SOUTH BEND, Ind. — Cormac Ryan rolled into Rolfs Athletics Hall on Saturday morning roughly 90 minutes before the first official Notre Dame men’s basketball practice was scheduled to start.
“I was here around 7:30 getting the body loose,” Ryan said, “greasing up these old wheels.”
The 6-foot-5, 195-pound Ryan is one of six graduate students on Notre Dame’s 13-man roster for the 2022-23 season. So even if Ryan feels old, he has plenty of company.
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A lot has changed for Ryan since he was preparing for last season. Entering his fourth season of college basketball and second as an eligible Irish player following a transfer from Stanford, Ryan had to fight for a spot in Notre Dame’s starting lineup. He won the job, which he held for the first nine games of the season.
Then head coach Mike Brey asked Ryan to come off the bench to make room for freshman Blake Wesley and senior Prentiss Hubb to start in the backcourt together. Ryan spent the better part of two months out of the starting lineup until an injury to forward Nate Laszewski created an opening. Ryan took advantage of the opportunity and started the last 12 games of the season. He played some of the best basketball of his career and averaged 13.4 points in that stretch.
Ryan really rose to the occasion in the NCAA Tournament with 16 points in a First Four victory over Rutgers and 29 points in a first-round victory over Alabama. He became the first Irish men’s basketball player to score at least 29 points in an NCAA Tournament game since Adrian Dantley’s 31 in 1976.
“That, obviously, felt great,” Ryan said more than six months later. “It felt even better, because I was able to help the team win and take key moments in big games.
“I know what I’m capable of. The team knows what we're capable of. We displayed a little bit of that last year, but by no means are we satisfied with our performance.”
Ryan scored just nine points in a 59-53 loss to Texas Tech that denied the 11th-seeded Irish a trip to the Sweet 16.
“Maybe we surprised some people,” Ryan said. “We didn't surprise ourselves, though. We were hungry for more. We wanted that Sweet 16. We wanted to be in San Francisco. We wanted the Elite 8. We had big goals.
“We still feel like we fell a little short. We have plans to get back there.”
Notre Dame will attempt to do so with a team not too dissimilar from last season’s roster. The Irish lost three major contributors to the professional ranks: Wesley, Hubb and forward Paul Atkinson Jr. Tasked with replacing them will be Niagara transfer guard Marcus Hammond and highly touted freshmen JJ Starling, a five-star point guard, and Ven-Allen Lubin, a four-star power forward.
That trio has joined what Brey has coined the “Big Three” of Ryan, Laszewski and guard Dane Goodwin and returning graduate senior guard Trey Wertz in a rotation of seven players. Sophomore guard J.R. Konieczny and junior forward Matt Zona will try to make the case for an eight-man rotation.
Starling and Lubin could both be in the starting lineup for the season opener against Radford on Nov. 10. The Irish will play in a “secret scrimmage” at DePaul on Oct. 23 and an official exhibition against Xavier (Louisiana) on Nov. 2.
“Our young guys are talented,” Ryan said. “Like we saw last year, we had a great group of veteran guys and some young guys contribute. That's going to be our group again. We have a bunch of old guys and a couple new guys who are talented.
“It's a good blend, and they're fitting in really well. They’re buying in. Just continuing to push, motivate them and set the standard for them.”
Ryan has already made an impression on Starling, who arrived on campus in the summer.
“He challenges me every day,” Starling said. “It’s frustrating sometimes when you don’t stop him. At the same time, I’m learning from him and picking up pieces from him.
“... He attacks every drive. You’re forced to guard up no matter what. He can shoot the ball, so you have to be able to play defense and get around screens on him.”
Ryan doesn’t have trouble being a vocal leader either. His voice echoes throughout practice much like a coach. He described himself as a loudmouth due to his predilection for communication.
Pair that with a new level of confidence from the way he finished last season and Ryan could be in line for a big season.
“The thing that’s neat about him,” Brey said, “and we talked about this at the end of the year, he has always guarded and he is our best voice. He wants to really win. He wants to be responsible of leading a team to win.
“Offensively, can we just slow him down a little bit? He was a little fast. He plays too hard on offense. He plays really hard on D, and that’s OK. But sometimes, don’t play too hard on offense.
“He’s really kind of downshifted. His tempo’s better. He’s making decisions with the ball better. Then when he has a shot, just take it with that beautiful stroke that he has.”
The way Ryan played in March better reflected his own belief in his game. He started to feel more like himself even if the level of play surpassed what he previously showed in his Notre Dame career. He hopes that kind of confidence will catch on with his teammates.
The Irish don’t just want to get back the NCAA Tournament in March. They want to make an even deeper run.
“The potential of this team is to be a Final Four team,” Ryan said. “I believe that wholeheartedly. We have the makings of a really high-powered offensive team. We’ve been building on our defense all year last year and all year this year. We're putting both ends of the floor together. We're a real threat.”
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