Cormac Ryan, whose five-year college basketball career includes stops at Stanford and Notre Dame, is transferring to UNC to play his sixth and final season.

The No. 60 recruit in the class of 2018, Ryan played one season at Stanford, making 17 starts and averaging 8.7 points per game before transferring to Notre Dame. After sitting out the then-required one season post-transfer, Ryan played three seasons for the Fighting Irish under head coach Mike Brey. Ryan made 70 starts and never averaged fewer than nine points per game.

Ryan shot a career-best 40.7 percent on three-pointers during the 2021-22 season, when the Irish finished second in the ACC regular-season standings and won two NCAA Tournament games. In 2022-23, he started every game for Notre Dame and averaged a career-high 12.3 points per game, though his three-point percentage dipped down to 34.4.

Ryan has played in six career games against the Tar Heels, with Carolina winning five times. Perhaps his most notable sequence against UNC came in Chapel Hill last season, when Ryan was involved in a dust-up with Puff Johnson and Caleb Love after a breakaway dunk by Johnson. Perhaps fortunately for Ryan (and the Tar Heels), neither Johnson nor Love are in Chapel Hill anymore.

Ryan’s commitment means Carolina has three open scholarship spots remaining on its roster for the 2023-24 season.


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