There are a lot of reasons to be excited about the 2022-23 UNC basketball season. The big reason is that UNC will return four of five starters from a Final Four team last season.
With a deep bench and a good freshman class, the Tar Heels are set to make another run. And a key player in their success could be in transfer Pete Nance.
The former Northwestern standout opted to transfer to North Carolina with the opportunity to start at forward. He will play a Brady Manek-like role for UNC and hope to provide a spark on the perimeter.
Ahead of the season, On3’s Jamie Shaw wrote on his top transfers this season and right there near the top is Nance:
The interesting question here will be can how Pete Nance and returning All-American Armando Bacot co-exist. Both players have the look of traditional five men, especially with who they can guard. On the periphery, Nance will be tasked with replacing the production Brady Manek provided. While Nance is not the shooter Manek was, the Northwestern transfer did knock down 45.2 percent of his threes on 3.1 attempts per game last season. Will last season’s spot shooting be the norm moving forward, or will Nance revert back to his 31.2 percent shooting from the previous three seasons combined?
Nance doesn’t have to exactly be Manek but if he provides any production like Manek did, it should mean good things for this Tar Heels’ team.