From Handshake to Hug
Dec 22, 2025 | Men's Basketball, Sports Extra
By: D. Scott Fritchen
We're in the back corridor of the T-Mobile Center prior to his official unveiling to Kansas City as a member of the Kansas State Wildcats, and preseason All-American PJ Haggerty, a native of Crosby, Texas, is talking about his fateful eighth-grade summer camp at Baylor when he first met Jerome Tang — and then Haggerty fast forwards and describes recently preparing pizza in Tang's kitchen one warm night in Manhattan.
"And the pizza was from scratch," Haggerty wants you to know, smiling at his accomplishment. "It threw me off. I'd never made a pizza from scratch. Coach Tang does little things like that. He tries to teach me things to get me out of my shell, out of my comfort zone."
Haggerty smiles. He's been at K-State a few months now after earning Consensus Second Team All-America and AAC Player of the Year honors as a sophomore at Memphis — where he became the first Division I player to average at least 21.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.5 steals per game to go along with 6.5 free throws per game since Ja Morant in 2018-19. At K-State, he seeks bigger challenges in the Big 12 Conference. And, oh, the challenges will come, but the 21-year-old will continue to thrive, and the best could be yet to come.
The summer pizza has long since been devoured but Haggerty is still eating.
Fast-forward to this past Saturday, for instance, as Haggerty put up 24 points on 10-of-12 shooting to go along with six rebounds and three assists in a 106-76 blowout of South Dakota at Bramlage Coliseum.
Haggerty entered the game No. 2 in the country in averaging 22.7 points per game and No. 3 nationally with 250 total points — this after he became the first player in K-State history to score 20-plus points in each of the first six games in a season. There's more, plenty more that Haggerty has achieved since his 27-point debut against UNC Greensboro on November 4.
K-State had coach Jerome Tang puts it bluntly: "I wouldn't want anybody else."
Tang was a Baylor assistant coach during Haggerty's summer camp experience, and Tang taught one of the nation's most talented eighth graders the importance of a firm handshake — now a part of Haggerty's presence ("But Coach and I don't shake hands anymore — we hug," Haggerty says), but it's the reunion between coach and player in Manhattan after a handful of years apart that makes what we're seeing particularly special: The coach incessantly pushing, and the superstar soaring.
We haven't yet reached the Big 12 season — that begins against BYU on January 3 at Bramlage — but Haggerty, a junior who Tang that day at Big 12 Media Day in Kansas City touted as one of the best players in college basketball, is making dough rise with ample spice while opening eyes nationally — again — at the sight of his creation, served up fresh from scratch as he masters the Wildcats' offense and knifes through defenses like a pizza cutter.
After his 27-point debut against UNC Greensboro, Haggerty posted 23 points and career-high 11 assists against Bellarmine (the third double-double of his career), and he had 23 points against California (the 67th time he scored in double digits in 75 career games). He graduated to 31 points and a career-high 10 rebounds against Tulsa (the first K-State player with a 30-point, 10-rebound performance since Beasley on March 4, 2008), and then Haggerty went off with 37 points, seven rebounds and eight assists against Mississippi State at the Hall of Fame Classic at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri. It marked the most points by a K-State player since Barry Brown had 38 on January 10, 2018, and the first time a player scored 30-plus points in back-to-back games since Markquis Nowell in 2023.
It also launched Haggerty into rare air as he joined Beasley as the only players in K-State history to open a season with five consecutive games of 20 or more points. After Haggerty scored 27 points the following game against Nebraska, Haggerty stood alone as the only player in K-State history to open a season with six consecutive games of 20-plus points.
"What's it like playing with PJ?" K-State forward Nate Johnson says. "We've built a chemistry. You get on the court, and you have his back, and you know he has your back. You know you have a person who no matter what you give him the ball and he's going to make it happen.
"It's good knowing you have a player like that with you."
Haggerty averages 22.8 points, and he is shooting 51.9% (97-of 187) from the floor and 40.0% (16-of-40) on 3-pointers and 72.7% (64-of-88) on free throws. He is also averaging 4.8 rebounds and 4.6 assists to 3.8 turnovers while often fighting through double teams and facing different schematics from opposing teams nightly.
He's persevered, scoring in double figures in every game, and he battled back from a 10-point performance at Creighton to take care of business against South Dakota.
"There's a whole another level he can get to, and he'll get there," Tang said midway through the non-conference season. "This is average PJ. Special PJ is going to come."
Against Mississippi State, Special PJ erupted at T-Mobile Center — the very place where he spent time in the back corridor in October telling us about eighth-grade basketball camp and making pizza from scratch at Big 12 Media Day — by serving up a mighty slice of heaven fresh from a brick oven. On the court, he didn't brick. He soared to 37 points, hit 4-of-7 3-point attempts, and added seven rebounds, eight assists and two steals in 34 minutes. Yes, he scored, and he scored some more, and he astonished teammates and fans, announcing himself to anybody in the college basketball nation that might not have already known about him, and prompting a wide grin from Tang, who sat beside him in the postgame news conference.
Tang, who while at Baylor as an assistant coach and associate head coach, mentored numerous All-Americans, and who as K-State head coach, said mighty nice things a few years ago about All-Americans Keyontae Johnson and Nowell, unleashed a flurry of praise — perhaps the highest praise that a head coach can bestow upon a player — in the aftermath of the introduction to Special PJ against Mississippi State.
"He's the best point guard in America, and he might be the best player in America," Tang said. "I don't get to vote on that. To me, I wouldn't want anyone else."
Who could've seen the sheer magnitude of what was to come when Haggerty pulled open the rear door to the T-Mobile Center at 7:54 on a pleasant Wednesday morning in Kansas City prior to Big 12 Media Day, and sauntered down a red carpet wearing a purple quarter-zip embedded with an old-school Willie spinning a basketball? Who would've known the Memphis transfer, would elevate seemingly so effortlessly at the Power 5 level, putting up numbers that are exceeded (for now) by only Beasley? There he was, Haggerty, wearing wireless headphones, a white backpack, a cellphone in his right hand, a pair or gold Nikes in the left, pausing in front of a black backdrop as videographers and photographers did their thing — click-click, click-click, click-click — prior to the actual Big 12 Media Day event, on the very basketball court where in late November he made his biggest statement yet.
Later at Big 12 Media Day, somebody tells Haggerty that Andy Katz ranked him as the second-best transfer for the 2025-26 season, and that he had been named a Preseason First Team All-American. Haggerty doesn't smile. He talks matter of factly, like he has since this scoring onslaught began, and he says, "It's a blessing to be recognized at the highest level of basketball, but I don't look too much into it. I'm more focused on what we can achieve at K-State as a team and reach the Final Four, which we've been preaching since the summer."
This past Saturday, after Haggerty's latest 20-plus point effort against South Dakota, there's only one thing on his mind, as he sits in a dark gray K-State parka in the postgame news conference.
Christmas.
"I'm about to go home and see my dog, my family, and just chill and eat," he says, a grin coming to his face. In less than 24 hours, Haggerty will be home. The team is scheduled to reconvene on Christmas Day in Manhattan. The Wildcats will begin preparations on December 26 for their non-conference finale against Louisiana-Monroe two days later.
"I'm just having fun with my teammates and coaches," Haggerty says, reminiscing his season to this point. "They put me into great spots to just be myself whether it's scoring or passing, but it's just been a lot of fun winning and playing basketball."
Christmas Day hasn't yet arrived, and time still remains until the Big 12 slate, so there's time to pause and reflect, and it begins with that eighth grader who was king of the court back home in Crosby, Texas. One summer day, Patrick and Rashonda Haggerty drove young PJ 200 miles to Waco to attend Baylor's basketball camp. Who was there to greet the Haggerty's? A Baylor associate head coach named Jerome Tang.
Tang knew that Haggerty was a bucket getter at that young age. Tang was impressed with his ability to score.
But that's not what Tang remembers the most about the initial introduction between player and coach.
"What I remember about PJ is when I met him, he was a little shy, and when he shook my hand, it was a terrible handshake, and he didn't look me in the eyes," Tang says. "I stopped him, and I said, 'Hey, look me in the eyes and squeeze my hand. This is how you introduce yourself.' His mom remembered that."
Today, Haggerty grins at the memory.
"Coach Tang said that I had to shake his hand like a real man," he said. "Now we hug."
Haggerty left the Baylor basketball camp with a scholarship offer. And, oh, did the scholarship offers begin to pour in, as he was a four-star recruit and named 2022 Mr. Texas Basketball Player of the Year.
"Getting offers and getting recognized was a lot of fun," Haggerty says. "It was a lot of fun to try and go Division I and achieve my dreams."
Ultimately, Haggerty's basketball dreams took him to three different schools. K-State is his fourth.
"I thought TCU was best for me and it was close to home, so I went there," Haggerty says. "Things didn't work out, so I decided to transfer to Tulsa and get new scenery. At Memphis, I liked most the bond I had with my teammates. We were very close. It's kind of crazy how you go someplace you don't know and don't know anybody, and they become some of your best friends and you experience some of the greatest moments of your life."
Oh, but the greatest moments still could be on their way — in the Little Apple.
"I'm very excited," Haggerty says before heading off for Christmas break. "They say the Big 12 is one of the best basketball conferences in college, so I'm excited to be able to go out there and achieve some goals we have.
"My teammates and coaches know what's in me. They try to get the best out of me every day whether it's practice, film or games. They try to get the most out of me. I respect people who push me to be my best every day."
There are many more days to come, many more games and many more practices. There's the eighth-grade superstar striving to achieve great things, and the Memphis transfer slicing piping-hot pizza from a brick oven. There's the Preseason All-American making his presence felt at Big 12 Media Days and the K-State's first year on-court leader battling nightly, striving to do whatever it takes for the Wildcats to see March.
Haggerty is gobbling up points in ways we haven't seen in a while. He's one of the most-talented transfers in K-State history.
And he has worked up a mighty appetite for the Big 12.
We're in the back corridor of the T-Mobile Center prior to his official unveiling to Kansas City as a member of the Kansas State Wildcats, and preseason All-American PJ Haggerty, a native of Crosby, Texas, is talking about his fateful eighth-grade summer camp at Baylor when he first met Jerome Tang — and then Haggerty fast forwards and describes recently preparing pizza in Tang's kitchen one warm night in Manhattan.
"And the pizza was from scratch," Haggerty wants you to know, smiling at his accomplishment. "It threw me off. I'd never made a pizza from scratch. Coach Tang does little things like that. He tries to teach me things to get me out of my shell, out of my comfort zone."
Haggerty smiles. He's been at K-State a few months now after earning Consensus Second Team All-America and AAC Player of the Year honors as a sophomore at Memphis — where he became the first Division I player to average at least 21.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.5 steals per game to go along with 6.5 free throws per game since Ja Morant in 2018-19. At K-State, he seeks bigger challenges in the Big 12 Conference. And, oh, the challenges will come, but the 21-year-old will continue to thrive, and the best could be yet to come.
The summer pizza has long since been devoured but Haggerty is still eating.
Fast-forward to this past Saturday, for instance, as Haggerty put up 24 points on 10-of-12 shooting to go along with six rebounds and three assists in a 106-76 blowout of South Dakota at Bramlage Coliseum.
Haggerty entered the game No. 2 in the country in averaging 22.7 points per game and No. 3 nationally with 250 total points — this after he became the first player in K-State history to score 20-plus points in each of the first six games in a season. There's more, plenty more that Haggerty has achieved since his 27-point debut against UNC Greensboro on November 4.
K-State had coach Jerome Tang puts it bluntly: "I wouldn't want anybody else."
Tang was a Baylor assistant coach during Haggerty's summer camp experience, and Tang taught one of the nation's most talented eighth graders the importance of a firm handshake — now a part of Haggerty's presence ("But Coach and I don't shake hands anymore — we hug," Haggerty says), but it's the reunion between coach and player in Manhattan after a handful of years apart that makes what we're seeing particularly special: The coach incessantly pushing, and the superstar soaring.
We haven't yet reached the Big 12 season — that begins against BYU on January 3 at Bramlage — but Haggerty, a junior who Tang that day at Big 12 Media Day in Kansas City touted as one of the best players in college basketball, is making dough rise with ample spice while opening eyes nationally — again — at the sight of his creation, served up fresh from scratch as he masters the Wildcats' offense and knifes through defenses like a pizza cutter.
After his 27-point debut against UNC Greensboro, Haggerty posted 23 points and career-high 11 assists against Bellarmine (the third double-double of his career), and he had 23 points against California (the 67th time he scored in double digits in 75 career games). He graduated to 31 points and a career-high 10 rebounds against Tulsa (the first K-State player with a 30-point, 10-rebound performance since Beasley on March 4, 2008), and then Haggerty went off with 37 points, seven rebounds and eight assists against Mississippi State at the Hall of Fame Classic at the T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Missouri. It marked the most points by a K-State player since Barry Brown had 38 on January 10, 2018, and the first time a player scored 30-plus points in back-to-back games since Markquis Nowell in 2023.
It also launched Haggerty into rare air as he joined Beasley as the only players in K-State history to open a season with five consecutive games of 20 or more points. After Haggerty scored 27 points the following game against Nebraska, Haggerty stood alone as the only player in K-State history to open a season with six consecutive games of 20-plus points.
"What's it like playing with PJ?" K-State forward Nate Johnson says. "We've built a chemistry. You get on the court, and you have his back, and you know he has your back. You know you have a person who no matter what you give him the ball and he's going to make it happen.
"It's good knowing you have a player like that with you."
Haggerty averages 22.8 points, and he is shooting 51.9% (97-of 187) from the floor and 40.0% (16-of-40) on 3-pointers and 72.7% (64-of-88) on free throws. He is also averaging 4.8 rebounds and 4.6 assists to 3.8 turnovers while often fighting through double teams and facing different schematics from opposing teams nightly.
He's persevered, scoring in double figures in every game, and he battled back from a 10-point performance at Creighton to take care of business against South Dakota.
"There's a whole another level he can get to, and he'll get there," Tang said midway through the non-conference season. "This is average PJ. Special PJ is going to come."
Against Mississippi State, Special PJ erupted at T-Mobile Center — the very place where he spent time in the back corridor in October telling us about eighth-grade basketball camp and making pizza from scratch at Big 12 Media Day — by serving up a mighty slice of heaven fresh from a brick oven. On the court, he didn't brick. He soared to 37 points, hit 4-of-7 3-point attempts, and added seven rebounds, eight assists and two steals in 34 minutes. Yes, he scored, and he scored some more, and he astonished teammates and fans, announcing himself to anybody in the college basketball nation that might not have already known about him, and prompting a wide grin from Tang, who sat beside him in the postgame news conference.
Tang, who while at Baylor as an assistant coach and associate head coach, mentored numerous All-Americans, and who as K-State head coach, said mighty nice things a few years ago about All-Americans Keyontae Johnson and Nowell, unleashed a flurry of praise — perhaps the highest praise that a head coach can bestow upon a player — in the aftermath of the introduction to Special PJ against Mississippi State.
"He's the best point guard in America, and he might be the best player in America," Tang said. "I don't get to vote on that. To me, I wouldn't want anyone else."
Who could've seen the sheer magnitude of what was to come when Haggerty pulled open the rear door to the T-Mobile Center at 7:54 on a pleasant Wednesday morning in Kansas City prior to Big 12 Media Day, and sauntered down a red carpet wearing a purple quarter-zip embedded with an old-school Willie spinning a basketball? Who would've known the Memphis transfer, would elevate seemingly so effortlessly at the Power 5 level, putting up numbers that are exceeded (for now) by only Beasley? There he was, Haggerty, wearing wireless headphones, a white backpack, a cellphone in his right hand, a pair or gold Nikes in the left, pausing in front of a black backdrop as videographers and photographers did their thing — click-click, click-click, click-click — prior to the actual Big 12 Media Day event, on the very basketball court where in late November he made his biggest statement yet.
Later at Big 12 Media Day, somebody tells Haggerty that Andy Katz ranked him as the second-best transfer for the 2025-26 season, and that he had been named a Preseason First Team All-American. Haggerty doesn't smile. He talks matter of factly, like he has since this scoring onslaught began, and he says, "It's a blessing to be recognized at the highest level of basketball, but I don't look too much into it. I'm more focused on what we can achieve at K-State as a team and reach the Final Four, which we've been preaching since the summer."
This past Saturday, after Haggerty's latest 20-plus point effort against South Dakota, there's only one thing on his mind, as he sits in a dark gray K-State parka in the postgame news conference.
Christmas.
"I'm about to go home and see my dog, my family, and just chill and eat," he says, a grin coming to his face. In less than 24 hours, Haggerty will be home. The team is scheduled to reconvene on Christmas Day in Manhattan. The Wildcats will begin preparations on December 26 for their non-conference finale against Louisiana-Monroe two days later.
"I'm just having fun with my teammates and coaches," Haggerty says, reminiscing his season to this point. "They put me into great spots to just be myself whether it's scoring or passing, but it's just been a lot of fun winning and playing basketball."
Christmas Day hasn't yet arrived, and time still remains until the Big 12 slate, so there's time to pause and reflect, and it begins with that eighth grader who was king of the court back home in Crosby, Texas. One summer day, Patrick and Rashonda Haggerty drove young PJ 200 miles to Waco to attend Baylor's basketball camp. Who was there to greet the Haggerty's? A Baylor associate head coach named Jerome Tang.
Tang knew that Haggerty was a bucket getter at that young age. Tang was impressed with his ability to score.
But that's not what Tang remembers the most about the initial introduction between player and coach.
"What I remember about PJ is when I met him, he was a little shy, and when he shook my hand, it was a terrible handshake, and he didn't look me in the eyes," Tang says. "I stopped him, and I said, 'Hey, look me in the eyes and squeeze my hand. This is how you introduce yourself.' His mom remembered that."
Today, Haggerty grins at the memory.
"Coach Tang said that I had to shake his hand like a real man," he said. "Now we hug."
Haggerty left the Baylor basketball camp with a scholarship offer. And, oh, did the scholarship offers begin to pour in, as he was a four-star recruit and named 2022 Mr. Texas Basketball Player of the Year.
"Getting offers and getting recognized was a lot of fun," Haggerty says. "It was a lot of fun to try and go Division I and achieve my dreams."
Ultimately, Haggerty's basketball dreams took him to three different schools. K-State is his fourth.
"I thought TCU was best for me and it was close to home, so I went there," Haggerty says. "Things didn't work out, so I decided to transfer to Tulsa and get new scenery. At Memphis, I liked most the bond I had with my teammates. We were very close. It's kind of crazy how you go someplace you don't know and don't know anybody, and they become some of your best friends and you experience some of the greatest moments of your life."
Oh, but the greatest moments still could be on their way — in the Little Apple.
"I'm very excited," Haggerty says before heading off for Christmas break. "They say the Big 12 is one of the best basketball conferences in college, so I'm excited to be able to go out there and achieve some goals we have.
"My teammates and coaches know what's in me. They try to get the best out of me every day whether it's practice, film or games. They try to get the most out of me. I respect people who push me to be my best every day."
There are many more days to come, many more games and many more practices. There's the eighth-grade superstar striving to achieve great things, and the Memphis transfer slicing piping-hot pizza from a brick oven. There's the Preseason All-American making his presence felt at Big 12 Media Days and the K-State's first year on-court leader battling nightly, striving to do whatever it takes for the Wildcats to see March.
Haggerty is gobbling up points in ways we haven't seen in a while. He's one of the most-talented transfers in K-State history.
And he has worked up a mighty appetite for the Big 12.
Players Mentioned
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/ Men's BasketballK-State Men's Basketball | Game Replay vs. South Dakota - December 20, 2025
Saturday, December 20
K-State Men's Basketball | Haggerty and Johnson Postgame Press Conference vs South Dakota
Saturday, December 20
K-State Men's Basketball | Coach Tang Postgame Press Conference vs South Dakota
Saturday, December 20
K-State Men's Basketball | Game Highlights vs South Dakota
Saturday, December 20
