Lucas: Confident Nickel A Talented Scorer

By Adam Lucas

Tyler Nickel immediately chuckles, making it obvious he has given this question some significant thought.

He has been asked how often he has been underestimated, and how that has shaped his basketball career.

"That's been the story of my life," he says. "I come from a place that isn't very notable, that not a lot of people know about."

That place is Harrisonburg, Va. And while it may not be a basketball hotbed—Nickel is the first player ever from his high school, East Rockingham, to play Division I basketball—his achievements there were quite noteworthy.

He is the state of Virginia's all-time leading scorer, having poured in 2,909 points in 102 career games. He is the four-time region and district player of the year. He scored 54 points in one game. His career per-game scoring average, which means it includes when he was just a skinny little freshman going up against players four years older than him, is 28.5 points per game.

So, yes, he dominated his level. But that doesn't necessarily mean he proved he was good enough to play at Carolina. That came in the summers, when he played with the prestigious Team Loaded squad, a program that formerly also featured Armando Bacot.

In an AAU gym, Nickel's high school scoring credentials didn't matter. And he was frequently the target of some skepticism from his opponents.

"We were playing in an AAU tournament, and on one of the first possessions, I was guarding somebody," Nickel says, and the identity of the "somebody" remains nameless, although he makes it clear he knows exactly who he is talking about and this player is on a Power Five roster. "He attacked me, I cut him off, and the official called a block. The guy handling the ball said, 'This white guy can't mess with me.' I was like, 'OK, we'll see. We jawed back and forth a little bit.'"

So Nickel has always had the edge. That aggressiveness has followed him to Chapel Hill, where he has looked confident from the first day he stepped on the Smith Center court. But, in perhaps a bit of a surprise given the fact that he hasn't seen the wrong side of a bench in most of his basketball life, Nickel has also been extremely hungry to learn from the more experienced players in front of him.

"These older guys and upperclassmen have earned it," he says. "They've been here, they've put in the time and the work. In my  eyes, they are pros. I will do whatever it takes to win. Whatever they need me to do is what they will get from me. I have absolutely no problem with being behind guys who have been through what I'm about to go through. They are also great leaders, and they're putting me in a position to be as successful as I can when the opportunity comes."

It's easy to imagine Hubert Davis' eyes lighting up when he hears quotes like that one. On a team that has the potential to be a deep one, the mindset of doing whatever is asked, whenever it's asked, is a fast way to earn minutes.

But there's another aspect of Nickel's personality that is likely to connect with the Tar Heel head coach, a fellow Virginia native. Nickel is an outstanding shooter, and has already won the confidence of the coaching staff in giving him some freedom to identify good shots and take them.

The way he views those shots is insightful.

"I can shoot the ball, and I've shown that in workouts and I have a history there," Nickel says. "But part of it is also my confidence and the way I carry myself in those situations. I'm never going to play scared. I'll never be afraid to take a shot."

And he'll never be afraid of a challenge. You're likely wondering the eventual outcome of that AAU game in which his opponent doubted Nickel's abilities.

"I ended up with 40 points," he says. "And I told him, 'You know what it is now. Don't try and come at me in some type of way.'"

His opponent's response?

"He just said, 'Good game,'" Nickel says. And he laughs.

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University of North Carolina Athletics

Players Mentioned

Armando Bacot

Tyler Nickel

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