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Note: Pete Nance interview posted below this piece.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA – Pete Nance took a few minutes during halftime Tuesday night to offer a teaching lesson to teammate Jalen Washington.

It was really all Nance could do to help North Carolina in its quest to upset No. 13 Virginia at John Paul Jones Arena because he was sidelined for the second consecutive game dealing with a lower back issue.

With Armando Bacot leaving the game 78 second in and not returning, Washington was UNC’s main big man, and gave the team a lift scoring 12 of his 13 points in the first half. When the Tar Heels came out for warmups before the start of the second half, Nance spent about five minutes talking with Washington and showing him some pointers.

“Just some stuff on both sides of the ball, just trying to help him out,” Nance said in the locker room following Carolina 65-58 loss. “He was playing so well and I was trying to give him some things I’ve experienced, and older guys early on my career had taught me.”

Nance, who is averaging 10.9 points and 5.1 rebounds, doesn’t mind offering teammates advice, but he’d rather get back onto the court in his role as the Tar Heels’ starting forward, but when that will happen is anyone’s guess right now.

The 6-foot-11 transfer from Northwestern suffered the injury in the first half of a loss at Pittsburgh on December 30. He tried playing versus Wake Forest the following week, but left the game with 18:12 left before halftime, and hasn’t played since.

“I can’t remember what movement it was, but I remember it was just hurting afterward,” he said about the injury, which occurred when he reached for the ball after is was swiped away against the Panthers.

UNC Coach Hubert Davis has maintained Nance is making great progress in recovering, and the word from the program before each of the last two games has been that Nance was a gametime decision. However, he didn’t do much in warmups before either game, and clearly didn’t appear ready to play.

But now with Bacot dealing with a sprained ankle that could sideline him for a game or more, having Nance healthy and back in the lineup is even more of a pressing need for the Heels. He isn’t rushing it, and neither is Carolina.

“I’m going to just keep working on my back every day and trying to get it better and better,” Nance said.

Needles to say, he has one season in Chapel Hill and has basically missed the last three games, and there’s no denying he would have been a valuable asset in UNC’s loss to the Wahoos on Tuesday night. Nance felt helpless sitting there watching, even though he turned coach for a few minutes with Washington.

“It’s hard, obviously,” Nance said. “I want to be out there to help, this would have been a really, really good win for us. But I’ve just got to continue to put the work in on my back and just try to continue to get better every day.”

UNC, which is 11-6 overall and 3-3 in the ACC, travels to Louisville on Saturday for a 2:00 PM start.