Texas A&M’s PJ Haggerty in a recent practice with the Aggies.
Texas A&M Athletics/Courtesy Texas A&M Athletics
COLLEGE STATION — Guard PJ Haggerty has made stops at five schools in his five seasons of eligibility, but Texas A&M is hopeful the All-American’s final chapter can help usher in a new era for the Aggies.
Haggerty is coming off a career-best season at Kansas State, where he averaged 23.4 points, 5.3 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.2 steals before transferring to A&M. He was the Big 12’s transfer of the year after coming from Memphis where he was the the AAC’s player of the year in 2024-25 and a second-team All-American.
A Texas native, Haggerty graduated from Crosby and won the Guy V. Lewis award as top player in the Houston area before beginning his collegiate career at TCU, where he played six games before redshirting. He then transferred to Tulsa for a season and then Memphis.
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He said returning to Texas has allowed him to be closer to family and friends.
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“It’s been amazing, the other schools I went to were far, a lot of my family wouldn’t be able to come,” Haggerty said. “Now (A&M is) an hour and a half (away) a lot of my family will be able to come and show a lot of love and support.”
Texas A&M coach Bucky McMillan said Haggerty has impressed the staff with his willingness to involve teammates rather than focus solely on scoring.
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“What I appreciate the most about PJ is he is trying to make the right play,” McMillan said. “He is a lead return scorer for college basketball you’d think he would just be searching for shots but he’s really trying to make the right play and play hard on both sides of the ball.”
Haggerty said he hopes to impact games beyond putting points on the board.
“I can control the pace of the game, give my teammates the ball and have a lot of shooters I can hit,” Haggerty said.
When he was asked what he hopes to improve for the upcoming season, Haggerty said defense was his top priority.
“I would say defense, try to speed up ball handlers, just being more like a play maker and not just scoring the ball, but giving my teammates the ball.” Haggerty said.
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Last season Haggerty averaged 1.2 steals and 5.3 rebounds both were down from his previous 2024-25 and 2023-24 seasons. His assist have remained consistent in his past three seasons sitting around 3.8 per game.
Haggerty’s arrival comes during a significant offseason transition for Texas A&M and McMillan as he enters his second year as head coach. The Aggies entered the portal looking to replenish a roster that lost seven seniors and several key players, including their top scorer in Rashaun Agee.
“(Haggerty) came here, he wants to win and he knows if he wants to win, he’s got to involve others and he’s been trying to do that more, I think he’s gonna pay off for our team,” McMillan said.
Despite the turnover of players, Texas A&M assembled one of the nation’s top transfer classes, adding six portal commitments and earning a No. 11 ranking in 247Sports’ transfer portal rankings.
Haggerty said the new-look roster has already shown promise during summer workouts.
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“I would say we got a lot of different things; we are versatile, we got bigs, shooters, guards, defense, we got a lot of great weapons,” Haggerty said.
The portal newcomers, forward Jalen Shelly, point guard Jalen Reece, forward Cade Phillips, guard Luka Walls and guard Tyshawn Archie, will be tasked with helping the Aggies navigate what is expected to be another challenging SEC schedule.
“The SEC has been the best league the last two, three years and will be the best league this year,” McMillan said. “I think it’ll be the best it’s ever been this year and when I look at it, and we just got the schedule back, what our schedule will be, we will have the second hardest schedule in the league.”
Last year Texas A&M finished sixth in the SEC with a 11-7 conference record.
The Aggies have also added guard Bryson Warren, who was a five-star prospect out of Little Rock Central. Warren has never played college basketball. He was drafted 13th overall by the Sioux Falls Skyforce in the 2023 NBA G League Draft. Warren played 21 games for the NBA G League on the Westchester Knicks last season averaging 19.8 points, 3.1 rebounds, 5 assists and 1.2 steals.
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For both McMillan, Haggerty and the rest of the team the expectations for the season remain simple.
“Win. I would say that is the first thing, I mean at the end of the day you do a lot of things in basketball, but if you don’t win it doesn’t really matter,” Haggerty said.