Haggerty, Stirtz, and The Portal Prodigies
PJ Haggerty
The 4 Million Dollar Man
Want to get paid in today’s college basketball? Go score. This is exactly what PJ Haggerty has done for the past two years. From his time at Tulsa, to last year with Memphis, Haggerty has shown that he can put the ball in the hoop at the highest level. 2025 Second Team All-American, the simple eye test, and 21.7 PPG on a 5-seeded tournament team says exactly that.
Yet, advanced analytics aren’t exactly drooling over Haggerty. The main issue lies in PJ’s inability to be a real facilitator on offense, where he has not grown nearly as much as expected. 2025’s near 18% TO% and mere 3.7 APG sends smoke signals to many who expect the 6 '3 guard to be a fully formed offensive facilitator, despite playing over 60% of Memphis lineups at Small Forward.
It has recently been rumored that Haggerty is demanding upwards of $4 Million from his next team. As someone who will be in his fourth college basketball program this year, and has valid question marks on the depth of his offensive prowess, $4 Million is a wildly high number. The rest is up to college basketball and whether or not someone caves to the insane price tag. It’s like if Nico Iamaleava was good!
Bennett Stirtz
Climbing the ladder
Like his coach Ben McCollum, Stirtz will be heading to Iowa City. The incoming senior guard’s debut in Hawkeye yellow will be his third stop, after two years with the Division Two Northwest Missouri State Bearcats, and most recently, a stellar season with the Drake Bulldogs. This progression from Division Two to a Mid-Major program, and now a Power Five school may be a real blueprint for many in this new transfer portal era of college basketball.
Semantics aside, Stirtz is a big time hooper. He proved this all season long, but especially during statement wins in March that included a 24 point performance versus Bradley, a 21 point NCAA tournament win over Missouri where he shot 71%, and even putting up 21 points and 8 assists in Drake’s round of 32 loss to Texas Tech.
Maybe the best thing about Stirtz? His availability. He led all of division one basketball with an astonishing 98.8% of minutes played. In these minutes he had a TS% higher than 60%, shot nearly 50-40-80, and kept an impressive 127.7 Box RTG. As the main guy in a brand-new Ben McCollum Iowa system, Stirtz is sure to have his high usage 20 points per game transfer into power five conference play. This season put Stirtz on the map, and now the third-ranked transfer only has one more thing to do in his collegiate career: Dominate the Big 10.
Donovan Dent
California Dreamin’
The kid from Riverside is coming back to So-Cal. This time, not as a 3-star prospect, whose second best offer came via Long Beach State, but as a UCLA Bruin. Dent’s progression has been super noticeable as he’s grown from a guy who Richard Pitino and Co. took a chance on, to the Mountain West Player of the Year and an All-American Honorable Mention.
The 6’2 guard averaged just above 20 points and 6 assists per game in his Junior campaign with the Lobos. Dent’s stellar season even had postseason success as his year was capped off by a NCAA Tournament win over the Marquette Golden Eagles. Still, there is room for improvement with Dent’s efficiency and playmaking rates as his 51.2% EFG and 21.4% TO% vs A-Tier competition isn’t ideal. Obviously, these warning signals were not enough to offset the pure scoring prowess that he has shown in the past two seasons with New Mexico.
Ian Jackson
The Mega Haul’s Head Honcho
Jon Rothstien recently proclaimed the St. John's Red Storm as the most talented team in college basketball heading into 2025-2026. This is by no means an over exaggeration. Despite losing Big East Player of the Year RJ Luis after an ugly end of year breakup, Pitino has reloaded and then some. St. John’s 2025 transfer class has been dubbed “The Mega Haul,” for the sheer amount of established NCAA talent that the Red Storm has secured. Some of these names include: Cincinnati’s Dillon Mitchell, Providence’s Bryce Hopkins, Stanford’s Oziyah Sellers, and North Carolina’s Ian Jackson.
The most notable of the bunch? Ian Jackson. The incoming Sophomore 6’4 shooting guard was a match made in heaven as the Brox native returns to New York. The former Tar Heel averaged 11.9 PPG on 57.2% TS in his freshman campaign. Arguably, Jackson’s season peaked in a fantastic stretch of games in December and January that was highlighted by a 24 point explosion in a statement win over Mick Cronin’s stellar UCLA defense. Still, Jackson has plenty of room to grow. Ranked as the 9th ranked transfer because of his youth, Jackson has struggled to find consistent scoring excellence in his first year at the division one level. Specifically, a 99.7 ORTG and 53.8 TS% vs A-Tier competition sends smoke signals of an unfinished offensive game.
The truth for Ian Jackson is that it’s okay to not be fully polished after your freshman season. Infact, Jackson is leaps and bounds ahead of the other guys on this list in terms of where he stands at 20 years of age. This season with Rick Pitino should do wonders for this kid who is a step away from stardom.
