Memphis basketball sought revenge on Wichita State for last year. PJ Haggerty got his for last month.

FORT WORTH, Texas — American Athletic Conference (AAC) Player of the Year PJ Haggerty wasn’t a Memphis Tiger 365 days ago, when Wichita State eliminated Memphis from the 2023-24 AAC Tournament.

So, it’s only natural Haggerty didn’t ponder on that soul-crushing moment when the Tigers faced the Shockers again in Friday’s quarterfinal matchup at Dickies Arena. Heck, Memphis coach Penny Hardaway was there for last season’s dreadful ending, and the memory barely gave him a few jitters pregame.

Thoughts of revenge still littered through Haggerty’s mind, though. The only difference is they were fueled by his recollection of what happened 26 days ago, not 365. That’s when Memphis (27-5, 16-2 AAC) suffered its most recent defeat at Wichita State in overtime.

Haggerty (21.9 points, 5.6 rebounds, 3.8 assists and 1.8 steals per game) underwhelmed on Feb. 16 inside Charles Koch Arena. He still recorded 15 points, 8 rebounds, 6 assists and a couple steals in 43 minutes, but he did so on 4-for-13 shooting. The 6-foot-3 guard also committed 3 turnovers in that game, and 5 in the Tigers’ first meeting with WSU on Jan. 23 (a 61-53 Memphis victory).

Paul Mills’ Shockers made one fatal flaw after upsetting the eventual AAC regular-season champions, however. They talked too much for Haggerty’s liking.

“They was talking, like, kind of crazy. We got that get-back, so we gotta talk back,” Haggerty told reporters after Memphis’ 83-80 victory over Wichita.

The normally nonchalant redshirt sophomore’s wave goodbye to the Shockers postgame seemed minuscule compared to what he had just done to them for 38 minutes of play. Haggerty scored a career-high 42 points (16-of-25 shooting) to go with 9 rebounds, 4 assists and 3 steals. His scoring output matched the AAC Tournament record, originally set by Louisville’s Russ Smith on March 14, 2014—exactly 11 years ago.

“It’s March. It’s win or go home. I’m not trying to go home,” he said.

Haggerty’s performance lifted his mostly overwhelmed teammates too. Dain Dainja scored 18 points (7-for-12 shooting), but no other Tiger had more than 8. All Memphis players besides Haggerty and Dainja shot a combined 22% from the field.

Hardaway wasn’t shocked—no pun intended—in the slightest. Haggerty, named a second-team All-American by The Sporting News on Wednesday, simply met the same expectations he once did as a player.

“I was in his shoes. When you’re the man and you’re expected to go out and produce, you go out and produce. There’s no excuses this time of year. Your team wins when you play well. [If] you don’t play well, your team loses,” Hardaway said. “At the end of the day, that’s the pressure that you have to have on yourself as being the man. He responded exceptionally well. Just watching it—it just took me back.

“His abilities are from God. That’s something that you can’t teach.”

Hardaway feared, however, that Haggerty was seconds away from uttering ungodly words about Wichita State. The latter asked to make a final statement once he, Hardaway and Dainja finished answering questions from reporters—approximately 30 seconds after he called out the Shockers for their aforementioned trash talk.

“Let’s go home. Let’s go home,” Hardaway said as he tried to restrain his young star from the microphone.

But Haggerty—calm and collected as ever—delivered the most gracious message he could.

“Shoutout [to] Memphis fans, bro. We love y’all. Keep supporting.”

No. 16 Memphis faces Tulane in the AAC Tournament semifinals Saturday (2 p.m., ESPN2).