CORAL GABLES, Fla. – University of Miami head men’s basketball coach Jim Larrañaga announced Thursday the addition of transfer AJ Staton-McCray to the 2024-25 roster.

A 6-foot-5, 195-pound guard, Staton-McCray joins the Hurricanes after spending four seasons at Samford, where he averaged 9.6 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 1.7 steals in 84 total games played.

“AJ is a very athletic, multi-positional player whose toughness and defensive ability will fit in very well with our current roster,” Larrañaga said. “He is the ultimate competitor and shoots the ball at a high level.”

In 2023-24, Staton-McCray started 27 of 31 games played and led all Samford guards in scoring (11.5) and rebounding (4.5) while leading the entire team in steals (1.6). He connected on 41.3 percent of his 3-point attempts, an increase of 12 percentage points from the previous season (.289).

Staton-McCray helped the Bulldogs to the first Southern Conference Tournament title in program history and their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2000. In the tournament's first round, the Bulldogs gave No. 17 Kansas all it could handle, narrowly falling 93-89 to the fourth-seeded Jayhawks.

The guard scored in double-figures in 18 contests as a redshirt junior and eclipsed the 20-point mark on three occasions.

As a freshman in 2020-21, Staton-McCray was named to the Southern Conference All-Freshman Team after averaging 10.0 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.8 assists per game.

A native of Delray Beach, Fla., Staton-McCray was a three-star recruit out of high school and helped Blanche Ely to the state title in 2019.

Courtesy of Miami Athletics

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