TJ Power Portals to Hooville

[LeadingEdge]

For sure. And, it looks like a great landing spot for TJ -- with as decimated as the Hoos are by player departures, it seems to me he has a great chance to start. According to the handy roster tracker that someone posted https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets...gid=1824750635, Virginia currently has 11 scholarship players

Seniors PG Jalen Warley and W Taine Murray
Juniors SG Isaac McKneely and SF Andrew Rohde
Sophs PF/C Blake Buchanan, SG Elijah Gertrude and TJ
RS-Freshmen C Anthony Robinson (a 3*) and SG Christian Bliss (247's #132)
True Freshmen PF Jacob Cofie (247's #95) and SG Ishan Sharma (247's #231).

Presumably, Warley, McKneely, Rohde and Buchanan would be penciled in to start at PG, SG, SF and C. So, presuming TJ can beat out the #95 ranked played in the incoming freshman class, he would seem to have the inside track to start at PF, or be no worse than 6th man if Bennett chooses to start small with Murray or Gertrude instead.

Bliss is a PG all the way. Tony sometimes plays two PGs together, such as Kihei and Beekman.

[SkyBrickey]

If he were an absolutely elite shooter, wouldn’t he have earned more minutes last year?

Not necessarily with how little he played

Grayson Allen led the entire NBA in 3 pt %. I don't think he shot it better as a frosh than TJ.

[gaap]

Not necessarily with how little he played

Grayson Allen led the entire NBA in 3 pt %. I don't think he shot it better as a frosh than TJ.

Allen's stats are interesting. He shot 46.1% on 3s this season. Coming into the season his career average was 39.5%.

[cato]

Not necessarily with how little he played

Grayson Allen led the entire NBA in 3 pt %. I don't think he shot it better as a frosh than TJ.

Yeah, they shot about the same in their respective freshman years. But Grayson Allen played his way into a meaningful role, scoring 153 in 322 minutes while Power logged 55 points over 181 minutes. Looking at per 40 minutes, Grayson scored 19 per 40 minutes while Power scored 12.

I hole power develops into a successful player, but if he had the makings of being an elite scorer I think he would have earned more minutes this past year.

[BrummieDevil]

Yeah, they shot about the same in their respective freshman years. But Grayson Allen played his way into a meaningful role, scoring 153 in 322 minutes while Power logged 55 points over 181 minutes. Looking at per 40 minutes, Grayson scored 19 per 40 minutes while Power scored 12.

I hole power develops into a successful player, but if he had the makings of being an elite scorer I think he would have earned more minutes this past year.

We knew coming in that Grayson had pretty elite raw athleticism and in Duke's season-opener his freshman year he scored 18 points in 18 minutes.

T.J. didn't hit double figures even once as freshman. I was bullish on his prospects before last season and I still had high hopes for him before his transfer, but he surely didn't show as much as Grayson did as a frosh (even if we ignore the Final Four) to justify high expectations. At the same point late in their freshman regular seasons, each came off the bench in blowout wins - one of them put up 27 points while the other put up 3-6 points.

[johnb]

I wish TJ well. He does have a ways to go on defense, but if UVa is going to win games it needs to creak its way into the 50’s, and somebody has to score those baskets.

At least bball wise, he’s in a better spot—A linked article indicates UVa now has a grand total of 2 forwards on its team. After losing 4 McD AA forwards, Duke still has plenty of elite forwards so that even our TJ advocates are arguing he should have held out for his chance to possibly start at Duke in 2025.

Others complain that Scheyer, who’s inarguably an elite basketball mind and a consummate Duke guy, should have handed out minutes as if they were gift bags at a kids bday party—a couple people on this thread saying it would be a colossal mistake if guys like Flagg, Foster, and Proctor get 30 minutes pg next year. This is such a weird slant. The top few players at Duke almost always average about 30-33 mpg, though hardly anyone has ever averaged 35. And those are exactly the guys who seem poised to average 30 mpg (though some of that could shift if we bring in a guard like Sion James, whose skills will demand minutes—by the way, I keep conflating Sion James with Scion James, which would have been a great name for Bronny, but that a bit of a tangent).

As for the academics, UVa is clearly at the same level as Duke. We can split hairs, but the biggest difference between Duke and many of its ACC peers is admissions selectivity and size, not educational opportunities. Do you think many undergrads (at Duke or anywhere)
really stretch the limits of what their faculty can offer? There is the connections thing, which matters a lot in basketball/media and some aspects of business, but I’m guessing it’s at least as useful to have attended a state university if you want to stay in that state.

Anyway, TJ to UVa is a win for the player, both teams, and us fans who would otherwise be too lazy to try to find him if he’d gone out of the conference.

[elvis14]

Another sad loss for Duke basketball. I'd rather have TJ than some random stranger from another team transferring in. Perhaps Jon should have been handing out minutes like they were gift bags at a birthday party.

This is the worst off season Duke has had in a long time.

[DarkstarWahoo]

Another sad loss for Duke basketball. I'd rather have TJ than some random stranger from another team transferring in. Perhaps Jon should have been handing out minutes like they were gift bags at a birthday party.

This is the worst off season Duke has had in a long time.

I think a lot of fans would say it's their team's worst offseason in a long time. Everyone is losing players left and right.

[sagegrouse]

I think a lot of fans would say it's their team's worst offseason in a long time. Everyone is losing players left and right.

There is such chaos in college athletics that Congress may choose to get involved. FWIW, Congress has leverage because antitrust matters are grounded in legislation, Sherman Antitrust Act, e.g., rather than the US Constitution.

[MChambers]

There is such chaos in college athletics that Congress may choose to get involved. FWIW, Congress has leverage because antitrust matters are grounded in legislation, Sherman Antitrust Act, e.g., rather than the US Constitution.

Hard to see Congress actually passing any legislation in the area. Get involved more likely means hold some hearings and raise some campaign cash.

[sagegrouse]

Hard to see Congress actually passing any legislation in the area. Get involved more likely means hold some hearings and raise some campaign cash.

Me too. But this not a partisan issue, provided most athlete economic gains are preserved.

[Tappan Zee Devil]

There is such chaos in college athletics that Congress may choose to get involved..

God help us.

[-jk]

God help us.

Just give the NCAA an anti-trust exemption so the NCAA can set rules again.

-jk

[Music man55]

God help us.

I agree! Hell, congress can’t even agree to fix themselves, much less college athletics. I agree, something needs to be done, but congress? I guess that would be akin to appointing in the prohibition days the keystone cops to take down Al Capone!

[brevity]

The Field of 68 put up a video clip about Virginia adding TJ Power along with Florida State's Jalen Warley and San Diego State's Elijah Saunders.



ROB DAUSTER: "You bring in these two versatile wings, right, and you bring in a guard that can play in the backcourt, and all of a sudden you put all this stuff together, and I can squint my eyes and I can see a top 25 team here at Virginia."

JEFF GOODMAN: "TJ Power... I don't know how he fits in that system, like, offensively. I just don't know if that's the best fit for TJ Power, personally. I think he's better getting up and down. I think we saw that in AAU ball, and getting him with the ball in his hands. He could play in the halfcourt, but I think he's really good with the ball in his hands, pushing it, making decisions. Two summers ago, he did look like a pro, and his confidence was shot this past year at Duke...

"That's going to be the number one priority for Tony Bennett, if he could turn TJ Power into the type of player we thought he was gonna be, or I thought he was gonna be, then yeah, you're in business. But if TJ Power is just another player, like I think he's got a lot of 'just another players' at Virginia, and again I never count out Tony Bennett, I never count him out in the regular season of the ACC, because he's a proven winner, but when it comes to the NCAA Tournament, they just haven't done anything in a while, and you just wonder whether it's just going to be more of the same."