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The 2022-23 UNC basketball season began with plenty of promise. North Carolina found itself months removed from a surprise appearance in the National Championship game, plus it returned the likes of Armando Bacot and RJ Davis.
Those Tar Heels also welcomed in a 4-man recruiting class, which included Seth Trimble and sharpshooter Tyler Nickel. The latter never panned out during his lone season at UNC, with Nickel transferring to Virginia Tech for Year Two.
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Now in his senior campaign at Vanderbilt, Nickel is thriving with a career-best 14.9 points per game. In a recent appearance on Andy Elliott's "Same Time Next Week" podcast, Nickel talked about his initial decision behind committing to North Carolina.
“So going into the (official) visit, I really didn’t know," Nickel said. "A lot of people ran with the narrative that UNC was my dream school – and I wanted to go there so bad. That was never the case. It was cool, I’d always liked UNC because being on the East Coast, loving the ACC. I always watched and liked them, but I never really had a dream school. So everybody kind of ran with that. But then, I went on my visit and I liked the guys, when we played and I played well and the visit and everything, the energy from the coaches was cool. That’s what made me decide to go there after the visit. There’s a lot of stuff that people ran with that wasn’t true."
Nickel and the Tar Heels are both in great situations. Nickel has Vandy a perfect 14-0 heading into Wednesday night's clash with Alabama, while UNC is 13-2 heading into Saturday's clash with Wake Forest.
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This article originally appeared on Tar Heels Wire: Tyler Nickel says UNC Basketball was 'never his dream school'
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