Note: Video of Pete Nance Interview posted at the end of this item.

CHAPEL HILL – Pete Nance may have played basketball the last four seasons at Northwestern in the Big Ten Conference, but in just a month’s time, he has assimilated quite well with his new team at North Carolina.

Nance, a 6-foot-10 forward, who was honorable mention all-conference last season, announced his decision to transfer to UNC on June 18. Over the last month, he has grown comfortable with the other Tar Heels, in his new surroundings, and with the idea of being a North Carolina basketball player.

“It’s been awesome,” Nance said Monday afternoon at the Smith Center. “I’m just really happy to be here. It’s great to be around the guys, get to know everybody, the coaches, just experience Carolina basketball. It’s really been awesome.”

Nance’s path to UNC went through the NBA G-League Combine in Chicago before playing for Hubert Davis entered his mind. The focus was himself and his career. The Akron, OH, native thought he had a chance to move on and find a spot in the NBA, but it didn’t quite work out. At least not yet.

**************************************************************************************

Remember, for just $8.33 a month, YOU CAN BE A TAR HEELS INSIDER, TOO!!!

***************************************************************************************

So, Nance looked for a place in which he could “take my game to the next level and really showcase my full skillset, and at the same time, do something special and compete for a national championship on a really good team surrounded by really good players with really good coaches.”

A conversation with former Tar Heel forward Brady Manek at the combine may have moved the needle some in the direction of Chapel Hill, though. Manek’s words impacted his eventual thinking.

“It was really cool because I hadn’t even spoken to North Carolina yet, or anything like that,” Nance said, referring to the chat with Manek. “And I asked him, ‘How was it, how was your experience?’

“And he said that it was the best basketball experience of his life… For him to say that after being here just one year says a lot about North Carolina and the kind of people that they have here for sure.”

The way UNC used Manek “definitely” appealed to Nance. It’s part of his game, but there is more. He is a tad taller than Armando Bacot and thicker than Manek. Plus, Nance has battled some of the nation’s best and largest big men in the Big Ten over the last four years.

And considering that Carolina’s post defense after Bacot was a major question mark, and certainly something that flared up very late in the national championship game loss to Kansas, Nance giving UNC that element is a big deal.

“I definitely had some experience banging with some big boys in the Big Ten,” Nance said. “Guys like Kofi Coburn and Hunter Dickinson and Trace Jackson Davis.”

Given how well Manek worked out for Carolina, a desire for another player filling that stretch-four role was on the minds of the massive UNC fan base, but also the coaching staff, provided the right player came along. Davis would have been fine going into the coming season without adding anyone from the portal. But when Nance became available, it was a no brainer from UNC’s perspective. And Nance’s.

He wants to showcase more of his game at UNC, like Manek did, and says there is plenty of variety to his arsenal in addition to banging inside.

“I’m somebody that can do a little bit of everything, I feel like,” Nance said. “Shoot, pass, dribble, I pride myself on being versatile, and obviously, try not to have any flaws. Try to be a versatile defender, shoot the three, post up, push it on the break. Just kind of do a little bit of everything.”

Nance’s eventual decision wasn’t simply a phone call and jumping at an offer. He visited UNC first, hung out with the players and got a feel for things. Not long after, Nance knew what he wanted to do.

At Northwestern, where Nance played for former Duke guard Chris Collins, he averaged 14.6 points, 6.5 rebounds, and 1.1 blocked shots per game last season. He shot 49.7 percent from the floor, including 45.2 percent (42-for-93) from three-point range. In four seasons in Evanston, IL, Nance scored 1,025 points and pulled down 578 rebounds in 2,588 minutes.

His father is former Clemson star Larry Nance, who scored 15,687 points in 13 seasons in the NBA, finishing with a 17.1 per-game average. Larry Nance Jr, Pete’s older brother, has played in the NBA for the last seven seasons.

The whole Clemson-Carolina dynamic certainly isn’t lost on Nance or his father.

“It was definitely hard for him,” Pete said, smiling. “When we were driving through campus, he said he remembered when he would come through here and North Carolina would beat up on Clemson. But he’s really happy for me.”

And Nance is happy he’s at UNC. Even more so since taking a trip to Kill Devil Hills, NC, in early July for an NIL gig in which he and the returning starters and a couple of reserves earned money signing autographs during a barnstorming event.

Seeing his new teammates in another light was important to Nance, and it went rather well.

“Being able to spend a good amount of time with them off the floor was a big thing, because you obviously (are) able to see on the floor and through the TV screen how good of players they we,” Nance said.

“But being able to spend time with them and see they’re just as good people as they are players, I think was something that was really something special for me and helped solidify my decision.”

A decision made for many reasons, each of which the boxes have already been checked. At least as much as they can until the games commence in November.