Kyle Bowen (born 6 October 2000) is an Australian professional

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player for the

Canterbury Rams The Canterbury Rams are a New Zealand professional men's basketball team based in Christchurch. The Rams compete in the National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at Cowles Stadium. For sponsorship reasons, they are known as Th ...

of the New Zealand National Basketball League (NZNBL). He is also contracted with

Melbourne United Melbourne United is an Australian professional basketball team based in Melbourne, Victoria. United compete in the National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at John Cain Arena. The team made their debut in the NBL in 1984 ...

of the National Basketball League (NBL). Between 2016 and 2019, Bowen split his time with the

Perth Redbacks Perth Redbacks is an NBL1 West club based in Perth, Western Australia. The club fields a team in both the Men's and Women's NBL1 West. The club is a division of Perth Basketball Association (PBA), the major administrative basketball organisation ...

in the

State Basketball League NBL1 West, formerly the State Basketball League (SBL), is a semi-professional basketball league in Western Australia, comprising both a men's and women's competition. In 2020, Basketball Western Australia partnered with the National Basketball L ...

(SBL) and the

BA Centre of Excellence The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Australian Capital Territory, Bruce, Can ...

in the

South East Australian Basketball League The South East Australian Basketball League (SEABL) was a semi-professional basketball league in Australia comprising both a men's and women's competition. The SEABL began in 1981 and operated for 38 seasons until it was disbanded in 2018. The ...

(SEABL) and

NBL1 The NBL1 is a semi-professional basketball league in Australia run by the National Basketball League (NBL). The league consists of five conferences: NBL1 South, NBL1 North, NBL1 Central, NBL1 West and NBL1 East, with each consisting of bot ...

. After winning an NBL championship with the

Perth Wildcats The Perth Wildcats are an Australian professional basketball team based in Perth, Western Australia. The Wildcats compete in the National Basketball League (Australia), National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at Perth Arena, ...

in 2018–19, he played four years of

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

in the United States for the

Saint Mary's Gaels The Saint Mary's Gaels are the athletic teams that compete at Saint Mary's College of California in Moraga, California. The nickname applies to the college's intercollegiate NCAA Division I teams and to the school's club sports teams. Most vars ...

. He joined Melbourne United in 2023 and in 2024 won an NBL1 National championship with the

Knox Raiders Knox Raiders is a NBL1 South club based in Melbourne, Victoria. The club fields a team in both the Men's and Women's NBL1 South. The club is a division of Knox Basketball Incorporated (KBI), the major administrative basketball organisation in the ...

Early life and career

Bowen was born in

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...

, where he attended Wesley College. Bowen debuted for the

in the

(SBL) during the 2016 season. In 12 games, he averaged 4.75 points, 2.92 rebounds and 1.08 assists per game. He re-joined the Redbacks for the 2017 SBL season, but midway through the year, he had a five-game stint with the

in the

(SEABL). Bowen was a member of the Redbacks' 2017 grand final team, scoring five points in nine minutes in a 103–70 win over the

Joondalup Wolves Joondalup Wolves is an NBL1 West club based in Perth, Western Australia. The club fields a team in both the Men's and Women's NBL1 West. The club is a division of Wanneroo Basketball Association (WBA), the major administrative basketball organisa ...

to win the SBL championship. In 14 SBL games, he averaged 8.36 points, 6.29 rebounds and 1.29 assists per game. In 2018, Bowen played 17 games for the BA Centre of Excellence in the SEABL, averaging 12.1 points, 7.4 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game. Bowen joined the

of the National Basketball League (NBL) as a development player for the 2018–19 season. He played four games for the Wildcats and was a member of their 2018–19 NBL championship-winning squad. Bowen re-joined the Perth Redbacks for the 2019 SBL season. After playing for the Redbacks on 23 March, he returned to the BA Centre of Excellence, now in the

, for the start of the

2019 NBL1 season The 2019 NBL1 season was the inaugural season of the NBL1. The season began on 29 March and concluded on 17 August with grand final day for both the men's and women's seasons. The NBL1 in 2019 was a single league and consisted of one conference ...

. He played four games for the Centre of Excellence between 29 March and 5 April. He returned to the Redbacks and played in four more SBL games. While in

Canberra Canberra ( ; ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the Federation of Australia, federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's list of cities in Australia, largest in ...

at the Centre of Excellence, Bowen attended Lake Ginninderra College.

College career

On 28 November 2018, Bowen signed a

National Letter of Intent The National Letter of Intent (NLI) is a document used to indicate a student athlete's commitment to participating in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) colleges and universities in the United States. The NCAA Eligibility Center manag ...

to play

for

Saint Mary's College of California Saint Mary's College of California is a Private college, private Catholic college in Moraga, California, United States. Established in 1863, it is administered by the De La Salle Brothers. The college offers undergraduate and graduate programs w ...

. Bowen made his debut for the

Gaels The Gaels ( ; ; ; ) are an Insular Celts, Insular Celtic ethnolinguistic group native to Ireland, Scotland, and the Isle of Man. They are associated with the Goidelic languages, Gaelic languages: a branch of the Celtic languages comprising ...

in the 2019–20 season. As a freshman, he played in 31 games and averaged 1.7 points and 1.9 rebounds in 11.0 minutes per game. He had a season-best seven points and seven rebounds against

Loyola Marymount Loyola Marymount University (LMU) is a private Jesuit and Marymount research university in Los Angeles, California. LMU enrolls over 10,000 undergraduate and graduate students, making it the largest Catholic university on the west coast of the ...

on 20 February 2020. As a sophomore in

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

, Bowen appeared in all 24 games and made six starts, averaging 4.0 points and a team-best 5.8 rebounds in 25.1 minutes per game. He scored a career-high 10 points twice against Nicholls and

Eastern Washington Eastern Washington is the region of the U.S. state of Washington located east of the Cascade Range. It contains the city of Spokane (the second largest city in the state), the Tri-Cities, the Columbia River and the Grand Coulee Dam, the H ...

, and had a career-high 10 rebounds against

Sacramento State California State University, Sacramento (CSUS, Sacramento State, or informally Sac State) is a public university in Sacramento, California, United States. Founded in 1947 as Sacramento State College, it is part of the California State Universit ...

on 30 December 2020. As a junior in 2021–22, Bowen appeared in and started all 34 games for the Gaels, averaging a career high in points per game (5.6), assists per game (1.3), and minutes per game (29.4). He scored a career-high 12 points on four different occasions. As a senior in

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

, Bowen was one of four Gaels to start all 35 games on the season, including four in the postseason. He finished second on the team with 33.5 minutes per game, good for the 15th-most minutes in a single season in Gaels history (1,174). He finished seventh in the

West Coast Conference The West Coast Conference (WCC) — known as the California Basketball Association from 1952 to 1956 and then as the West Coast Athletic Conference until 1989 — is a collegiate athletic conference affiliated with NCAA Division I consisting o ...

in rebounds per game at 7.1, a career-best, and had career-bests in assists (61), blocks (31) and steals (43). He scored 10 or more points on seven occasions, including a career-best 16 points against

New Mexico State New Mexico State University (NMSU or NM State) is a Public university system, public, Land-grant university, land-grant, research university in Las Cruces, New Mexico, United States. Founded in 1888, it is the state's oldest public institution ...

on 14 December 2022. He had 15 rebounds in a game twice during the season. He earned West Coast Conference All-Academic First Team honours for the second straight season and was named St Mary's Scholar Athlete of the Year.

Professional career

On 20 April 2023, Bowen signed a two-year deal with

of the NBL. In 36 games during the 2023–24 season, he averaged 3.4 points and 3.6 rebounds per game. Bowen joined the

of the

NBL1 South NBL1 South is a semi-professional basketball league in Victoria (state), Victoria and Tasmania, Australia, comprising both a men's and women's competition. In 2019, Basketball Victoria partnered with the National Basketball League (Australia), ...

for the 2024 season. He put on three to five

kilogram The kilogram (also spelled kilogramme) is the base unit of mass in the International System of Units (SI), equal to one thousand grams. It has the unit symbol kg. The word "kilogram" is formed from the combination of the metric prefix kilo- (m ...

s of muscle during the season. Despite missing the finals in the NBL1 South, the Raiders still had a spot at the 2024 NBL1 National Finals as the 2023 defending champions. Bowen helped the Raiders reach the championship game of the National Finals, where he recorded 24 points and 15 rebounds in an 87–84 victory over the Mackay Meteors to win the NBL1 National championship. He was subsequently named most valuable player of the final and earned NBL1 National Finals All-Star Five honours. In the

2024–25 NBL season The 2024–25 NBL season was the 47th season of the National Basketball League since its establishment in 1979. A total of ten teams contested in the 2024–25 season. The league extended its partnership with ESPN Australia. All games are availa ...

, Bowen helped United reach the grand final series for the second straight year. In 37 games, he averaged 3.8 points, 3.9 rebounds and 1.5 assists per game. Bowen joined the

of the New Zealand National Basketball League (NZNBL) for the 2025 season. On 22 June 2025, he recorded a

triple-double In basketball, a double-double is a single-game performance in which a player accumulates ten or more in two of the following five statistical categories: points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocked shots. The first "double" in the term ...

with 16 points, 22 rebounds and 10 assists in the Rams' 92–86 loss to the

Manawatu Jets The Manawatu Jets are a New Zealand professional men's basketball team based in Palmerston North. The Jets compete in the National Basketball League (NBL) and play their home games at Central Energy Trust Arena. For sponsorship reasons, they ...

. On 4 April 2025, Bowen re-signed with United on a two-year deal.

National team career

Bowen played for the Australian Crocs at the

2016 FIBA Under-17 World Championship The 2016 FIBA Under-17 World Championship (Spanish: 2016 FIBA Campeonato Mundial Sub-17) was the 4th edition of the FIBA Under-17 World Championship, the biennial international men's youth basketball championship contested by the U17 national tea ...

before playing for the Australian Emus at the 2017 FIBA Under-17 Oceania Championship,

2018 FIBA U18 Asian Championship The 2018 FIBA Under-18 Asian Championship was the 25th edition of the Asian Championship for Junior Men aged 18 years old and below. The tournament was held in Nonthaburi, Thailand from 5 to 11 August 2018. held off , 72−63, to win their ...

, and

2019 FIBA Under-19 Basketball World Cup The 2019 FIBA Under-19 Basketball World Cup (Greek: Παγκόσμιο Κύπελλο Μπάσκετ FIBA Under-19 2019) was the 14th edition of the FIBA Under-19 Basketball World Cup, the biennial international men's youth basketball championshi ...

. In November 2024, Bowen joined the

Australian Boomers The Australia men's national basketball team, nicknamed the Boomers after the slang term for a male kangaroo, represents Australia in international basketball competition. Since the late 1980s, Australia has placed among the world elite teams, ...

for the 2025 FIBA Asia Cup qualifiers. In April 2025, he was named in the Boomers squad for a trans-Tasman series against

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

in May.

References

External links

Melbourne United profileFIBA profileSaint Mary's Gaels college bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bowen, Kyle 2000 births Living people 21st-century Australian sportsmen Australian expatriate basketball people in the United States Australian men's basketball players BA Centre of Excellence men's basketball players Basketball players from Perth, Western Australia Canterbury Rams players Forwards (basketball) Melbourne United players People educated at Lake Ginninderra College People educated at Wesley College, Perth Perth Wildcats players Saint Mary's Gaels men's basketball players