoint when Nevels injured the fourth metatarsal in his left foot, but doctors told him after the Bears lost to Texas State in Conway on Jan. 12 that he would need to stay on the bench for at least a couple of weeks.
“It was tough because I felt like I was just starting to get my shot,” Nevels said.
Nevels had 20 points and 13 rebounds in the Bears’ 78-72 loss to Texas State after scoring just nine in their two-point overtime victory over Texas-Arlington two nights before.
It was four games before Nevels returned to action, playing nine minutes in the Bears’ 70-62 loss at Southeastern Louisiana on Jan. 31. Nevels said it took him a while to get comfortable on the offensive end of the court.
“Your defense is always there,” Nevels said. “But you’ve got to work on offense. It doesn’t come as easily.” Little has come easily for Nevels.
Nevels hit his growth spurt late, growing 6 inches his ninthgrade year at Hot Springs High School. It was a sudden jump for which he wasn’t quite ready.
“I wasn’t completely in control of my body,” Nevels said. “My hand-eye coordination wasn’t where it needed to be.” As a result, Nevels struggled to make the junior varsity team at Hot Springs his sophomore season. But he eventually played well enough to earn a scholarship to Three Rivers Community College in Poplar Bluff, Mo.
Nevels played two seasons for Coach Gene Bess, the all-time winningest coach in junior college basketball.
“He was always kind of happy-go-lucky,” Bess said. “I didn’t get the feeling that he had really concentrated on the game early on. I knew that he had good high school coaching.” Nevels broke his right leg as a freshman at Three Rivers, and had to have a steel rod inserted.
“But when he came back his sophomore year, he never complained,” Bess said. “We loved him up here.” Nevels was concerned that he wouldn’t be able to come back at full strength.
“I didn’t know because I was out for four months,” Nevels said. “But we had a great strength and conditioning team and they got me back at 100 percent.” Nevels had several offers from NCAA Division I schools after a solid sophomore season in which he averaged 8. 4 points and 5. 4 rebounds and set the school record with 147 blocks for his career.
Purdue, a member of the Big Ten and Southland Conference schools Stephen F. Austin and Sam Houston State were among the schools courting Nevels.
Nevels wanted to stay close to home, though, and the opportunity to be at a school making the transition from NCAA Division II to NCAA Division I excited him.
“I wanted to be somewhere my mom could watch me play,” Nevels said. “I mean UALR and ASU were talking to me, but I thought that I could do a lot more here.” Nevels has come back well from his latest injury, averaging nine points and 7. 9 rebounds per game.
He’s on track to finish with a degree in family and consumer sciences in December and says he hopes to be a nutritionist after he’s done playing basketball.
“I want to keep playing basketball,” Nevels said. “But you’ve got to have a plan when basketball is over. You can’t play basketball forever.”
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