He might have gone undrafted, but that doesn't mean Luke Nevill isn't going to get his chance.

The 7-foot-2 center is expected to play for the New Orleans Hornets at the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas, where 21 teams will compete from July 10-19 at the Thomas & Mack Center. That means that not only will Nevill have a chance to impress the Hornets, but also any of the other teams that will be watching the action.

Incidentally, the Hornets used the 21st pick of the draft on UCLA's Darren Collison, and traded second-round picks for LSU's Marcus Thornton. Both are guards, meaning the Hornets probably could still use somebody to step up and challenge the unspectacular group of big men who back up starting center Tyson Chandler.

Check out most of the online mock drafts that are floating around out there, and you'd conclude that center Luke Nevill is not going to hear his name called during the NBA Draft next week.

His agent, however, thinks otherwise.

“I would be surprised if he wasn't drafted,” agent Keith Glass said.

While Nevill said he's pretty confident about being a second-round pick — he has worked out for nine teams already, with the Jazz on tap over the weekend — Glass said the draft is too uncertain a proposition to attempt to predict, and that it doesn't matter that much, anyway.

“You can't tell,” he said. “You really can't. You'd have to be inside of the mind of every team in the league in order to really know. I represented Mark Eaton for his whole career, and Mark was the 74th pick in the draft, I think. In other words, he wouldn't have been drafted next week. And I believe his jersey is hanging there somewhere. So to me, the draft is a game and a show. The league has … tried to make it much more important than it really is. So I'm more concerned about [Nevill's] career, which I really feel good about.”

Coach Jim Boylen was clearly upset at hearing the news from an assistant coach that counterpart Dave Rose of Brigham Young has been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

The Cougars announced in a statement that the cancer was discovered by tests Rose had performed when he underwent emergency surgery to remove his spleen and part of his pancreas at a hospital in Las Vegas last week. He's home now, but has been enduring further tests at the Huntsman Cancer Institute just up the hill from the U. campus.

“The biggest thing is I'm shocked and I'm disappointed," Boylen said. "This goes way beyond basketball and the rivalry. It's about a man that I respect and compete against at the highest level. ... It's tough."

Boylen said he had been leaving Rose voice-mail messages since Rose checked into the hospital, teasing him about the lengths to which he would go to avoid summer camps and recruiting. Boylen said the two "have a bond, believe it or not" that has grown out of their shared goal to "make young men into men within this rivalry."

“We wish him the best," Boylen added. "We'll be praying for him down here, my family. And we're expecting him to recover. I know he's a fighter, he's a tough guy, and I'm expecting him to be coaching his team in the fall.”

We're well into the offseason, yet coach Jim Boylen's name just keeps popping up on the periphery of one of the nation's most high-profile coaching searches.

Given his pro experience, though, it's no wonder that Boylen keeps getting mentioned as a possible candidate for the USC job, especially since the Trojans evidently are searching for somebody with that on his resume. Boylen was a longtime assistant coach in the NBA, mostly with the legendary Rudy Tomjanovich and the Houston Rockets.

And according to ESPN's Andy Katz, Boylen is among the coaches on whom the Trojans are performing background checks, in case they want to pursue him.

While coach Jim Boylen has been busy with his summer camps and analyzing the NBA Finals for us, his players have been working out on their own — with two notable additions.

Incoming recruits Matt Read and Marshall Henderson both have paid their own way to enroll in summer school and get a jump start on their careers with the Utes. Both look good, as far as Boylen can tell in his office — coaches aren't allowed to watch their players work out in the summertime — and have been playing with other members of the team.

Henderson, you'll recall, was one of the top prep scorers in Texas for L.D. Bell High School last season, and possesses a deadly outside shot. Read, meanwhile, is a 6-9 forward who played at Collin County Community College in Texas last season, whom Boylen regards as the kind of player who might not score a ton, but who does all the hard work required to win games.

The rest of the incoming recruits are expected to join the Utes at the start of the fall semester.

Quick update on center Luke Nevill, who's hoping to find a place in the NBA Draft later this month, but whose stock does not seem to be rising appreciably -- at least not according to the online mock drafts that largely predict he won't be drafted.

According to DraftExpress.com, the 7-foot-2 Australian might have a hard time in the NBA.

"Nevill got almost 4 touches per game at the rim as a finisher and shot 81% on those attempts, good for first amongst all the players we looked at," he site wrote in a recent scouting report. "Clearly, his size and touch were simply too imposing for many of the centers he matched up with. He also got 8.5 possessions per game on the block, almost 55.5% of his offense. He scored .95 PPP on his touches, good for second amongst centers, but just above the average of .94 for power forwards.

"The news is not all good on Nevill though, as his 1.1 possessions per game from offensive rebounds ranks him fifth amongst the players on our list, and considering his size, level of competition, and the fact that many of the players on our list aren’t legitimate prospects, that really is not a good sign. Nevill did get fouled on 19.6% of his half court possessions, the second most of any post player on our list. Nevill wouldn’t be anything more than a third center in the NBA, but his finishing ability and size may give him a chance to be drafted."

Should fans start crossing their fingers again?

Coach Jim Boylen just signed a fat new contract to remain with the Utes for years to come, but could become a target for USC athletic director Mike Garrett, who's trying to hold together a wreck of a basketball program in the wake of former coach Tim Floyd's resignation.

At least, that's what Fox Sports' Jeff Goodman suggests, in his column dooming the Trojans to the scrap heap for the next couple of years.

“The Trojans will be fortunate to get a guy like St. Mary's coach Randy Bennett or San Diego's Bill Grier,” he wrote. “Maybe they can snag Virginia Tech's Seth Greenberg, Utah's Jim Boylen, or even the President-in-Law, Oregon State's Craig Robinson. But even that may be a long shot.”

Yeah, that sounds about right -- especially if the program is in every bit as much disarray as everybody says. Who would want to go there?

The Utes are about to start their annual “Jimmy Ball” summer basketball camps, and report that they still have room for more kids to join them.

Parents can register their kids online for any of six camps. The first ones — a junior Ute camp for young elementary school children and a day camp for older kids — start Wednesday, with others commencing next week and in the first week of August. Prices range from $140 to $495, depending on the camp.

For more information, call 801.585.6183.

Coach Jim Boylen has taken another step in connecting with the Utes' glorious basketball history, appointing Michael Doleac to join his staff as a graduate manager.

Boylen said Doleac — one of the most prolific players in school history — will play a limited role in the “support position” that typically involves administrative and behind-the-scenes duties, but “we're thankful that he wants to be part of what we're building and excited about it.” Doleac evidently plans to work toward an advanced degree at the university — he has said he wants to become a doctor — while learning the coaching ropes under Boylen, though he could not be reached for comment today.

Technically, the job won't start until the fall when school begins, but Boylen said Doleac will also help out at his summer camps that begin next week.

The 31-year-old Doleac helped the Utes reach the NCAA Tournament title game in 1998, before becoming the 12th pick of the NBA draft and ultimately playing for six teams in 11 seasons in the league. He won a championship with the Miami Heat in 2006, and is married to former Utah gymnast Shannon Bowles.

Not that it bothered the Utes too much last season, but they will have to contend with playing the Mountain West Conference tournament in Las Vegas for a few more years.

That's because despite the annual complaints about giving UNLV an unfair advantage by playing on its home floor, the league has decided to keep its men's and women's basketball tournaments at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas for three more years, through the 2013 season. Its current contract with the arena was set to expire after next season.

The league's board of directors voted for the move at its annual meeting today, based on “revenue implications” and “extensive fan research” — meaning that it believes attendance will suffer if the tournament is moved away from the sunny gambling mecca, to a campus or neutral site.

And it's right.

No way would the league draw nearly as many fans to Salt Lake City or Albuquerque or even San Diego, and that's a huge consideration. So consider this a victory for the fans who love to make the trip, and a loss for all of the coaches who complain about having to play the Rebels on their home floor.