Shrewsbury's T.J. Power explains decision to leave Duke and transfer to Virginia

T.J. Power has no regrets as he looks back on his freshman year at Duke University.

The 6-foot-9, 216-pound forward from Shrewsbury didn’t get a lot of playing time, but he made plenty of friends, both on the men’s basketball team and in the campus community.

“The people are really great, my teammates are awesome,” Power said Tuesday afternoon following a workout at Holy Cross. “I made a lot of lifelong friends there. I just think that the path there next year wasn’t totally clear.”

That led Power to pursue a path of his own. He entered the transfer portal April 18 and became a collegiate free agent.

“Coach (Jon) Scheyer stressed that he really wanted me back, it was just the direction he’s trying to bring the team was something I didn’t feel super secure in.” said Power, who averaged 2.1 points, 0.7 rebounds, 0.2 assists, and 6.7 minutes in 26 games.

“I was coming off a year where there were ups and downs for me and inconsistent minutes and I was really looking to take the next step next year and have a solidified role. I didn’t see it as being super secure, so I ended up making the choice to leave.”

The perennially powerful Blue Devils entered the offseason with more scholarship commitments than roster spots due to a best-in-the-nation recruiting class headlined by presumptive 2025 NBA No.1 draft pick Cooper Flagg.

Power was one of seven Duke players to enter the transfer portal.

The 20-year-old admitted it was likely the hardest decision he’s made from a basketball standpoint and, quite possibly, in his life.

That led to a whirlwind experience over a nearly three-week period as a host of schools from major conferences immediately contacted Power. Time was of the essence.

“I just had to quickly decipher things because the portal moves so much faster than high school recruiting,” he said.

Not surprisingly, Power found himself talking the most to the same schools he built a relationship with while being recruited at Worcester Academy, from which he graduated in June after starting his high school career at St. John’s.

They were Boston College, Iowa, Georgetown, Notre Dame, Virginia, Virginia Tech and Wake Forest.

On Monday evening, Power took to social media to announce he had committed to Virginia, an Atlantic Coast Conference rival of Duke.

“Coach (Tony) Bennett is a great guy overall,” Power said. “My conversations with him, he’s someone I can really trust. And when he would say things about the vision he has for me, it checked a lot of boxes as far as being able to be a heavy contributor right away.

“Obviously, everything has to be earned, but just the need that they have for scoring on the wing and size on the wing.”

Power is projected to be a Day 1 starter for the Cavaliers, who went 23-11 and earned an at-large berth in the NCAA Tournament this past season.

He should have ample opportunity to not only showcase his sizeable skill set, but ‒ equally important ‒ sharpen it.

“The areas of my game that I want to grow, their player development is, in my opinion, the best in the country,” Power said. “So being able to go there and get on the floor and play, and also develop the weaknesses in my game is going to be really helpful.”

The fact that Virginia is, like Duke, an excellent academic school was also important to Power, who is an outstanding student.

Power is grateful to his family ‒ dad, Tom; mom; Shannon; and sister, Lauren ‒ WA boys’ basketball coach Jamie Sullivan, and his agent, Mark Bartelstein of Chicago-based Priority Sports, for their support and assistance in navigating the transfer portal.

Because, as was the case with departing Duke, the decision to arrive somewhere else was difficult.

“I really just wanted clarity,” Power said. “And you never really have full clarity, so wherever I’m going it’s always going to be a leap of faith. But I think the schools that I was really talking to had clear opportunities for me to play.”

Power will continue to work out at Holy Cross and Worcester Academy while he’s home before heading to Virginia in mid-June 10 to begin training in Charlottesville.

—Contact Rich Garven at rgarven@telegram.com. Follow him on X, formerly known as Twitter, @RichGarvenTG.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Shrewsbury's T.J. Power explains decision to leave Duke and transfer to Virginia