Five Things to Know: P.J. Haggerty

Today we continue a series of "Get to Know" features on the newest members of the 2025-26 Kansas State men's basketball team. We continue with junior guard P.J. Haggerty (Crosby, Texas/Crosby/TCU/Tulsa/Memphis), who is one of 10 newcomers, and one of 5 Division I transfers.

Head coach Jerome Tang recently announced the 14-member team, which can be reviewed here.

Haggerty's complete bio can be viewed here.

Haggerty was one of the most acclaimed players in the nation in 2024-25.

The 6-foot-4, 190-pound junior guard came to K-State this summer after a stellar sophomore season at Memphis, where he led the Tigers to a 29-6 record, including both the regular-season and tournament American (AAC) championship, and a trip to the NCAA Tournament. In the process, he became the first Memphis Tiger since 2008 to be named an AP All-American while was a top-5 finalist for the Jerry West Shooting Guard of the Year Award and a top-15 finalist for the John R. Wooden Award. He was a consensus Second Team All-American, earning Second Team accolades from the AP, U.S. Basketball Writers and The Sporting News.

Haggerty was also honored as The American (AAC) Player of the Year and unanimous All-AAC First Team selection by the league coaches before he was selected as the Most Outstanding Player of the AAC Tournament after averaging 27.6 points, 8.3 rebounds and 3.7 assists in guiding the Tigers to wins over Wichita State, Tulane and UAB for the tournament championship.

Haggerty was also a four-time AAC Player of the Week (Nov. 11, Dec. 23, Jan. 6 and Jan. 27).

Haggerty jumped on to the national scene in 2023-24 when he was named the Kyle Macy National Freshman of the Year and was the unanimous AAC Freshman of the Year in averaging 21.2 points, 5.5 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game at Tulsa.

Haggerty has been one of the best players in the country the past 2 seasons.

Haggerty is one of the top returning players in the country, as he is the only Division I player to average at least 21 points, 5.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.5 steals per game in each of the last 2 seasons. After averaging just 2.8 points per game in 6 games as a true freshman at TCU in 2022-23, he exploded his redshirt freshmen season at Tulsa in 2023-24 to average 21.2 points on 49.3 percent shooting . He followed that up with his All-American season at Memphis, where he became the first Division I player since Murray State's Ja Morant in 2018-19 to average 21.5 points, 5.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.5 steals per game to go with 6.5 free throws per game.

Haggerty has scored more than 1,400 points (1,433) in his college career, connecting on 48.4 percent (452-of-934) from the field, including 33.2 percent (61-of-184) from 3-point range, and 79.1 percent (468-of-592) from the free throw line. He has scored in double figures in 64 of 72 career games with 25 games of 25 or more points, including two 30-point games and one 40-point games in his career. He scored a career-high and AAC Championship-tying record 42 points vs. Wichita State in the quarterfinals of the AAC Championship on March 14.

Last season, Haggerty finished the season with an AAC-best 759 total points, which ranked third nationally and are the second-most scored in a single season in Memphis history behind only Dajuan Wagner in 2001-02. He ranked second nationally in both free throws made (224) and attempted (274) while his 21.7 points per game scoring average placed third. He led the AAC in 5 categories (scoring, field goals made (248) and attempted (521), free throws made (224) and attempted (274), while he was in the top-20 in 6 other categories.

Haggerty exploded onto the national scene at Tulsa in 2023-24.

Haggerty made his mark on the college basketball scene at Tulsa in 2023-24 after playing in just 6 games as a true freshman at TCU in 2022-23. He became just the second freshman in Division I over the last 30-plus year to average at least 21.0 points, 5.0 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.5 steals per game in becoming the Kyle Macy National Freshman of the Year and the unanimous AAC Freshman of the Year. He also set the AAC's league record with 14 Freshman of the Year honors.

Haggerty averaged his 21.2 points per game on 49.3 percent (199-of-404) shooting, including 28.9 percent (22-of-76) from 3-point range, with 5.5 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.9 steals per game. He ranked in the top-15 nationally in 3 categories, including second in free throws attempted (309), third in free throws made (237) and 15^th in scoring (21.2 ppg.). He also ranked among the top-20 in eight categories in the AAC, including second in scoring and third in field goal percentage.

Haggerty is one of the best at getting to the free throw line.

Haggerty has ranked in the top-3 nationally in both free throws made and attempted the past 2 seasons, including second in attempts (309) and third in makes (237) in 2023-24 while playing at Tulsa in 2023-24 and second in both makes (224) and attempts (274) in 2024-25 while at Memphis. In that span, he made 461 free throws on 583 attempts (just over 79 percent shooting), averaging nearly 7 makes (6.9) on nearly 9 attempts (8.8) in the last 66 games played.

Last season, Haggerty connected on 81.8 percent from the free throw line with an AAC-best 224 makes on 274 attempts. He went perfect from the line in 6 games, including 10-of-10 vs. East Carolina on Jan. 11 and 14-of-14 vs. Tulane on March 15 in the AAC Tournament. He made 27 straight free throws at one point during the season.

Haggerty drew 7.9 fouls per 40 minutes as a sophomore at Tulsa in 2023-24, finishing behind only National Player of the Year Zach Edey with 309 free throw attempts, while his 237 free throw makes were the third-most in the country.

Haggerty is the nephew of former K-State great Ell Roberson.

Haggerty is the nephew of famed Wildcat signal-caller Ell Roberson, who is member of the Class of 2022 Ring of Honor at Bill Snyder Family Stadium after his standout career from 2000-03. He still ranks among the best in K-State history, including second in career total touchdowns responsible for (77), third in career rushing touchdowns (40), fifth in career passing touchdowns (37) and eighth all-time with 5,099 yards passing. He was part of three 11-win seasons, including the 2003 Big 12 Championship over top-ranked Oklahoma.

Tickets for the 2025-26 season are currently on sale with a variety of options and packages. Fans can purchase tickets by calling toll free at (800) 221.CATS (2287) and/or online at www.kstatesports.com/tickets.

How to follow the 'Cats: For complete information on K-State men's basketball, visit www.kstatesports.com and follow the team's social media channels on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

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P.J. Haggerty

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