New Syracuse basketball commit Luke Fennell says, 'I like being under the big lights'

Australian combo guard Luke Fennell, who verbally committed to Syracuse basketball in its 2025 class earlier this week, says that he wants to play on a big stage in college, and the Orange provides him with such an opportunity.

The 'Cuse suits up in the Atlantic Coast Conference. The team plays in the JMA Wireless Dome, which can accommodate crowds of more than 30,000 people. The fan base is passionate. Under second-year head coach Adrian Autry and his top-flight staff, the program, hopefully, is trending in a positive direction as the Orange's 2024-25 season gets going in early November.

All of that appealed to the 6-foot-6, 190-pound Fennell, a promising prospect who hails from Melbourne, Australia, and is deemed by national analysts and scouts as a versatile, lengthy guard who can score at all three levels and effectively facilitate for his teammates, while possessing a high basketball IQ.

"I like being under the big lights," Fennell told ESPN's Olgun Uluc.

Luke Fennell, a 2025 Australian guard, discusses why he chose Syracuse basketball.

Mike McAllister, a top analyst with 247Sports, wrote in an article that the Orange coaching staff has been involved with Fennell for more than a month, "recruiting him extremely hard."

"Committing to Syracuse was the most seamless process,” Fennell said via his agent, Daniel Moldovan, according to McAllister's piece. "The fit felt right from the very first conversation. I've developed a great rapport with Coach (Autry) since the process started. A school with such a rich history and a style of play that suits my game is just a great fit for me."

Fennell becomes the third member of the 'Cuse 2025 cycle, joining five-star forward and top-15 national prospect Sadiq White Jr. from Charlotte, N.C., as well as three-star wing and top-300 overall player Aaron Womack from the Milwaukee area.

For the 2024-25 season, Fennell is competing for the South East Melbourne Phoenix, which is a member of the National Basketball League ("NBL"), a professional league with teams in Australia and New Zealand. Before that, he was a part of the NBA Global Academy, a training center located at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra, Australia.

Fennell told ESPN's Uluc that as Syracuse basketball coaches were recruiting him, they were in daily contact with Fennell. "They kept calling me, asking me about my life, and really just got to know me," Fennell said. "They connected my life to how it is in Syracuse. The way they communicated that, and the way they showed me what life is like there and how I would fit in, was a big thing in me coming to my decision."

Per Uluc, after the 2024-25 NBL season, Fennell looks to represent Australia at the 2025 FIBA U19 World Cup in Lausanne, Switzerland. After that event concludes, Fennell plans to head to the Hill in preparation for his freshman campaign with the 'Cuse.

"Syracuse is definitely a big school, which I really like. Their gym holds more than 35,000 people, and Carmelo [Anthony] went through there, so having something to live up to is the place I want to be at," Fennell told ESPN. "I wanted to be around people that are hungry, people that want to be the best versions of themselves and still haven't reached that stage of being a pro yet. I'm excited to be around that high-pressure environment where iron sharpens iron, everyone wanting to be great, so I think that's the environment that's gonna help me."