Friedlander: Cormac Ryan, Harrison Ingram provide a blue-collar toughness to blue-blood UNC

CHARLOTTE, NC – Cormac Ryan is sporting a shiner around his right eye. It’s a souvenir he brought home from the ACC Tournament in Washington last week after a championship game collision with NC State’s Casey Morsell.

The yellowing bruise also serves as a not-so-subtle hint as to what’s ahead for Ryan and his teammates in Saturday’s 2nd-round NCAA West Region matchup against Michigan State.

As much as the top-seeded Tar Heels would like to play to their strength by getting out and running against the 9th-seeded Spartans, they’re already digging in for what promises to be a physical, grind-it-out battle.

It’s exactly the type of game at exactly the time of year UNC coach Hubert Davis had in mind when he plucked Ryan and fellow veteran newcomer Harrison Ingram off the transfer portal from Notre Dame and Stanford, respectively.

Though their styles are opposite, the toughness they bring to the court has been a major reason for the Tar Heels’ rise back to the top line of the NCAA bracket after missing out on the tournament a year ago.

As important as their scoring, rebounding and defense will be on Saturday at Spectrum Center, it’s their contributions that won’t show up on the stat sheet that will have the biggest impact on whether UNC heads to Los Angeles for the Sweet 16 next week or back home to Chapel Hill.

“We’ve got to bring the edge, bring the fight,” Ryan said. “Michigan State’s a tough team and the Big Ten is a tough conference. But we’re a tough team. We’ve shown that all year. That’s really what gets us going.”

That hasn’t always been the case.

Toughness, both physical and mental, was a quality in short supply for the Tar Heels last season.

It was the biggest difference between the team that caught fire late and battled all the way to the national championship game in 2022 and the one that imploded from within despite virtually the same lineup a year later.

UNC sorely missed the edginess and leadership provided by Brady Manek, the one starter who didn’t return. It’s an element that has been restored in stereo with the addition of Ryan and Ingram.

“They definitely have that same edge and toughness to them,” star big man Armando Bacot said. “At any moment they could just snap and everybody will look around. Then it will fire us up, too. Having them is great, too, because they bring as much experience and maturity as any of us.”

Experience and maturity can be manifested in many different ways. And the duo of Ryan and Ingram are prime examples.

Ryan, a 6-5 shooting guard who averages 11.2 points per game, was described by his teammates as “psychotic” after torching rival Duke for 31 points in a regular season-ending win at Cameron Indoor Stadium.

It’s a description that goes way beyond his ability to rise to the occasion under the most difficult circumstances.

He has an Eddie Haskell vibe about him, the kind that makes you wonder whether he’s up to no good behind that innocent smile. And he plays that way, throwing himself all over the floor in pursuit of loose balls and raising his voice to light a fire under his teammates.

Ryan had one such moment in Thursday’s opening round NCAA win against Wagner.

“In the 1st half when we were a little rough, Cormac told us in the huddle that we need to lock in because stuff like this springboards into the next game,” Bacot said. “Him saying that, it really sparked in our mind that we don’t want to gain any bad habits.”

Ingram is just as much of a “dog” on the court, as Bacot described him. But he has much less bite in his bark than Ryan.

At least off the court.

The 6-7 forward is the kind of young man who seems to always have a smile on his face. He spends his free time playing virtual chess online and keeps his teammates loose with his jokes in the locker room.

But once he steps foot onto the court, he flips a switch and becomes a fiery fist-pumping, elbow-swinging rebounding machine willing to do whatever dirty work is needed to help his team win.

“Anything that involves a competition,” Ingram said earlier this season, “I don’t like to lose.”

That’s the kind of attitude teams have to have this time of year if they expect to advance deep into the tournament and make a serious run at a national title. It showed in the ACC Tournament semifinals against Pittsburgh when UNC took the Panthers’ best punches, fought back just as hard and pulled out a close victory.

It’s a mindset it’s going to need again in what promises to be a 2nd round war against Michigan State on Saturday. Surprisingly, the Tar Heels are only a 3.5-point favorite, according to ESPN BET sportsbook.

“A lot of teams come in with the intent to try to bully us,” Ingram said on Friday. “They’ve done that throughout the year. They felt that was the scouting report or whatever.”

Maybe it was last year. But thanks to the addition of Ingram and Ryan, it’s no longer the case.

And the Tar Heels have the battle scars to prove it.