No one answered at first and then from the back of the bus, Casey Nance piped up:
“I will.”
Jabir smiled and nodded: “I thought you would ... but you know you won’t be on it then. You’ll be the one holding it.”
Nance just grinned: “No problem. I’ll figure it out.”
There was no doubt about that.
When it comes to cameras this year, Nance — as well as the older of her two brothers, Larry Nance Jr., the high-flying freshman forward for the Universiuty of Wyoming basketball team — have shown themselves to be picture-perfect.
Casey is the 6-foot-5 senior center of the UD women’s team that plays Arkansas this afternoon in College Station in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
All year she’s starred on her own show, “Casey and Co.,” that has given a behind-the-scenes look at the Flyers team. It’s sort of a poor man’s version of “MTV Cribs” and “Globe Trekker,” with a little “Mike & Mike” thrown in.
There have been 11 episodes, but it’s only shown only on the Flyers’ website.
Although that’s a pretty limited viewership, Nance and her teammates will expand the audience considerably today when their game is broadcast on ESPN2. Tamika Raymond — known here as Tamika Williams when she was a hoops star at Chaminade Julienne, then UConn and in the WNBA — will be one of the commentators.
And yet Nance will still have to go some to create more of a ripple than her brother has this year.
His soaring, down-the-lane, one-handed dunk over a cowering San Diego State player has become a YouTube hit. It was the Top Ten Play of the Day on ESPN and made him one of eight finalists in the ESPN2 College Dunk of the Year contest.
Voting has been talking place on-line and Casey has had the entire Flyers team voting for her brother — every day.
“I’m excited for him because I don’t have the family’s jumping ability, unfortunately,” she said with a shrug. “Luckily it went to him, so he’ll be able to carry on the legacy.”
Their father is 6-foot-10 Larry Nance Sr., the longtime NBA star with the Phoenix Suns and Cleveland Cavaliers. A three-time NBA All-Star who averaged 17 points and eight rebounds a game, he may be best known for winning the first NBA Slam Dunk Competition in 1984. When he reverse-jammed two basketballs in a single leap, he beat a pair of celebrated dunk masters in Dr. J Julius Erving and Dominique Wilkins.
The Nance children — Casey, who just turned 22 on Thursday, Larry Jr. and 12-year-old Pete — all wear No. 22 in honor of their dad, whose jersey number was retired by the Cavaliers.
Larry Sr. and wife Jaynee come to most of Casey’s games, though you’d never know it. The NBA legend is always a low-key presence.
“When they came here to visit, the first time I met them we walked around for three hours and her dad never said one word about himself or talked about his career,” Jabir said. “Casey is a lot like her dad that way. She’s very, very unassuming.”
Growing up in Akron the daughter of an NBA legend, she did have a few things different in her life than some of her teammates did. Her house has a mini-basketball court inside.
“Really it was like a formal dining room, but we’re not a very formal family and we never used it,” she said. “Then one day my dad decided he was gonna put a wood floor in there and make it like the key on a basketball court.
“It’s not a big room by any means, but we do have a foul line and the hoop and backboard on the wall so you can shoot free throws. It’s definitely a conversation piece.”
Here in Dayton, the house near the student ghetto she shares with teammate Elle Queen has a bargain-basement rendition of that. Instead of a basketball hoop, they have a $30 ping-pong table they bought off craigslist.
Nance has forged her own way here at UD, and with her fellow senior teammates, she has done a great job of it.
The Flyers are 23-6 and just won the Atlantic 10 Conference tournament. While that was their ticket to today’s game, they have now made the NCAA Tournament three years in a row.
“The class that came before them gave our program legitimacy and made it credible to come here, but these guys have taken it to a whole new level,” Jabir said. “This class has lifted us to the national spotlight and national rankings.”
While Justine Raterman has gotten much more publicity on the court and fellow senior starters Patrice Lalor and Queen have a little bit better statistics, Nance has been as impressive in many ways, Jabir said.
While she’s averaging 5.2 points and 4.3 rebounds, she’s made a name as a defender inside and with 210 blocked shots she is just 10 away from becoming UD’s all-time shot blocker.
What’s most impressive is that she’s managed all this while going through three serious surgeries on her right knee.
“She is really courageous,” Jabir said. “She’s always played in pain for us. Even though she hasn’t had a surgery this year, her knees are pretty shot. When she’s 40 she’s going to be remembering us for a lot of reasons.”
In turn, he said, he will always remember her:
“She’s kind of got the complete package. She could walk onto the set of ESPN and charm them to death. What people don’t always recognize is her athleticism, her agility, her hands, intelligence and her unselfishness.
“She’s just a great human being and she’s a pretty good basketball player, too.”
And maybe today the cameras — the one focused on the NCAA Tournament court, not just the one she is holding — will capture that.
About the Author