Memphis transfer PJ Haggerty, a 6-foot-3 junior guard, has withdrawn his name from the NBA Draft and committed to Kansas State.
Haggerty, the reigning AAC Player of the Year and a consensus second-team All-American, was among the best players in the portal. He strongly considered NC State, which secured the commitment of Texas Tech transfer Darrion Williams on Thursday, before ultimately choosing the Wildcats.
Kansas State will be Haggerty’s fourth school in as many years. He redshirted his freshman campaign at TCU and then transferred to Tulsa, where he immediately became one of the top players in the AAC. In one season at Memphis, he ranked third nationally in scoring at 21.7 points per game, while also averaging 5.8 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 1.8 steals.
The addition of Haggerty is a major win for coach Jerome Tang, who has done an exceptional job of rebuilding his team after a disappointing 2024-25 campaign. Kansas State went 16-17 and finished ninth in the Big 12, failing to reach the NCAA Tournament for a second consecutive year.
Tang and his staff went into the offseason with a decimated roster. Most players had either exhausted their eligibility or opted to transfer out. Haggerty headlines an impressive new group that looks poised to turn things around in Manhattan. The Wildcats have the fourth- best transfer class in the country, according to 247Sports’ rankings. They signed another of the nation’s premier scorers in 6-foot-7 junior guard Abdi Bashir Jr., who posted 20.1 points per game for Monmouth, and 2024-25 MAC Player of the Year Nate Johnson, a 6-foot-3 senior guard from Akron. They also bolstered their frontcourt with two dynamic forwards: 6-foot-7 senior Marcus Johnson, who averaged 16.2 points and shot 39.4 percent from three for Bowling Green, and 6-foot-9 senior Khamari McGriff from UNC Wilmington.
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Kansas State landed the highly coveted Haggerty at a discount. When he entered the portal on April 17 — just five days before it closed — he was reportedly asking for $4 million in NIL. According to The Field of 68’s Jeff Goodman, Haggerty received “in the neighborhood of $2.5 million” from the Wildcats.
Another of Haggerty’s requests throughout the transfer process was to spend a majority of his time at point guard next season. He will certainly have the ball in his hands a lot at Kansas State as the team’s clear No. 1 option.
The Wildcats struggled offensively in 2024-25, particularly against conference opponents. They shot poorly from behind the arc (32.5 percent), failed to protect the ball (12.1 turnovers per game) and averaged just 16.3 free throw attempts, which ranked 321st in the country. Their defense was solid, but it could not make up for their deficiencies on the other end.
Haggerty is exactly what the program was lacking: a reliable go-to scorer. He excels in the midrange and has continued to improve as a perimeter shooter, knocking down 36.4 percent of his threes for the Tigers. He also attempted more free throws than any player in Division I outside of Wisconsin’s John Tonje last season.
Relying heavily on Haggerty, Memphis had its best year since joining the AAC, winning 29 total games and reaching the NCAA Tournament as a No. 5 seed. Haggerty notched at least 15 points in 32 of 35 outings, including a career-high 42 points on 16-of-25 shooting in a win over Wichita State. Even against prominent high major programs, the 21-year-old seemed to have no trouble scoring — an encouraging sign as he transitions to a league with several defensive powerhouses. Haggerty dropped 25 points against Missouri, 22 against UConn and 27 against Auburn. At the NBA Combine, he averaged 17 points, 7 rebounds and 3 assists in two scrimmage games.
Haggerty puts constant pressure on the rim, which should open up opportunities for Kansas State’s plethora of offensive talents. In addition to transfers Bashir, Nate Johnson, Marcus Johnson and McGriff, all of whom averaged at least 11 points per game last season, the Wildcats signed 6-foot-5 Serbian guard Andrej Kostic. According to reports, Kostic, a gifted shooter who most recently played for Dynamic Balkan Bet, received about the same in NIL ($2.5 million) as Haggerty. Kostic was the leader of the U18 Serbian national team that won silver at the 2024 EuroBasket.
As the summer approaches, Kansas State’s large-scale rebuild is almost complete. Haggerty was the missing piece, and with him in the mix, the team is now well equipped to return to the Big Dance in 2025-26.
