CHAPEL HILL – Apparently, delish.com didn’t include Pete Nance in a survey last March of Oreo's 30 cookie flavors.
The food website embarked on a full-scale taste test to determine the prefernce order of the best-selling cookie in the world. With more than 450 billion sold, Nance has accounted for some, but only he doesn’t go for one of the more popular flavors.
His Oreo of choice ranks No. 29 on the list, but not to Nance, as he informed his coach earlier this week.
“We were having a debate between Insomnia cookies and Crumbl,” Nance said, referring to a discussion in Hubert Davis’ office. “I told him my favorite that I have in my house all the time are lemon Oreos.”
Davis didn’t see that coming.
“I said I've never heard of that before,” North Carolina’s coach said following a 71-63 victory over No. 6 Virginia on Saturday at the Smith Center. “I've heard of Oreo cookies, I've never heard of a lemon Oreo cookie.”
Nance encouraged Davis to pick up a pack and give them a try. Davis agreed, sort of.
“I said, ‘Okay, I'm going to Harris Teeter right after practice,’” Davis said. “I'm gonna go look for the lemon Oreo, and if I can't find it, I said, ‘We're going to get into a brawl.’ So, I went into Harris Teeter, and there they were.”
The cookie story was just getting started, however.
Nance has a tradition before home games of taking naps in Davis’ office. So, when he went there before the UVA game Saturday, sitting on the couch was a pack of lemon Oreos. A few hours later, Nance turned in a 22-point, four-block performance in leading the Heels to a badly needed victory over the Cavaliers.
It was the team’s biggest win of the season, its only current Quad 1 victory, and signified Nance has moved on from a month-long slump.
“I think a lot of credit to the Oreos today,” Nance said smiling. “They were big time.”
Yet, how big time? He didn’t even eat one.
“I couldn’t afford to be sluggish,” Nance said, laughing.
So, while Nance is all about lemon Oreos, how about his teammates?
“We didn’t even know they made them,” senior forward Armando Bacot said, before being asked if he’s tried them, and if so, they are any good.
“I wouldn’t know,” Bacot replied, playing along with the light-hearted topic. “That’s a Pete thing.”
Like them or not, Bacot and the Tar Heels may get more chances to take the lemon Oreo plunge because they might be around the team for the remainder of the season. Just like that, Davis believes in the cookies, even if he isn’t interested in tasting them.
“Right after the game, I walked into the locker room, I said, 'Guys, you have no idea what allowed us to be pretty good today,'” Carolina’s coach said. “And (Nance) went into the locker and threw the Oreos – he didn't eat it yet – and threw it right there on the ground.
“And then (assistant) Coach (Sean) May said, 'You've got to go to Harris Teeter today.' So as soon as I leave you guys (media), I'm going to Harris Teeter to go get some more lemon Oreo cookies.”
There you have it. UNC made ten 3-pointers, blocked eight shots, and held UVA to a stretch in which it missed 15 of 16 shots, but perhaps the real reason the Heels hot their 18th win of the season were because of some cookies the team had never heard of until now.
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