Road to Duke
TJ Power and his father Tom used to search out empty gyms at night in Worcester, Massachusetts, to shoot hoops. At Worcester Academy, the Shrewsbury teenager would gather teammates for late Friday and Saturday night shootarounds in Daniels Gymnasium, supervised by Tom. The court was the family church. Tom had played quarterback at Westborough and later with the Marlboro Shamrocks in the Eastern Football League. Tom's brother Mike played quarterback at Boston College, where their uncle Frank Power was such a revered assistant coach that BC named its gym after him. TJ's maternal grandfather, Tom McHugh, played basketball at Saint Bonaventure. Sport was the family language.
TJ Power was born on December 14, 2003 — the same birthday, incidentally, as Christian Reeves, the Duke center he would later be recruited alongside. He grew up in Shrewsbury, a suburb west of Worcester, and starred at St. John's High School as a freshman and sophomore, averaging 18.1 points and leading the team to the Massachusetts Division I state semifinals. When COVID-19 shut down his junior season, Power reclassified and transferred to Worcester Academy, where coach Jamie Sullivan had been watching him since middle school. "I always kept my eye on him," Sullivan said, "and I always knew that he would come to Worcester Academy. It just depended on when."
The when turned out to be transformative. As a junior at Worcester, Power won the Massachusetts Gatorade Player of the Year award, averaging 13.1 points, 7.2 rebounds, 2.7 assists, and 1.5 steals per game. He dropped 26 points and 11 boards in an 85-83 title-game victory over Bradford Christian Academy to win the NEPSAC Class AA championship, earning tournament MVP. As a senior, he led Worcester to a second consecutive NEPSAC title while averaging 23.7 points and shooting 45 percent from three in the final Nike EYBL session in Kansas City — including a 41-point, 15-rebound, 5-assist eruption against Houston Hoops that turned him from a four-star prospect into a five-star one.
He was also a standout baseball pitcher — 1.69 ERA, 31 strikeouts, just three walks across 20.2 innings, winning a CNEPSBL championship with Worcester Academy in May 2023. Duke's staff told him both programs would welcome him.
Power committed to Duke on September 7, 2022, announcing on the same Worcester Academy court where he and Tom had spent all those late nights. "Ever since I was little, I wanted to play on the biggest stage in college, and Duke is the biggest stage," he said. He chose the Blue Devils over North Carolina, Virginia, Iowa, Boston College, and Notre Dame, becoming the fifth and final member of Scheyer's top-ranked 2023 recruiting class — joining Caleb Foster, Jared McCain, Mackenzie Mgbako, and Sean Stewart. Sullivan, his prep coach, saw it coming: "He never got down when he scored six points and eight rebounds and seven assists, and we won. That's TJ, the consummate teammate."
Here is the detail that makes the story ache: Virginia was in his final group of schools. He chose Duke over Virginia. Two years later, he would transfer to Virginia. Two years after that, he would leave Virginia too.
At Duke
TJ Power arrived at Duke in the fall of 2023 as a five-star forward walking into a roster loaded with five-star forwards. Kyle Filipowski was the reigning ACC Rookie of the Year. Mark Mitchell was a returning lottery-level talent. Jeremy Roach was back for a fifth-year victory lap. Jared McCain and Caleb Foster — Power's Worcester Academy teammate — were the headline freshmen. Power was the fifth commit in a five-man class, the lowest-ranked member, and the one without a clear path to the rotation.
He played 26 of Duke's 36 games. He averaged 2.1 points in 6.7 minutes per contest, shooting 33.3 percent from the field and 35.7 percent from three. His season high was nine points against La Salle, when he went 3-for-4 from beyond the arc in five minutes — a five-minute window that showed exactly what he could be if the leash were longer. He scored seven points against North Carolina in the regular-season finale, his best ACC performance. He played a career-high 16 minutes at Georgia Tech.
But the minutes were never consistent, and the role never expanded. Duke went 27-9, won an ACC Tournament game, reached the Elite Eight, and lost to NC State with a Final Four berth on the line. Power did not play in either of the final two NCAA Tournament games. He watched from the bench in a suit as Duke's season ended.
The thing that coaches and teammates noticed was the work. Matt Giles of SI documented a scene from February 2024: after every home game, when the media had cleared out and Scheyer had finished his press conference, Power was the player still on the court, alone, draining threes. Giles watched him go 9-for-10 one night. The talent was obvious. The opportunity was not.
In April 2024, with Cooper Flagg, Kon Knueppel, and Khaman Maluach arriving, Power entered the transfer portal. His goodbye was gracious: "This past year in Durham has been one of the best years of my life and I'm forever grateful for all the great relationships that I've built here. Duke will always have a place in my heart, but it's time to do what is best for me." He was the first of seven Blue Devils to leave that spring. He had three years of eligibility remaining and a silky three-point stroke that every coach in America knew was underutilized.
After Duke
Power committed to Virginia — the school he had chosen Duke over two years earlier. The irony was sharp enough to draw blood. But before he played a single game for the Cavaliers, Tony Bennett, one of the most respected coaches in college basketball and the architect of Virginia's 2019 national championship, shocked the sport by retiring in October 2024.
Penn assistant coach Tristan Spurlock captured the absurdity of Power's journey in a single exchange. When Power signed, Spurlock called him: "I was Tony Bennett's first recruit at Virginia." Power laughed and replied: "Well, I was Tony Bennett's last recruit."
Under new coach Ron Sanchez, Power appeared in 24 games, including five starts, but averaged just 1.3 points and 1.0 rebounds per game. The production was even thinner than Duke — fewer minutes, fewer shots, a program in transition under a first-year staff. His best game was five points against Villanova. He went 8-for-8 from the free throw line all season, proving he could shoot but never getting the chance to prove it consistently.
After the season, Power entered the transfer portal for a second time. Two blue-blood programs, two seasons, a combined 3.4 minutes per game worth of opportunity. The five-star label felt like a relic from another life.
Then Fran McCaffery called. The former Iowa coach had just taken over at Penn, his alma mater, and he had been tracking Power since his junior year at Worcester Academy. "When he called me and told me he was coming," McCaffery told Hoops HQ, "I said, 'Okay, we can win this league.'"
Where Is He Now
Forty-four points. Fourteen rebounds. Seven three-pointers. Nine-for-nine from the free throw line. Two threes in the final seven seconds of regulation to force overtime. Ivy League Tournament MVP. A record for the most points scored in the tournament's eight-year history.
That was TJ Power on March 15, 2026, carrying Penn past top-seeded Yale 88-84 in overtime to send the Quakers to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2018. He scored half of Penn's points. His teammate Cam Thrower said Power was in a "flow state." McCaffery's preseason prophecy — "we can win this league" — came true on the back of the kid who averaged 2.1 points at Duke.
"I want to credit God first," Power said afterward. "This year, my journey at Penn's been a faith journey as much as anything else. I let go of that attachment to performance, or anything like that, and he delivered."
In his first season as a Quaker, Power led the Ivy League in minutes played (35.0 per game) and three-point accuracy (42.7 percent) while averaging 16.4 points and 7.6 rebounds — numbers that earned him All-Ivy honors and, ultimately, tournament MVP. He made up for two years of sitting by never sitting again.
Penn drew No. 3 Illinois as a 14-seed in the NCAA Tournament South Regional. Power was battling illness in the days before the game, unable to speak to media at open practice. But the story by then had written itself: from the number-one recruiting class in the country to 6.7 minutes a game to the transfer portal twice to 44 points in a championship game.
His Worcester Academy coach Sullivan said it best, years before any of this happened, explaining why Power would thrive wherever he landed: "He never got down." Power said it his own way, standing on that gym floor in Shrewsbury at age eighteen, committing to Duke: "I'm about to be that one in a million." It just took three schools, two transfers, and a faith journey to get there.