UNC basketball snipes another ACC standout in transfer portal

Hubert Davis had to hit the transfer portal hard to get UNC basketball back on track and the Tar Heels now have a second ACC addition to boast.

In what has been a crucial offseason containing big challenges for UNC basketball, head coach Hubert Davis is doing what he can to make sure the Tar Heels get back on track.

Obviously, the decisions of Armando Bacot and RJ Davis to return to Chapel Hill amid the transfers of Caleb Love, Puff Johnson and Tyler Nickel, among others, have helped the Heels quite a bit, but Davis has been necessarily aggressive in the transfer portal, already landing two Top 100-ranked players in the portal in Brown transfer Paxton Wojcik and an ACC transfer in Louisville’s Jae’Lyn Withers.

Now there’s another ACC transfer joining UNC basketball.

On Thursday, Notre Dame transfer guard Cormac Ryan committed to North Carolina after a recent visit with Davis, as reported by Inside Carolina.

UNC basketball lands Notre Dame transfer Cormac Ryan in the portal

Ryan has entered the NBA Draft but left open his eligibility to return, which is likely to happen eventually before the May 31 deadline to withdraw his name. Moreover, he adds a much-needed skill set to the Tar Heels as Davis reshapes the roster.

In the 2022-23 season for a struggling Notre Dame team, Ryan averaged 12.3 points, 4.0 rebounds, 1.3 steals and 2.5 assists. However, UNC will be hoping that the 6-foot-5 guard will be able to recapture the shooting that he showed as a junior in South Bend when he converted on better than 40% of his 3-point attempts.

As a sweet-shooting perimeter player, Ryan gives the Heels a big boost offensively that they clearly lacked this past season en route to missing the NCAA Tournament, especially if he can shoot in the way he did as a junior — though his 34.4% 3-point shooting this past year wouldn’t hurt still.

Now the big question becomes what’s next for Hubert Davis and UNC basketball as they likely still aren’t done in the transfer portal. With visits set with Stanford’s Harrison Ingram and Florida State’s Matthew Cleveland, there is still the potential to add another immediate impact player to a roster that is going to look drastically different than it did a year ago.

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