Men’s Basketball
Stanford transfer Cormac Ryan commits to Notre Dame
Observer Sports Staff | Tuesday, August 27, 2019
Notre Dame men’s basketball added to their already promising sophomore class with the addition of Stanford transfer Cormac Ryan. Ryan was first reported as entering the transfer portal on June 5 and officially committed Friday to the Irish.
A graduate of Milton Academy in Milton, Massachusetts, Ryan was highly touted throughout his prep career, entering Stanford as four-star commit and the sixth best high school shooting guard in the class of 2018, according to ESPN’s rankings. In high school Ryan averaged 23.5 points, seven rebounds and 5.5 assists. He scored 1,423 points throughout his three-year career at Milton. With the Cardinal, Ryan posted a solid rookie season, averaging 8.7 points and shooting 73.7% from the charity stripe. He struggled at times from long distance, shooting just over 30% from the 3-point line.
Ryan is the second player to transfer out of the Stanford program this season and the fourth to do so in two seasons. Stanford finished 10th in the Pac-12 and struggled to close out many conference matchups. Additionally, their leading scorer — KZ Okpala — was recently selected by the Phoenix Suns with the 32nd pick in the NBA Draft, before getting traded to the Miami Heat and leaving the Cardinal after two seasons.
Meanwhile, the Irish are coming off two of their worst seasons in the head coach Mike Brey era. Since joining the ACC six seasons ago, the Irish mounted three-straight top-five conference finishes, including an ACC Tournament title. However, they‘ve struggled recently, finishing 10th in 2017-2018 — in part due to injuries to key players — and 15th this past season.
Brey and his staff did, however, pick up a strong recruiting class in 2018 with key four-star commitments from sophomores Robby Carmody, Dane Goodwin, Prentiss Hubb and Nate Laszewski. While Carmody sat out the majority of this past season due to a torn labrum in his shoulder, the other three earned significant time in the rotation and will likely see increased responsibilities this upcoming season.
Ryan will sit out this upcoming season and is expected to be eligible for the 2020-2021 season.
A version of this story was published June 30.
