If you’re not sure where Cormac Ryan is at any given time there is a good chance he’s on a basketball court somewhere. The recent Stanford commit for the 2018 class is a versatile 6-foot-5 guard who doesn’t appear to ever be satisfied with his development as a player.

That’s the takeaway when talking to his high school coach, Milton Academy's Lamar Reddicks.

“What he likes to do more than anything else is he likes the competition part,” Reddicks said of Ryan's mindset about basketball. “I think he always feels he has something to prove.

“He’s a phenomenal kid and someone to be around. As a basketball player he’s excellent and makes my job as a coach very easy. I think the best thing about him is that he can score from all three levels. He’s a great two-way player in that he can defend the other team’s best player and shut him down. I think he really enjoys that. There is no kid I’ve coached as competitive as he is.”

That competitive spirit is “the essential ingredient to who he is as a player,” Reddicks said.

A top student as well, Ryan’s drive to be great at whatever he does extends off the court. But it’s in the gym where his never-back-down personality truly thrives.

“He’s a basketball player first; he just happens to be pretty smart,” Reddicks said. “Milton Academy is a high-academic private school, so to have a kid who is so into being a good basketball player and wants to spend all his time outside the classroom playing basketball is really a bonus for me.”

Ryan’s potential became obvious when he was a sophomore and the team needed him to perform at a high level. He rose to the challenge and hasn’t slowed down since.

“The bigger the games are the bigger he plays,” Reddicks said. “Seeing that in him let me know he was going to be a pretty good player for us. We had a stretch of games his sophomore year in January when I don’t think he hit the rim at all. He just hit the bottom of the net on all his shots. We happened to play against three or four really good teams in a row. We needed him to play that way and he really did. It was fun to watch and it was fun to coach. That was the moment I knew he was going to be special.”

Reddicks’ view is that Stanford fit all Ryan’s needs for a future college. An emphasis on going to a good school was clear in the guard’s final two of Northwestern and Stanford. The program also needed to be trending in a good direction and Ryan will have an opportunity to play early.

When he does eventually play in Maples Pavilion, Rivals national analyst Corey Evans -- who watched Ryan play this spring -- described the junior as a “do-it-all player.”

“I believe that he is a well rounded guard that can play either guard spot. He is a good athlete that thinks the game a play in advance. He does have to get stronger but he does have an excellent intellect and versatility in the backcourt. Alongside (incoming freshman) Daejon Davis, the two should be able to slide back and forth between the one and the two and should contribute without efficiency lacking.”