Friday’s ACC Portal News

Thursday was a slower day for the ACC in the portal but don’t kid yourself, there was huge news as Notre Dame’s Cormac Ryan committed to UNC.

If anyone is uncertain about whether or not that’s an upgrade from Caleb Love, let’s just clear that up: it’s a huge upgrade.

As everyone knew, including his coach and teammates, Love was as likely to shoot you out of a game as into it. He has NBA talent but an AAU mind.

That’s not Ryan. We were hugely impressed with him at Notre Dame and not least of all this past season, which was a real struggle. Whenever we watched him, he was intensely competitive. The guy played his ass off.

And unlike Love, he usually made good decisions.

And don’t overlook this: he’s a solid outside shooter which should free up Armando Bacot. He may not be as good a shooter as Brady Manek was, but you saw what Manek did. And we’ll say this too: at Notre Dame this past season, he had to play heavy minutes and also drew a lot of defensive attention.

It won’t surprise us at all if his percentage goes up significantly at UNC. That’s a great, great pickup for Hubert Davis and the Tar Heels.

Miami lost another player to the portal Thursday but it probably won’t make a big difference to lose Thomas Oosterbroek. He was a walk-on at Miami but maybe he’ll get a better chance somewhere else.

Jim Larranaga picked up an intriguing international recruit in Kyshawn George. He probably needs to bulk up but Larranaga says he’s a really smart player with unlimited range and that sounds pretty good from here.

And another intra-ACC transfer as NC State’s Jack Clark heads down to Tiger Town to play for Brad Brownell and Clemson. That’s a very interesting move for Clemson. Clark had his moments at State. Can he do better down south?

Incidentally, Syracuse’s Joe Girard will visit Clemson this weekend.

Former Pitt big man John Hugley has committed to Oklahoma where he’ll play for Porter Moser who appears to have OU on the rise.