Kansas State is reportedly in the mix for yet another high-profile and expensive college basketball transfer, PJ Haggerty. This comes just one year after the Wildcats spent an exuberant amount of money for a player who was ultimately labeled as a bust on a team that failed to make the NCAA Tournament.
Will history repeat itself? I don’t think so but we are going to find out!
Haggerty has yet to play more than one season of college basketball at the same school. The 6-foot-3 point guard played only six games during his freshman year at TCU, averaged 21.2 points per game at Tulsa as a sophomore and most recently averaged 21.7 points per game at Memphis. Here is where it gets interesting.
As things currently stand, PJ Haggerty is somewhere in between a professional career and a return to college for a fourth season. He declared for the NBA Draft and shined at the NBA Draft Combine but he is also in the transfer portal. The deadline to decide on his future is currently set for May 28.
Haggerty is going to make more money through NIL as a redshirt junior than he would as a rookie in the NBA. His price tag hovers between $1-4 million.
He was asking for $4,000,000 when he first entered the transfer portal. However, the payday continues to decrease as more and more suitors drop out of the race. It seemed as though N.C. State was the only program remaining at the beginning of May so the Wolfpack only had to bid against itself. Not anymore!
According to Hitmen Hoops, Kansas State “has emerged as a serious contender” and “has the momentum” because it is willing to offer more money than North Carolina State.
Is this going to be deja vu all over again? The Wildcats paid approximately $2 million for one year of Coleman Hawkins, which immediately looked like wasted money. Although Hawkins ultimately got better as the year went on, he could not lead his team to the postseason and dealt with horrible abuse and death threats from fans throughout the entire disappointing season.
PJ Haggerty could be next. He will make a lot more money than Hawkins at either school so it could be really rough for him if he ultimately chooses to play for Kansas State and does not perform up to his paycheck. Wildcats fans are not going to tolerate another year of NIL failure. I don’t expect that to happen but we’ll see!