Why Duke added fast-rising prospect TJ Power

Jamie Sullivan can still see it.

Just before the onset of COVID-19, Sullivan — the head coach at Worcester (Mass.) Academy — slipped into a local gym to watch a player he’d known for years: TJ Power. They first met when Power was 9 or 10 years old, and as he grew older, Sullivan would invite the promising prospect to Worcester for casual workouts. But on this particular day, from his corner seat in the gym, Sullivan saw much more than just another up-and-coming talent.

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He saw special.

“I see him shooting the ball at a release point of eight or nine feet high — probably higher than that, 10 feet high,” Sullivan says. “The rotation on his basketball, and the way that he moved as a 6-foot-9 guy? I just knew.”

It wasn’t until months later, though, after Power announced he would transfer to Worcester, that Sullivan reached out to Power’s parents and set forth a prediction, of sorts. “I told them the blue bloods would come running,” Sullivan says. “I told them Kansas, North Carolina, and Duke would come, and they didn’t believe me at first because that’s hard to believe — but now that it’s here, they think I can read the future (laughs).”

That prediction came full-circle Wednesday when Power — arguably the fastest riser in the class and now the No. 24 prospect in the 2023 class, per the 247Sports Composite — committed to Duke.

At the macro level, Power’s commitment means Duke — which welcomed the nation’s No. 1 recruiting class to Durham this summer, in Jon Scheyer’s first offseason as head coach — will likely land the top-rated class in consecutive years. Ten top-30 players have committed to Scheyer since last summer, when he was tapped as Mike Krzyzewski’s successor, with nine of those players earning five-star designations. (The lone exception? Tyrese Proctor … who was also a five-star in the Class of 2023 before reclassifying and joining the team in August.)

Power becomes the fifth commit in Duke’s 2023 group, joining wing Mackenzie Mgbako (No. 5 overall), forward Sean Stewart (No. 9), point guard Caleb Foster (No. 13), and combo guard Jared McCain (No. 18).

“Ever since I was little, I wanted to play on the biggest stage in college, and Duke is the biggest stage,” Power said during his announcement ceremony. “What’s great about my experience is I didn’t have to sacrifice anything as far as fit or relationship; I think the way Coach Scheyer wants to play, and the way he’s making these classes and his team really fits my game.”

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On the micro level, though, Power is a fascinating fit with the rest of Duke’s class — and its potential returners, whoever those might be. At 6-foot-9 and 210 pounds, Power has the frame of a traditional stretch-four, but the skill set of a true wing. “As a coach, sometimes you just wanna pigeonhole them and put them down inside,” Sullivan says, “but he continued to communicate to me that he had the ability to do that — as a sophomore — and then we started to attune.”

So, how did that materialize on the floor? Well, it wasn’t uncommon to see the slender Powers driving into traffic, only to masterfully kick to a cutting teammate or corner shooter — but as of the last few months, Power has been on the receiving end of more of those plays, coinciding with his development as a shooter. Despite averaging 13.1 points, 7.2 rebounds, 2.7 assists, and 1.5 steals per game last season en route to winning Massachusetts Gatorade Player of the Year, Power didn’t have Duke and the rest of the blue bloods came knocking this summer until he showcased his strides shooting the ball.

It’s that juxtaposition of skill and frame that makes Power such an interesting fit with the Blue Devils. Krzyzewski made his name early in his coaching career as an advocate of positional versatility, something Scheyer has also stressed early in his tenure. In theory, that makes Power an ideal addition to a class that already includes two other 6-foot-9 studs in Mgbako and Stewart. While Stewart has more of a conventional big-man game, Mgbako and Power have guard-like skills with longer frames. (It helps that Power is ambidextrous; he shoots right-handed, but pitches lefty and comfortably hits 85 mph.) It’s not inconceivable that all three will share the floor, giving Duke a supersized perimeter but without sacrificing any necessary ball-handling, passing, or shooting.

It isn’t just Power’s physical tools that make him versatile, though; it’s also his mindset. “He’s just got the brain,” Sullivan says — which, considering Worcester’s basketball lineage, carries some gravitas. In addition to NBA head coaches Rick Carlisle and Mike Malone, Worcester has also produced Jarrett Jack, Donnie Nelson, and most recently, South Carolina women’s star Aliyah Boston. All of which is a long-winded way of saying, if the folks at Worcester think someone knows ball, they probably do.

“A lot of guys, they think scoring is the only way you can impact the game,” Sullivan says. “TJ doesn’t think that way, which is very rare … There were games last year TJ had six points and eight rebounds and seven assists, and he was just as happy as when he’d score 28 and 10.”

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That all-around impact will be paramount at Duke, especially with Power competing for playing time with at least four other high-caliber freshmen. But make no mistake; Duke wouldn’t have gone so hard after Power, and so quickly, if it didn’t think he was a missing piece to their 2023 class. Consider: Power earned his Duke offer on July 14, took an official visit less than two weeks later, and felt confident enough in his decision to commit in under two months.

You know what that sounds like? A school prioritizing a player, and said player fully buying into the future some — like Sullivan — have always seen for him.

“I’ve been here 25 years, and when you’re talking about pros, they not only get it with their physical attributes, they have it upstairs, too, in their heads — and that’s what he’s got,” Sullivan says. “He can conceptualize the game. He can adapt. He can understand the game plan, he can zero in and focus on small idiosyncrasies of what you want him to do.

“No matter where he goes to school, he’s gonna have that opportunity to shine — to show all that.”

(Top photo: Courtesy of Drew Forsberg Photography)