Memphis basketball is losing yet another scholarship player to the transfer portal.
Sources confirm to Bluff City Media that guard Jayhlon Young will leave the program after just one season. The 6-foot-2 junior joins Jonathan Pierre as the second Tiger to do so this week. He averaged 2.2 points, 1.3 rebounds and 0.9 assists per game in 27 appearances this season.
The Tigers’ backup point guard never had more than 3 assists in a game throughout the campaign—his best outing being a 7-point, 4-rebound and 1-steal display against No. 13 Clemson on Dec. 16. He also scored just over a point per contest in American Athletic Conference (AAC) play after sitting out most of February with an ankle injury. Young recorded no points, 2 assists and 2 rebounds in 16 minutes during last Thursday’s loss to Wichita State in the AAC Tournament, which proved to be his final game in a Memphis uniform.
Head coach Penny Hardaway is also expected to lose Jahvon Quinerly, Nae’Qwan Tomlin, Caleb Mills, Jaykwon Walton, Jordan Brown, Jayden Hardaway and Malcolm Dandridge due to expired eligibility. Young’s departure means the sixth-year coach must now replace at least nine scholarship players this offseason.
Forward Nick Jourdain will return to Memphis next year, however. The Tigers can also bring back David Jones, Joe Cooper, Ashton Hardaway, Carl Cherenfant and Noah Stansbury. Four-star high school recruit Jared Harris is the program’s only incoming player as of now. But Hardaway and his staff have already begun looking in the transfer portal to rectify that problem.
Memphis has “strong interest” in Michigan guard Dug McDaniel, according to sources. It’s also reached out to Belmont guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie, Southeastern Louisiana guard Roger McFarlane and Texas State forward Brandon Love.