UNC Basketball: Ryan McAdoo Earns Scholarship

On Wednesday, North Carolina Tar Heels head coach Roy Williams announced that forward Ryan McAdoo earned a scholarship for the 2020-21 season.

McAdoo will be a redshirt junior this year. Alongside seniors KJ Smith and Walker Miller, along with incoming freshman Puff Johnson, McAdoo is related to a former Carolina letterman. He is the son of decorated UNC and NBA basketball player Bob McAdoo.

McAdoo wears #35, the same as his father did as a Tar Heel. His father’s #35, of course, hangs in the Smith Center rafters because of his selections as a consensus first-team All-American and first-team All-ACC during his one season at Carolina in 1972, when he helped the Heels reach the Final Four. His father would go on to play with the Showtime Lakers and eventually be voted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.

The younger McAdoo started his collegiate career at Florida Gulf Coast University during the 2017-18 season. After his freshman year, he chose to transfer to UNC as a walk-on. Due to NCAA transfer rules, he sat out for the 2018-19 basketball season, but played spot minutes with Blue Steel last year, appearing in 10 games for a total of 10 minutes. He scored one point, pulled down one rebound, and had one assist.

The scholarship announcement comes during the July dead period on the NCAA recruiting calendar, and continues Carolina’s recent tradition of awarding at least one scholarship to an upperclassman walk-on each year, but this one is a little bit interesting because the scholarship was K.J. Smith’s last year, and he is still on the team.