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Miami transfer guard AJ Staton-McCray commits to Seton Hall

Stephen Samraby: Steve Samra04/30/25SamraSource
A.J. Staton-McCray
A.J. Staton-McCray (Photo courtesy of Miami Athletics)

Miami transfer guard AJ Staton-McCray is taking his talents to New Jersey via the NCAA Transfer Portal. He’s committed to join Seton Hall, On3’s Joe Tipton reports.

This is Staton-McCray’s second time transferring. He previously departed from Samford to the Hurricanes last summer, and now he’ll be joining the Pirates for the 2025-26 season.

The 6-foot-5, 200-pound Staton-McCray left Miami after starting 17 of his 31 games in his lone season in Coral Gables. He averaged 7.3 points on 40.4% shooting along with 2.4 rebounds and one steal per game in the 2024-25 season with the Hurricanes.

Additionally, Staton-McCray was far from the only Miami player to enter the transfer portal since former head coach Jim Larrañaga suddenly retired in late December. He joined fellow guards Jalen Blackmon, Jalil Bethea, Paul Djobet, Austin Swartz, Nijel Pack, and Divine Ugochukwu, as well as forwards Xander Alarie and Isaiah Johnson-Arigu.

Moreover, Staton-McCray averaged 11.5 points and 4.5 rebounds per game for Samford during the 2023-24 season, starting 27 of their 31 games. Across 84 career games, Staton averaged 9.6 points, 4.3 rebounds and 1.7 steals.

In 2023-24, Staton-McCray helped lead the Bulldogs to their first Southern Conference Tournament title in program history and the team’s first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2000. There, they were eliminated by Kansas, but nearly pulled off an upset to remember, ultimately losing 93-89.

“AJ is a very athletic, multi-positional player whose toughness and defensive ability will fit in very well with our current roster,” Larrañaga said of Staton-McCray on June 6, 2024 in a press release announcing his addition. “He is the ultimate competitor and shoots the ball at a high level.”

A product of the 2020 recruiting class, Staton was unranked, according to the On3 Industry Rankings, which is a proprietary algorithm that compiles ratings and rankings from all four primary recruiting media services.

To keep up with the latest players on the move, check out On3’s Transfer Portal wire. The On3 Transfer Portal Instagram account and Twitter account are excellent resources to stay up to date with the latest moves.

— On3’s Barkley Truax and Alex Byington contributed to this report.