Player movement is part of big-time college basketball. Already this off-season, both Virginia and Duke have seen players leave programs with eligibility remaining. Irish fans will recall both Alex Dragicevich and Cameron Biedscheid departing early. Tuesday evening, the Notre Dame Men’s Basketball twitter account posted a statement from Coach Mike Brey indicating that current sophomore, Matt Ryan would be adding his name to that transfer list.

I guess the easiest thing to say is that there isn’t good news or bad news, just news. We debated bringing the banner of doom with us from the old place, but decided it best to leave it behind. Even if we packed it, I’m not 100% sure this would merit that dubious distinction.

On the one hand, Ryan appeared ready to make the big “junior leap” that we see so often in Brey’s “get old, stay old” program management. I said as much in our NCAAT preview and on the RakesReport pod. With Bonzie occupying defenses inside, and slashers around him, Ryan looked to be a valuable spacing component. With Beachem and Vasturia off the roster, Ryan was a leading candidate to absorb those minutes. His NCAA Tournament performances seemed to indicate an arrow pointing up for the Cortlandt Manor, NY sophomore.

On the other, Ryan only played 9 and 11 minutes in Notre Dame’s two tournament games. He didn’t play more than 4 in either second half. Perhaps the writing was on the wall. Perhaps Ryan had finally broken. There were previous whispers about potential transfer over dissatisfaction with Ryan’s role and minutes. While we on the outside saw Ryan as being the next Matt Farrell with a junior breakout, perhaps Ryan feared the fate of Austin Burgett. Burgett was largely buried by the emergence of Bonzie Colson and Rex Pflueger in his senior season. Despite public shows of solidarity, there were private rumblings around Burgett’s displeasure with his utilization in his final season. Ryan had a front-row seat for all of that in his freshman year.

It is perfectly natural to be disappointed that Ryan didn’t want to finish his time in South Bend on a positive note. Moreover, it sucks to lose a guy who seemed poised to step up in to a critical role. The flip-side, of course, is that perhaps Ryan saw something that none of us outside the program are privy to. There has been a low buzz that Nik Djogo was excellent in practice all year. Brey also seemed intrigued by the 3-and-D skill set freshman John Mooney can bring to the table. Perhaps Ryan read the writing on the wall. Perhaps he was already feeling DJ Harvey breathing down his neck. There are a lot of reasons this transfer could have come to pass. Not all of them are awful.

My own guess is that Ryan would prefer to play on the perimeter versus banging down low and guarding power forwards regularly. I think that’s what Brey is looking for. I think with Gibbs, Plfueger, Djogo, and Harvey presenting quicker perimeter defending, Brey wanted Ryan to focus on interior defense and rebounding. I also think that coming off of his third team AP All-American performance, Bonzie Colson is going to get a lot of shots next year. While Ryan would have one of the greenest lights in the country playing for Brey, I’m guessing someone else was whispering in his ear that he won’t be featured and could get passed over in the rotation.

Perhaps “perhaps” is the most over-used sentiment in this situation. As we all sit outside the confines of the program, everything we throw out is pure speculation. Unless we had eyes on practice, or sat in on meetings between Matt Ryan and the Irish coaching staff, all we have are theories and distant observations.

So where does everyone go from here? For Ryan, he’s released from his scholarship, but ACC rules prevent other ACC schools from offering him a spot. No matter where he ends up going, he’ll have to sit out the 17-18 season before playing out two final years of eligibility. For the Irish, they open the upcoming season with 10 scholarship athletes on the roster. Of those, Torres, Farrell, Geben and Colson will exhaust their college eligibility. This changes the recruiting dynamic for the upcoming season, but I’ll leave it to those more skilled in roster management to comment. From an X’s and O’s perspective, I could make the argument that the Irish have redundant (and perhaps better) fits for that role on the roster. John Mooney’s opportunity to contribute is now wide open. Brey will be looking for guys that can help defend the interior while spacing the floor on offense to give Colson and Farrell room to work. Ryan had every opportunity to leverage his experience and gorgeous shooting stroke to play that role. Sadly, he chose to move on instead.

In the end, this news isn’t great, but it isn’t terrible either. Both the Irish and Ryan have the opportunity to move on and be very successful. If there was going to be friction or discontent, better to move on from it in March than in November.