Notre Dame Basketball has some holes still in its front court depth at the moment. The Irish should be putting on a fullcourt press to try and get graduate transfer, Pete Nance, to them for the upcoming season.
The Notre Dame basketball program got some great news on Wednesday night when forward Nate Laszewski announced that he would be returning for his fifth season for one last go around in South Bend.
This is huge news for the Notre Dame front court with the loss of graduate transfer Paul Atkinson Jr. no longer being on the Irish roster anymore. The Irish are still looking to add more front court depth in the transfer portal after striking out and missing on multiple guys throughout the offseason so far. One guy who the Irish coaching staff should be reaching out to is former Northwestern big man Pete Nance.
Earlier in the off-season, Nance declared for the NBA Draft, but also entered the transfer portal as well. The Ohio native in Nance withdrew from the NBA Draft this past Wednesday meaning he is going to be playing his final year someplace other than Northwestern.
Mike Brey and the rest of the coaching staff should be reaching out to Nance daily on trying to recruit him, and pitch to him that Notre Dame would be a great place to finish out his career.
Nance last season averaged 14.6 points, 6.5 rebounds, 2.7 assists, and shot 49% from the floor. This would be a great plug into a roster that already features shooters like Dane Goodwin, Cormac Ryan, Marcus Hammond, incoming freshman JJ Starling, and fellow big man Laszewski.
It will not be easy to get Nance as he will likely have a lot of suitors that will want him to come join their roster. A few rumored schools so far are Illinois and North Carolina. What Mike Brey and the coaching staff at Notre Dame could try and pitch to Nance is a lot of playing time.
Yes, the other schools obviously can pitch playing time to Nance as well, but can they guarantee him a starting spot? The Irish have a huge hole at the five-spot with Atkinson Jr. not being there this upcoming season.
Notre Dame will have sophomore Matt Zona, and two incoming freshmen in Ven-Allen Lubin and Dom Campbell on the roster at the forward position other than Laszewski. We have not really seen enough of Zona yet during his time at Notre Dame to know if he is ready to step in and be the center, but it is hard to imagine seeing both freshmen forwards cracking the rotation right away.
Nance would bring another older presence to this already veteran group at Notre Dame. With what Notre Dame has on its roster right now at the guard positions, plus Laszewski it should find itself back in the NCAA tournament again in 2022-2023. Add a player like Nance and they could be a team that makes a deep run in March.
Brey should be doing all he can do to try and get Nance to finish out his career at Notre Dame. Will Nance listen? Time will tell, but Notre Dame fans would love to see Nance in South Bend playing for the Irish next season.