After winning 29 games this past season and being AAC champions, Memphis Basketball has lost its top six players, assuming starting center Dain Dainja doesn’t get an extra year of eligibility from the NCAA this offseason.
The big loss is PJ Haggerty, the star guard for the Tigers who averaged 20 ppg and earned AAC Player of the Year honors. He entered the portal and is likely not coming back. Yet the team has been steadily building back the roster, landing seven newcomers from the portal. That includes forward Ashton Hardaway returning to the team, along with guards Sincere Parker (McNeese State), Zachary Davis (South Carolina), Quante Berry (Temple), and Julius Thedford (Western Kentucky).
Those are solid rotation pieces in the AAC, but in order for Memphis to remain the favorite in the conference next year, it may come down to the two most recent pickups. The first was Aaron Bradshaw, a 7’0 forward and former 5-star prospect, who averaged 6.0 ppg and 2.7 rpg in 22 games this past season at Ohio State. He’s a skilled forward but hasn’t unlocked his total potential.
The other key piece is Dug McDaniel, a 5’11 scoring guard who is coming off an 11.4 ppg and 4.9 apg campaign at Kansas State. He had even greater numbers at Michigan the year before, averaging 16.3 ppg and 4.7 apg, shooting 37% from three-point range. McDaniel, a proven high-level scorer, is the ideal replacement for Haggerty in the backcourt and could be the man to beat for the 2026 AAC Player of the Year Award.
But it’s not a guarantee that McDaniel can be the best player on a good team, as that Michigan campaign showed. It could be good enough to win in the AAC, but Memphis will need both McDaniel and Bradshaw to play their best to return to the NCAA Tournament.
Of course, there are still moves that need to be made for the program.