Meh I disagree. He was probably our most physical talented but our +/- was not really impacted with him on or off the court.
Regarding Pete Nance
- Thread starter lou v
- Start date
I disagree with you saying it wasn’t close. Sure he might have been, but Young was dominant at times too when given the chance. There were games that Boo took over as well. I’m just saying he was not our best player by a landslide. I probably would have been more devastated losing Julian Roper.
I'm surprised that none of the NU FY's transferred. Simmons looked very unhappy at the end of the year. And Roper looks like a solid B1G player, he'd have opportunities elsewhere. Maybe they like playing for Coach Collins?
If Roper had put his name in the transfer portal, where do you think his options would have been? Would they have been better than his offer list? What about his freshman year performance makes you think that?
I'd be really surprised if he would be transferring to a program on the level of UNC or Gonzaga, but maybe.
I have NU getting outscored 1068 - 1050 when Nance was playing (eliminating garbage time).
Thats essentially a 72.4 - 71.2 losing pace.
When Nance wasn't playing, we got outscored 522 - 467.
Thats essentially a 70.3 - 62.9 losing pace.
I'd say thats a pretty significant difference.
If you compare that to Robbie Beran...
We got outscored 893 - 821 when Beran was on the court (73.6 - 67.6)
We only got outscored 697 - 696 when Beran was on the bench (69.4 - 69.3)
In other words, Beran was a significant net negative.
When Boo Buie was on the bench, we got outscored at a 73.1 - 66.0 pace.
When Buie was on the court, we got outscored at a 71.2 - 69.3 pace.
That puts his importance to the team almost on par with Pete Nance.
When Nance and Buie played together and Beran was on the bench, we outscored our opponents 282 - 258, a successful 70.3 - 64.3 pace.
Interesting perspective there, PWB. Thanks for doing the number crunching.
He’s pretty good for a tallest midget- the pros aren’t showing interest for no reason. He’s got areas he still needs to improve, but 6’10” guys with his handles, passing ability and stroke from 3 are valuable.
I agree with that. He can shoot from distance. 45% from 3 is like 67% from inside the arc.
And he is versatile.
Not a great athlete though - too stiff, can't put the ball on the floor and drive...
But he has his strengths and could be a useful player, part time, situational, etc.
I think most of us would have been more devastated had Roper moved on. Young wasn’t on the court due to defense. I don’t care what rebounding per minute says. He is in a great situation at Duke. He would have been silly to come back to NU for another bottom half finish. Take your shot at tourney glory and say you played with x number of NBA players. Nance, needs to go with players are are similar to him in skills. Any chance at the NBA would be a complimentary role. Join any team that has 2 or more NBA prospects. Again, would have been silly to come back to NU. Boo was clearly the second best player on the team. His issue was he actually hurt the team when he was subpar. That’s because he takes his shots no matter what and he is another poor defender. Nance tended not to hurt you with his subpar games. Disappeared at times, and hurt you at the line, but usually didn’t shoot you out of games.
Here are NU’s top 5 in boxscore plus-minus (BPM) this season:
Nance 8.6
Buie 2.9
Young 2.8
Beran 1.7
Audige 1.0
If a gap of 8.6 to 2.9 seems large, it’s because it is. Here’s a list of every NU player in the last 15 years who had season of higher than 8.6 BPM:
John Shurna
That’s it, and he did it once. Pete is good.
It also doesn't help him to frequently be playing out of position. I don't necessarily blame Collins for doing that, since he clearly didn't think he had anyone on the roster who could start and play full time at the 5, but NU's frontcourt is going to be even worse this year and if Nance came back he'd probably be right back there.
It’s the reason he isn’t going to Illinois. He doesn’t want to play the five. Perhaps a school like UNC or Michigan that has an opening at the four.
Uh, to have anybody else on the roster who can play well at the 5, you have to actually try and recruit guys who are taller than 6'6. Bill Carmody didn't know that going for a rebound is legal in the college game, and he still recruited circles around CCC when its comes to actual post players.... which isn't saying much.
Could Nance play power forward in the NBA? He's a very solid college player but lacks perimeter quickness and is nowhere near the shot creator that Shurna was. Collins playing him as a 5 was the best thing for his development and came at the cost of force-feeding Beran minutes instead of Young. I think his route to the NBA is as a center who can score at all three levels and defend inside with quickness if not overwhelming size.
I disagree. He will get tossed around by most nba centers and can’t keep up in nba small ball lineups.
Well...that's not really the case, but regardless he would most certainly be posted up as a defensive 5 in the NBA. He gives up 30 pounds to even the power forwards playing center in the NBA. He's likely physically overmatched in terms of strength even as a stretch 4 in the NBA.
All that said, playing the 5 in a college offense doesn't prepare him very well to play the sort of positionless basketball you note anyway. His hope in the pros is as a stretch 4, not a small 5.
And he has not bent his legs on defense for 2 years. Should bode well against all those positionless bigs. He’ll have no problem staying in front of them.
It was atrocious for the team. It was atrocious for his development.
Four great mysteries
"Where is Jimmy Hoffa's body?"
"Why did George Custer split his forces at the Little Bighorn?"
"What killed the dinosaurs?"
"Why didn't Northwestern's Chris Collins play Pete Nance at the 4 and Ryan Young at the 5?"
dont want to argue but can you name a post up center that plays the majority of his time with his back to the basket the majority of the time ? totally agree that no matter what position Nance plays he has a chance of getting pushed around by stonger, bigger dudes.
from an article written in 2017...
"I remember it like it was yesterday," Durant said on Wednesday. "All the strength coaches were laughing at me and sh*t. They were giggling with each other that I couldn’t lift 185 pounds, and I was like, 'All right, keep laughing. Keep laughing.' It was a funny thing, because I was the only one that couldn’t lift it, and I was struggling to lift it. I was embarrassed at that point, but I’m like, 'Give me a basketball, please. Give me a ball.'"
"Durant’s 7-foot-5 wingspan, for example, was second-best among all prospects."
"But he was the only draft prospect to fail to do a single 185-pound rep at the combine in 2007."
Remember When Everyone Freaked Out After Kevin Durant Struggled to Lift Weights at the NBA Combine?
Kevin Durant is calling for NBA Draft prospects to skip the NBA Combine. He infamously struggled to bench press 185 pounds during the 2007 combine.
Yeah...and now even Kevin Durant has 20 pounds on Pete. I know there was talk of him playing center in a small-ball lineup, but has it actually happened. I can't find any evidence of it.
I’d be shocked if Pete played any meaningful stretch of games as a 4 or 5 before coming to Evanston. I say this as it was apparent to me he was 100 times more comfortable facing than with his back to the basket.
I hope he picks UNC and then he will play against Ryan Young at least twice next year. Also wherever he lands, we will hear that he first played at Northwestern at least once a game. Its a big change seeing some NU student athletes transfer to schools that a step up in basketball programs.
Used to be, we took flopped transfers but better programs. Now, we’re the late-career pipeline for the blue bloods. Progress! (?)
(I can still remember Gary Danielson, on that formerly-great post-Thanksgiving Colorado-Nebraska rivalry game, saying about six-TD Chris Brown, “this guy used to go to Northwestern?” Life was simple then.)
Yep it's the new reality of the NCAA basketball world. It is still disappointing to see key players like Young and Nance choosing not to return to NU. I don't blame them at all, but it is a sad commentary on the state of the program.
