CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — February in South Bend, Indiana, is notoriously chilly, with highs barely above freezing and cloud cover unsurprising. Good days are when the wind chill doesn’t have a bite, and there’s enough sunlight to reflect off Notre Dame’s famed golden dome.
Sitting 20 minutes from the Michigan border, the city is what one might expect from a midwestern college town. Restaurants carry the typical American fare, residents have plenty of churches to choose from, and small museums educate visitors on the area’s history. A 15-minute drive separates one side of town from the other.
It’s slow paced and unassuming. Cormac Ryan spent four years playing basketball with the Fighting Irish after leaving Stanford.
He helped Notre Dame earn a 2022 NCAA Tournament bid, its first since 2017. He received the team’s Defensive Player of the Year award that season and remains one of the program’s best career free throw shooters. Off the court, he regularly volunteered with a local homeless shelter.
When Ryan first arrived in South Bend five years ago, he intended to end his collegiate career at Purcell Pavilion.
Then, Covid-19 happened. The NCAA gave student-athletes an additional year of eligibility. Coach Mike Brey retired last year and Ryan entered the transfer portal. Carolina came calling.
Opposing fans often taunt Armando Bacot, 23, for his five-year career with UNC. They forget Ryan, 25, is older and in his sixth year of school. He’s the only Tar Heel born in the 1990s.
Ryan didn’t anticipate being in school as long as he has. It’s finally coming to an end, though, and he’ll play his alma mater on senior night. The Tar Heels’ season won’t be over, but it’ll evoke gratitude for every opportunity along the way.
“I’ve been through a lot, and I know that there’s a lot left ahead, too,” Ryan told the News & Observer. “I’m grateful but I’m also excited. I’m looking forward to what we can do going into the postseason and wherever basketball takes me.”
‘As big as you can get in college basketball’
North Carolina fans rushed Franklin Street at Columbia Street — a time-honored tradition — on Feb. 3 after the Tar Heels beat Duke, 94-83. They shared pizza and alcoholic beverages, climbed poles, took pictures and burned Blue Devils memorabilia. Among the celebrants? None other than Cormac Ryan.
The guard found himself in more than a dozen photos on Instagram, at least the ones in which he was tagged, partying with his Chapel Hill comrades.
That sort of passion drew him to the program. He attended Stanford as a freshman (2018-19) before spending the better part of his career at Notre Dame (2019-23). All three schools share similarities, but the degree to which they prioritize basketball doesn’t compare.
“That’s something that was really attractive to me coming in,” Ryan said. “Carolina’s got a history that speaks for itself. I wanted to be a part of impacting winning on the biggest stage. This is about as big as you can get in college basketball.”
But how did he get to Chapel Hill? Ryan pursued two paths last offseason, entering the NBA Draft for evaluation while considering opportunities as a graduate transfer.
The Carolina staff watched him train in Chicago last spring, where Hubert Davis pitched the Tar Heels. Ryan could bolster the backcourt and defense, while providing leadership and unbridled fervor. The veteran player could join the likes of RJ Davis and Bacot in a major roster reload.
Lamar Reddicks remembers coaches calling about Ryan. Reddicks works at Milton Academy, located in a Boston suburb, as the boys basketball coach and athletic director.
“I was like, ‘I haven’t coached Cormac in five years. Why are you calling me?’” Reddicks joked.
The duo discussed Ryan’s options. He outlined everything in painstaking detail — each team’s pace of play, the programs needing a shooter, his expected role — and had the assessment down to a science.
UNC came out on top.
‘I root for him every day’
Harrison Ingram dribbles the ball just outside the lane. A Miami double-team prevents him from driving inside. Ingram passes to Ryan on the right wing.
Catch. Shoot. Swish.
Entering the game, Ryan shot 14 of 27 from 3-point range in the previous three contests. He finished 1 of 9 against the Hurricanes. He went 0 of 6 in the Heels’ loss to Clemson on Feb. 6.
Ryan would be the first to say his numbers haven’t met expectations. The graduate student has made 32.1% of his attempts from deep, an average skewed by nine outings under 25% and another five when he made them at a clip of 50% or better.
He wants perfection and reliability, not inconsistency.
Part of Ryan’s impact, though, and the reason the Tar Heels wanted him in the first place, goes beyond scoring. He understands how to stay measured and trust his preparation. Plus he manages balance a “happy-go-lucky” personality with a drive for greatness.
Sophomore Seth Trimble said the younger players tease Ryan “every single day” for being the oldest guy on the team, but deep down the Tar Heels appreciate him.
“He’s been through it all. He’s been to the tournament. He’s been in all these situations,” Trimble said. “For him to be able to bring that age and experience for us, it helps a lot of us younger guys.”
Jae’Lyn Withers likens Ryan to a “player coach” and admires his intensity.
RJ Davis, on the same night he set a Smith Center scoring record with 42 points against Miami, called his teammate a role model. Plus, Ryan cares about everyone.
“One thing I always talk about is he’s intense,” RJ Davis said, though Ryan’s mom would like to see him smile more. “He fills the locker room with his voice, always grabs pointers and pulls guys along.”
Hubert Davis credited Ryan on Saturday for helping the Tar Heels pull off a comeback win over N.C. State. UNC trailed by eight points at halftime, but Ryan’s defensive effort on the Wolfpack’s DJ Horne contributed to the team’s victory.
“It isn’t like high school where you just start playing defense when your man gets the ball. There’s a preparation in the way that you play in order to put yourself in a position even have a chance to stop somebody defensively. I thought Cormac took that challenge,” Hubert Davis said. “He brings so much to this team that allows us to be successful, not just the shooting and his leadership, but his competitiveness to step up and defend.”
Reddicks remains unsurprised by Ryan’s role at Carolina. He remembers the afternoons sitting together, Ryan in a chair in Reddick’s office talking basketball, and the years of work in devotion to winning. Reddicks witnessed the guidance Ryan gave younger athletes and the way he always took time for others.
The graduate student’s grandmother, Veronica McNicholas, described him as the “leader of the pack” among his four siblings, while developing unique relationships with each one.
Ryan’s nature marries competition and building bonds and he brought that to Carolina.
“He’s just a super intense player who loves the game of basketball, but he’s also a wonderful young man,” Reddicks said. “I root for him every day, in every game.”
Nature vs. nurture
Are a person’s experiences and characteristics formed by genetics or the environment? Psychologists say both. Ryan’s basketball career is an example of that.
He comes by his physical abilities naturally. He’s listed at 6-foot-5 and 195 pounds, but Reddicks knew Ryan would be special early on. Ryan moves fluidly, with shifty footwork and innate spatial recognition. That’s the biological side.
His upbringing had a bigger impact. Both parents played the sport. His father, Michael; older brother, Thomas; and younger sister, Summer, earned spots on college basketball rosters. Summer now competes for Haverford track and field. The siblings spent years playing against each other as kids.
Ryan, the second oldest of five, recalls days in the gym, playing against his siblings and rebounding for each other.
Growing up in Manhattan fostered Ryan’s passion for basketball, as well. He lived around history, playing along Carmine Street, and heard stories from his grandfather about the years before professional basketball expanded west.
“Being able to play in those environments, surrounded by basketball, was something that made me fall in love with the game even more,” Ryan said. “It’s got a different feel, a different flair to it coming from New York City. There’s a lot of passion behind it, a lot of competitiveness. That’s something I always loved and enjoyed — going out, playing and being able to compete in whatever environment or situation.”
Then, there’s Tom McNicholas. Ryan called his maternal grandfather an “unbelievable figure” and credits him for starting “the basketball train” in the immediate family.
McNicholas began playing at age 13 and continued as an adult, competing for the Rockville Center Over-40 League in Long Island. He registered at age 52 and remained with the league for more than two decades, and, for several years, played against his son, Tom McNicholas Jr.
Maybe that’s where Ryan got his stamina for a long collegiate career. (Although, the graduate student admits playing into his 70s probably won’t happen.)
Regardless if Ryan’s career gets any longer, the family is proud of the way he took every opportunity and turned them into six years of development and lifelong relationships.
“Cormac, to be playing at this level, it’s sort of like a dream come true for us and for the family,” McNicholas said. “It’s a tremendous honor. He loves it down there, he really loves the team … and it’s been a wonderful experience.”
A super senior sendoff
Lamar Reddicks’ phone lit up with a notification. Cormac Ryan sent a text.
“Happy Father’s Day,” it said. Almost six years after graduating high school, the now-Tar Heel remains one of the first people to send Reddicks well wishes on the holiday.
It’s a simple way to show appreciation for the man who invested so much time into Ryan’s personal and athletic evolution. Reddicks and his son — who was in elementary school when Ryan attended Milton — plan to be in Chapel Hill on Tuesday alongside the Ryan and McNicholas families.
“I am grateful. That’s something I think is hard to do, especially when you’re still playing,” Ryan said. “You want to take in the moment and you want to soak up the fact that this is something that not everyone gets to do — especially at a place like Carolina, especially at the level that we’re doing it at — but it’s important to draw a line between being grateful and being complacent, because you can sit back and watch how great everything is and lose your edge.”
Ryan doesn’t expect any sentimentality related to the Irish’s trip to Carolina since it features a new coaching staff and roster, but he’ll take a few moments to reflect.
The 25-year-old’s journey spans nearly 6,100 miles from his high school in Massachusetts to every stop since then. He’s won big games and lost them, too. It features a bachelor’s degree, MBA, an in-progress master’s degree, his fair share of injuries and even more relationships.
After brief contemplation, he’ll slip the game face back on and get to work. There’s a Final Four still on the line.
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