MHSAA boys basketball’s top freshman this past winter will be at a new school for the 2026-27 season.
Jordan McDaniel is transferring to Roseville, his father, Greg, told the Free Press. The Division 1 first-team All-State selection at Birmingham Brother Rice helped guide the Warriors to their first state semifinal appearance in 40 years as a dynamic, 20-point-per-game point guard. He joins a young Panthers team coming off a quarterfinal appearance.
McDaniel’s family moved from Redford to Roseville on Monday, June 1, because McDaniel’s mom is set to get a new job on the east side, according to Greg McDaniel. He said the family’s financial situation forced them to move as they looked for ways to balance their budget.
“It was a financial burden on me, going back and forth like that,” Greg McDaniel said of the commute from their previous home to Brother Rice. “We had a hard time paying for lunch. We come from free lunch and we had a hard time taking care of it. It cost us $250 a month.”
The last year has been especially tough for the family’s finances. Greg McDaniel says his income comes from disability checks from the Department of Veterans Affairs monthly because of a service injury that forced him to relearn how to walk for over six months.
He said that his fixed income had stretched too thin trying to support his family.
“My son was there from seven in the morning to seven at night so I had to make sure he could eat,” Greg McDaniel said. “That just financially killed us. We went into the hole. It was a hard year financially.”
McDaniel and his father had conversations about their situation, but he was not aware he would have to leave Brother Rice until the family moved.
“It’s been a stressful day for real because I found out I gotta leave Brother Rice and we gotta move,” McDaniel said June 1.
Though he understands the situation his family is in, McDaniel is still not happy with having to leave the school where he made a sterling impression in his first year on one of the top teams in the state.
“I’m a little mad that I have to leave Brother Rice,” McDaniel added.
McDaniel said he plans on bringing the same aggressive scoring mindset to Roseville that he displayed as a freshman for the Warriors.
“I’m going to play exactly the same way that I played there,” McDaniel said.
McDaniel quickly enrolled in Roseville this past week. On Sunday, he suited up for Roseville in two summer league games against Lima Senior (Ohio) and Muskegon in an event hosted by the Horatio Williams Foundation at Detroit Mercy’s Calihan Hall.
“He came in and enrolled on Tuesday,” Roseville coach Rashard Porter said on Sunday. “It was kind of out of nowhere.”
Porter, in his second year with the Panthers, was previously an assistant at Brother Rice, but his time at the school did not overlap with McDaniel’s. Brother Rice coach Rick Palmer declined to comment.
What Jordan McDaniel means for Roseville
Sunday’s games were McDaniel’s first organized basketball activities with his new high school team. He jumped right into the action before attending a practice.
He will be an infusion of talent for a Roseville team that already had high expectations entering the 2026-27 season. The Panthers (19-7) finished tied for second in a highly competitive MAC Red before making just the program’s third run to the state quarterfinals since the 1950s. Roseville fell one game short of the Breslin Center, losing to Auburn Hills Avondale.
McDaniel hit the ground running last season, with 24 points and five assists in the first game of his high school career against Ferndale. He remained the focal point and leading scorer of Brother Rice’s offense, playing alongside two seniors with Division I scholarships: Greg Grays Jr. (Detroit Mercy) and Ivan Stojanovski (Oakland).
After a dominant run to reach the semifinals, Brother Rice went down to the wire with defending state champion East Lansing in the semifinals. McDaniel scored a game-high 31 points, including a personal 7-0 run in the fourth quarter, to tie the game before Hal Schram Mr. Basketball winner K.J. Torbert hit a game-winning 3 at the buzzer.
Roseville was returning nearly all of its production from 2025-26 before the addition of McDaniel. The headlining returner is 6-foot-8 forward Carter George, who averaged 12.2 points, 9.3 rebounds and 4.6 blocks per game. and guard Terrell Owens as the team’s leading scorer. Prince El and Charles Stewart are other returning backcourt contributors.
With another high-octane guard added to this mix, Roseville is well-positioned to contend in Division 1 next winter.
“I think not only can he come and rebuild himself here and be a part of the culture,” Porter said. “He could be the culture and I’m very excited for it.”
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Jared Ramsey covers high school sports for the Detroit Free Press. Contact him at jramsey@freepress.com.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: MHSAA basketball: Top freshman Jordan McDaniel leaves Brother Rice
Reporting by Jared Ramsey, Detroit Free Press / Detroit Free Press
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By Jared Ramsey, Detroit Free Press | USA TODAY Network
