Kansas Losing on Darrion Williams Allows Rival to Land Transfer Star

The domino effect of the Kansas Jayhawks missing out on Texas Tech transfer Darrion Williams made an already painful recruiting loss worse.

On Monday, former Memphis star PJ Haggerty withdrew from the NBA Draft and committed to the K-State Wildcats.

Will Wade and the Wolfpack were the favorites to land him before they added Williams, but KU swinging and missing on the star forward paved the way for Jerome Tang to land Haggerty.

Despite speculation that Williams would pledge to the Jayhawks following an official visit to Lawrence, NCSU quickly stole the highly touted transfer from Bill Self.

KU's biggest rival in the Big 12 now boasts an elite player due to a recruiting miss.

A 6-foot-3 guard who was named a Consensus Second Team All-American in 2024-25, Haggerty was one of the most prolific scorers in the sport last season.

He averaged 21.7 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 3.7 assists on 47.6% shooting, earning the AAC Player of the Year award.

While Haggerty was testing the waters in the draft pool, he had the lowest combine score in the 2025 class, forcing him to return to college.

If Williams had committed to Kansas, he would have been an instant starter at power forward. NC State saw Haggerty as its fallback choice and dropped its pursuit when Wade no longer saw a need to target Haggerty.

Sources close to college basketball insider Adam Zagoria revealed that Haggerty will make a NIL value of $2.5 million. 

Even so, Haggerty is just the latest transfer off the board for Coach Self and his staff.

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