Why Pete Nance transferred to North Carolina: You can kinda see that mold
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — There were ample reasons Pete Nance would want to play at North Carolina next season: more national exposure; more-talented teammates; a more historic program; and, of course, more winning — potentially, even, a national championship. All sounds good. Makes sense.
Now folks just wanna hear it straight from Nance’s mouth.
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Which is why, at UNC’s summer media day on Monday, the new guy was every reporter’s No. 1 priority. Practically the second he emerged from the Smith Center tunnel, he was surrounded. Cameras, tape recorders, cell phones — all turned to the Tar Heels’ newest transfer addition.
“I’m just really happy to be here,” Nance said.
And you can understand why. Northwestern, Nance’s previous program, had a losing record all four seasons he played there. No conference titles, no consequential matches in March, no taste of the NCAA Tournament. Guess how many former Northwestern players are currently in the NBA, by the way? Zero. Chris Collins made history in getting the Wildcats into March Madness in 2017, but that well dried up before Nance ever got to Northwestern.
It tracks, then, that this offseason he explored his other options. Going to the NBA, he said Monday, was his first focus; that’s why Nance attended the NBA G League Elite Camp — basically, a proving ground for borderline combine invitees — in May, hoping to follow in his family’s footsteps. (Nance’s father, Larry, was a three-time NBA All-Star in the 1980s and ’90s, and his older brother, Larry II, currently plays for the New Orleans Pelicans.) But when the 6-foot-10, 225-pound Nance didn’t get a call-up to the traditional combine, his focus shifted. He’d already entered the transfer portal in conjunction with his pro announcement, and he suddenly found himself needing a new home. Somewhere he could win, gain a little exposure, and be surrounded by other pro-caliber players.
Somewhere exactly like North Carolina.
“I obviously went through the NBA Draft process and was really focused on that, thought I had a good chance,” Nance said, “but was looking for a place where I could take my game to the next level and really showcase my full skill set.”
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The Athletic did a film study of Nance’s game shortly after he committed, getting into all the particulars of the things he does well. There’s plenty, but chief among them? His pick-and-roll proficiency. Per Synergy, as a pick-and-roll roller — which accounted for 20.3 percent of Nance’s total offensive possessions last season — Nance averaged 1.381 points per possession (PPP), which rated in the 98th percentile nationally. The dude was about as good as it gets in P&R, both with traditional rolls to the basketball and pick-and-pop 3s. So while only 4.4 percent of UNC’s offensive possessions came that way last season, per Synergy, Nance’s presence is already opening up the playbook.
“His ability to set screens and then roll, or read the defense and pop, that’s something that we need: his ability to space the floor,” R.J. Davis said. “He’s able to communicate with us and tell us, hey, let’s set this down screen real quick, or let’s have this staggered. Let’s have an off-ball ball screen. That’s something that I’ve been impressed with.”
Of course, that isn’t all Nance can do. “I try to pride myself on being versatile and try not to have any flaws,” he said. “Be a versatile defender. Shoot the 3. Post up, push it on the break. Just kinda do a little bit of everything.” Now, “versatility” hasn’t historically been the calling card for North Carolina bigs, but that changed in Hubert Davis’ first season as head coach. The Tar Heels still ran some of their traditional Carolina break, predicated on two floor-running forwards, but they also played much more four-out offense. To do so, UNC needed two bigs with complementary, but contrasting, styles of play. In star Armando Bacot, Davis had his conventional center, someone to rip down rebounds and convert offensive put-backs and protect the rim — but he also needed someone who could compete on the perimeter, playing inside as necessary but more notably spacing the floor from 3.
So in came a different grad transfer: Oklahoma’s Brady Manek, who quickly went from case study to cult hero in Chapel Hill. Manek shot better than 35 percent from 3 all four seasons with the Sooners, but never quite to the level he did last season for UNC, when he made 40.3 percent of his 6.2 3-point attempts per game. UNC’s staff knew last offseason that Manek could shoot, but what he showed once he got on campus was even more impressive than what they anticipated. “When you watch film on guys, you kinda predetermine what you see — and we kinda did that with Brady — but then when you get them, you’re kinda blown away,” assistant coach Sean May said. “They’ve been coached. They know how to play. The way they communicate, it’s great.”
Manek was a test case, then: not just because of his playing style, but because he had to fit into the larger picture in just one season with the program. There was no guarantee it’d work. But it did, to smattering success — and in the process, a blueprint was born. Nance said he first noticed it while watching the Tar Heels’ tournament run on TV, and the coaching staff only confirmed it when they formally reached out. But between those two events, he got an unexpected up-close opinion on how Manek fit so well, so fast — from Manek himself, at the G League Elite Camp that Manek also participated in.
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“I hadn’t even spoken to North Carolina yet or anything like that,” Nance said. “I asked him just, how was it? How was your experience? And he said it was the best basketball experience of his life — which, only being here one year, I thought was something really cool at the time.”
Once the staff officially reached out, and Nance started doing his research on UNC, it all came together. He wouldn’t be a Manek replacement or clone, despite some fans’ insistence on the matter, but rather another versatile big who fits Davis’ offensive operation. “Having a guy similar to me in that way before me, you can kinda see that mold,” Nance explained. “A lot of times, it’s a mystery as to what you’re stepping into, but as far as seeing what Brady did and the hole he left, it’s kind of an easy thing to see that someone needs to step into that.” So even though Nance didn’t have the 3-point volume at Northwestern that Manek did at Oklahoma, he did drain plenty of triples. Last season, he made a career-high 45.2 percent of his 3s, and did so surrounded by less talent than he’ll suit up with this season.
Add it all up — UNC needing more floor-spacing in the frontcourt; Nance needing a larger space to prove himself; the program having familiarity and success with a similarly-skilled grad transfer — and in hindsight, Nance’s decision looks pretty darn straightforward.
So, how’s it been so far? Better than expected. Start with Nance’s actual athleticism, which May and R.J. Davis both said is better than anticipated based on the tape they’d seen. “I threw an alley-oop one time, maybe a little bit too high, and he caught it with the left,” Davis said with a grin. “I was like, oh, OK!” And in terms of adjusting to UNC’s offense, May said Nance is already picking up concepts clearly, without having to have things repeated. “He understands who he is as a player,” May added. “He knows what he’s really good at and he knows how to avoid the things that he’s not, and that’s huge.”
The staff is happy. So are the players. And perhaps most importantly amidst all this change, so is Nance.
“This is obviously a really good team I’m coming into, with some really talented players,” Nance said. “Whatever the coaches need me to do and whatever role they want me to fill, I think I’d be able to adapt to that easily, just because of my style of play and how I move the ball and share the ball and passing ability and floor-spacing.
“It’s just a really good fit.”
(Photo: Trevor Ruszkowski / USA Today)
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