{"id":136099,"date":"2025-04-24T17:46:10","date_gmt":"2025-04-24T21:46:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=136099"},"modified":"2025-04-24T17:46:10","modified_gmt":"2025-04-24T21:46:10","slug":"dug-mcdaniel-transfer-decision","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/24\/dug-mcdaniel-transfer-decision\/","title":{"rendered":"Dug McDaniel Makes Transfer Decision, Bad News for Haggerty"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Memphis has had an eventful week and a half. After <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/pj-haggerty-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">PJ Haggerty<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/17\/pj-haggerty-transfer-portal\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\"> entered the portal<\/a>, the Tigers also lost their second-leading scorer, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/dain-dainja-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dain Dainja<\/a>, to the portal. With his incredible demands, it seemed unlikely that Haggerty would return to Memphis. However, the Tigers received good news on Thursday for a discount. After originally being part of rumors with the school, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/dug-mcdaniel-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Dug McDaniel<\/a>, the transfer point guard from Kansas State, committed to Memphis on Thursday. He may not be Haggerty, but he will fill in well at point guard for the Tigers. So, what does McDaniel bring to the Tigers? Are there more moves that need to be made for Memphis? What does this addition mean for PJ Haggerty? Let&#8217;s dive in.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">NEWS: Kansas State transfer guard Dug McDaniel has committed to Memphis, source tells <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/On3sports?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@On3sports<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p>The 5-11 junior averaged 11.4 points, 2.8 rebounds, and 4.9 assists per game this season. Had three games in which he scored 20+ points (24 on Arizona, 22 on BYU, and 20 on Iowa\u2026 <a  href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/AZuF96E4aS\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/AZuF96E4aS<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Joe Tipton (@TiptonEdits) <a  href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/TiptonEdits\/status\/1915508873424953643?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 24, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h2>Dug McDaniel Makes Transfer Decision, Bad News for Haggerty<\/h2>\n<h3>What Dug McDaniel Brings to Memphis<\/h3>\n<p>McDaniel had a surprisingly down year for the Wildcats this past season. He still averaged 11.4 points, 4.9 assists, 2.8 rebounds, and 1.7 steals per game. He is a shifty point guard who can set teammates up at an elite level. As a sophomore at Michigan, he showed more scoring, averaging 16.3 points along with 4.7 assists per game. With the loss of scoring, McDaniel could move into the leading spot on Penny Hardaway&#8217;s roster. The move to the American also represents a downgrade, so we can expect similar numbers to what he put up at Michigan, if not higher.<\/p>\n<p>Dug McDaniel will take over the point guard position for Memphis and run the whole offense. While they are losing a lot of scoring and talent, McDaniel is a cheaper option but still brings three years of experience from two elite power conferences. The only question will be whether he can be the top option on an NCAA Tournament team.<\/p>\n<h3>What Does Memphis Need?<\/h3>\n<p>They&#8217;ve replaced Dainja with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/aaron-bradshaw-1.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Aaron Bradshaw<\/a> from Ohio State. However, he hasn&#8217;t proven an ability to produce at the highest level. However, this class has been bled dry among centers. It&#8217;s hard to believe they will be able to bring somebody else back. If they could get Dainja back, it would be the best option. Otherwise, finding an elite scorer would be the biggest other need. Haggerty was one of the top scorers in the country. McDaniel provides some scoring for Memphis, but they will need other help. Fortunately, the top of the class still has elite players available, but most have slimmed down their options. Memphis could sneak in with a good offer, but they will have to find something lower in the ranks.<\/p>\n<h3>What Does This Mean for Haggerty?<\/h3>\n<p>The move for McDaniel solidifies that Haggerty won&#8217;t be returning to Memphis. While it was unlikely, the <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2025\/04\/21\/point-guards-entering-portal-put-haggerty-desirability-in-doubt\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">recent flurry of point guards<\/a> taking less money is bad news for Haggerty. With every passing day, it seems more and more unlikely that Haggerty gets his demands. Either he won&#8217;t play point guard, or he won&#8217;t make four million dollars. At the end of the day, there is a good chance he doesn&#8217;t get either. McDaniel&#8217;s commitment to Memphis could turn out to force Haggerty to take a huge loss. We may never know what Memphis was offering Haggerty, but he may not even get that from another program. For now, keep an eye on some quiet teams thus far. Texas could be signaling that they&#8217;re out of the mix after picking up <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/simeon-wilcher-2.htmlhttps:\/\/www.sports-reference.com\/cbb\/players\/simeon-wilcher-2.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Simeon Wilcher<\/a> from St. John&#8217;s earlier on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Photo credit: \u00a9 William Purnell-Imagn Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Memphis has had an eventful week and a half. After PJ Haggerty entered the portal, the Tigers also lost their second-leading scorer, Dain Dainja, to the portal. With his incredible demands, it seemed unlikely that Haggerty would return to Memphis. However, the Tigers received good news on Thursday for a discount. After originally being part [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5370,"featured_media":136107,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"1","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,773,2,3],"tags":[3247,2371,50027],"class_list":["post-136099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-college-basketball","category-featured","category-news","tag-american-athletic-conference","tag-memphis-tigers","tag-ncaa-transfer-portal"],"modified_by":"Eamon Cassels, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5370"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=136099"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":136108,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/136099\/revisions\/136108"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/136107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=136099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=136099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=136099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}