AJ Staton-McCray Combo Guard 6-5, 195 lbs Transfer Samford The construction of the 2024-25 Florida Atlantic men’s basketball team under first-year head coach John Jakus has begun course, obtaining their first significant addition in former Bulldog guard AJ Staton-McCray. Staton-McCray announced his transfer to the Owls on Tuesday afternoon, ending a four-year stint with the Samford Bulldogs. In 84 games and 53 starts, he averaged 9.6 points, and 1.1 assists on 41.8% shooting from the field and 33.1 percent from beyond the arc. Last season, he averaged 11.5 points, 4.5 rebounds in just 21 minutes per game. Staton-McCray shot 44.2% from the field and 41.3% from 3-point range. Staton-McCray is a name that might sound familiar as he was involved in a controversial call in the just concluded NCAA Tournament. In Samfords 1st round game against Kansas, he made what appeared to be a clean blocked shot but the referee called a foul, which aided Kansas. A Florida native, he came out of West Oaks Academy as a three-star recruit with an 88 score on 247Sports. He was ranked the 27th-best player in the state of Florida and the 65th-best shooting guard in his class. He had offers from DePaul, App State, and Illinois State among others before committing to Samford. Moving on to the next chapter of his career by playing close to home with one year of eligibility remaining, Staton-McCray joins an FAU program that looks to maintain their momentum of back-to-back appearances in the NCAA Tournament and has aspirations of returning to the Final Four. His highlights from the 2023-24 season can be viewed below:
