After a quiet couple of weeks around the Carolina Basketball program, the team landed another transfer today, this time in the form of former McDonald’s All-American, and former Stanford Cardinal, Harrison Ingram. Ingram becomes the second transfer to commit this week, as, on Thursday night, Carolina landed Notre Dame transfer, Cormac Ryan. Ingram has been on Carolina's radar from the moment he entered the portal, and Hubert Davis made him a priority from the start. Just last weekend, Davis took his entire staff on an in-home visit to Ingram's house, a week later, with Ingram taking a return visit to Chapel Hill, Ingram will be a Tar Heel. Ingram has spent the last two seasons at Stanford, averaging 10.5 points per game, earning Pac-12 Rookie of the Year honors, and being named to the Pac-12 All-Freshman squad well. Not only has Ingram averaged double figures scoring, but he’s also averaged over six rebounds per game for his career, and over three assists. While Ingram is a career 32% three-point shooter, Carolina is not in a position to be picky for wing talent, after seeing all of their wings either graduate or transfer out of the program.
Before last weekend, Ingram was believed to be on his way to Kansas, but after the Jayhawks landed Towson transfer Nick Timberlake, and had a wing in their 2024 class reclassify to join the team for the upcoming season, there was a pathway for Ingram to end up in Carolina Blue. This commitment should reinforce the trust and faith in Hubert Davis as a recruiter, and as the man leading the program, as he's done a nice job this off-season, rebuilding his roster, after seeing it be decimated by multiple players entering the transfer portal.
While his 32% three-point shooting isn't going to impress anybody, Ingram is now going to be playing with All-ACC caliber players in Armando Bacot, and R.J. Davis, along with ACC veterans Cormacy Ryan, and Jae'Lyn Withers. Davis told him on the in-home visit last week, there is a chance to be an impact player right away here at North Carolina, and even if he is the third scoring option, he's going to be in a better situation to impact the game on both ends of the floor, and hopefully, in the process, experience the type of winning he was never going experience at Stanford.
Since Cam Johnson graduated from the program back in the 2018-19 season, which ended with a run to the Sweet Sixteen, Carolina has been looking for a difference-maker on the wing. As great as a defender as Leaky Black was for UNC, he never impacted the game on the offensive end. As much as everyone liked what Puff Johnson and Dontrez Styles had to offer, even those guys had their limitations as basketball players. Ingram does have room to grow and develop now that he's playing in the ACC, but he's proven to contribute on both ends of the floor, something that should be refreshing to Tar Heel fans everywhere.
Ingram becomes the fourth transfer that has landed this off-season, joining Brown transfer Paxson Wokcik, Louisville transfer Jae'Lyn Withers, and Notre Dame transfer Cormac Ryan. Carolina has also expressed interest in Florida State transfer Matthew Cleveland, a 6-7 guard, who could play the wing at UNC. It's still unknown at this time if either Elliot Cadea or Ian Jackson will reclassify and join the program this year as opposed to next, but this roster is in a better standing today than it was just a few weeks ago, as it's filled with talent, and experience, which is needed to return Carolina Basketball among the nation's elite.
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