Temple transfer Quante Berry committed to the Memphis Men’s Basketball team on Sunday, representing their first transfer portal commitment of the offseason.
Berry, a 6’4 guard from Cleveland, Tennessee, averaged 10.3 points, 4.3 rebounds, 2.1 assists, and 1.3 steals in 30 minutes per game this season for the Owls. He has two years of eligibility remaining, after redshirting his freshman season at Providence then playing two seasons at Temple.
Berry improved greatly from year one to year two at Temple, upping his minutes by over 20 minutes a game and his scoring by over 8 points a game. Memphis is hoping he makes a similar jump in development this upcoming season for them.
In two games against Memphis this year, Berry averaged 17.5 points, 4 assists, and 3.5 rebounds, and played some of his best games of the season against the Tigers.
He is an average shooter at 34% from beyond the arc on 2.3 attempts per game, but excels at finishing in the paint, where he shot 56% on the season. Berry should pair alongside PJ Haggerty well, if Haggerty decides to return to Memphis next year, as he ranks in the 79th percentile in effective field goal percentage off catch and shoot opportunities, per CBB Analytics. While he struggles creating his own shot, with a ball dominant guard like Haggerty alongside him, the strengths and weaknesses of the two should balance out well.
As of today, Memphis’ roster is still largely up in the air. Moussa Cisse, Tyrese Hunter, Nicholas Jourdain, and Colby Rogers are all out of eligibility, and PJ Carter, Jared Harris, Baraka Okojie, and Damarien Yates are all transferring out of the program. Dain Dainja is out of eligibility but is applying for a waiver to attempt to get another year.
That leaves PJ Haggerty, who has not made a public announcement yet if he will return or enter the portal, Dante Harris, redshirt Bouna Kebe, high school recruit Daniel Viera-Tuck, JUCO transfer Felipe Patino, and now Quante Berry as the current roster.
Players have until April 22 to enter the transfer portal, so there is still a lot of time for Memphis to be active, but the Tigers are largely in a holding pattern right now until they know what PJ Haggerty will do next season, as he will command a significant portion of Memphis’ NIL budget if he stays.
