Three schools later, TJ Power came to Penn with armor. He’s feeling ‘indestructible.’

TJ Power has only been looked at as a basketball player.

A five-star recruit coming out of Worcester Academy in Massachusetts, his talents landed him at Duke, then his need for opportunity brought him to Virginia, but a search for himself found him at Penn.

Three years at three schools? Power wouldn’t have it any other way.

“That suffering tested my faith and my fortitude,” Power said of his collegiate career before Penn. “And like everyone says, that’s how you get stronger. But that’s real, like as a holistic human, I’m so much more mature and better off right now because I had to leave Duke. I had to make that decision. I had to leave Virginia. I had to go through those moments. And now I’m here, and I have armor. I feel like it’s indestructible.”

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After struggling for playing time at Duke and Virginia, the 6-foot-9 Power has soared under first-year Penn coach Fran McCaffery. Power is leading the Ivy League in minutes (34.7 per game), while averaging 15.7 points and a team-best 7.5 rebounds.

This past weekend, Power posted his best performance of his collegiate career, scoring 38 points against Dartmouth on Friday, then helped Penn notch its first Ivy League Tournament berth in three years with a victory over Harvard on Saturday.

“I’ve been playing better,” Power said before this weekend. “I think [McCaffery] knows this. I have another level that I can tap into here. I’m trying to get to it week by week. It’s different. I probably had the biggest minutes jump in college basketball history.”

Penn will visit Brown on Friday (7 p.m.) for its final game of the regular season, winners of six of its past seven games, thanks to Power’s resurgence.

Power, who grew up in Shrewsbury, Mass., said his father would drive him around the neighborhood as a kid to find local churches and recreation centers to play in games. The pair usually ended their trips at Worcester Academy’s gymnasium.

By his sophomore year, college coaches were rushing to see Power on the court, including McCaffery, then the head coach at Iowa.

McCaffery attended Power’s AAU games, and his presence was quickly felt.

“I had three offensive fouls in the first half,” Power said. “It was terrible, and you know how Fran is with refs. He wasn’t even my coach at the time. Obviously, he’s there to recruit me, and he’s yelling at the ref as I’m playing in an AAU game.”

As a senior, Power was named the Massachusetts Gatorade Player of the Year after winning an NEPSAC Class AA championship. He accepted an offer to Duke, but he and his family stayed close to McCaffery.

Power averaged 6.7 minutes in 26 games as a freshman during the 2023-24 season, but that didn’t stop him from enjoying his experience as a Blue Devil.

“Duke was one of the best years of my life,” Power said. “Honestly, people from the outside might not think that just because you know basketball and playing time and stuff, but that experience is once in a lifetime.”

Power planned on staying for his sophomore year, but an “uphill battle” for minutes and competition from the incoming class, which included future NBA lottery picks Cooper Flagg and Kon Knueppel, made Power consider other options.

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Leaving Duke meant saying goodbye to his “best friends for life” Sean Stewart, Caleb Foster, and former 76ers guard Jared McCain, but the decision was best for his career.

“Knowing this could go bad,” Power said, “where I’m not playing, the hardest decision I ever made was to leave there. I was really emotional about that because people look at transfers and they’re like, ‘Oh, they’re running from stuff.’ I never pictured myself as that, because I took a chance going to Duke.”

Before the 2024-25 season, Power entered the transfer portal and committed to Virginia, his second choice coming out of high school. Coach Tony Bennett and Power grew close during the recruiting process.

“I felt rejuvenated,” Power said. “I was going to go there and learn from him. We were really close. That whole summer, I played really well, we looked good, and he had said to me in the recruiting process, because they had struggled the year before, he was talking about how he wants to play faster and change the offense.”

When it finally seemed like Power found the right fit, Bennett announced his retirement before the start of the season.

“One day in the fall,” Power said. “He comes back, and we’re going into the film room, like we always do, and he just sits down, starts crying, and tells us he’s going to retire. I remember it was a feeling I’ve never had before, where my whole body started overheating, and the world was shifting. I was in the front row, sitting right in front of him. That was a hard moment. And I don’t know if I have fully moved on from that.”

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Ron Sanchez was named interim head coach, and despite his promise to stick with the offense Bennett wanted to implement, it was never the same for Power. He was injured to begin the season and started just five games, averaging 9.3 minutes in 24 games.

Virginia finished 15-17, Sanchez was fired, and “everyone entered the portal.” According to Power, the new coaching staff didn’t want him.

“​​You want to talk about emotional,” Power said. “My time at Virginia [was] some of the darkest moments of my life.”

Power had not played consistent basketball in almost two years. He decided to visit Penn at the request of an old friend.

McCaffery, whowas fired by Iowa, was rumored to be heading back to his alma mater.

“I eventually got this job,” said McCaffery, who was hired by Penn in March of 2025. “It was an easy discussion because he knew that I believed in him, and he knew that our style of play was perfect for him. He came down to campus on his own. I wasn’t even here.”

Power added: “Penn is a great place, and I’ve come to learn that even more, but in the recruiting process, I was like, wherever Fran goes — I’m going. I’m playing for that dude. If Fran wasn’t here, I wouldn’t be here.”

Power called his parents, bought a couple of train tickets and a hotel room, drove back to Virginia, and left that night on a train to 30th Street Station.

Power had struggled with his connection to the game and his identity around it. Coming off the train at 1 a.m., Power reflected back on a moment when he enjoyed basketball and had a familiar request for his dad .

“I want to see the gym,” Power said.

Power and his parents pulled up to the Palestra.

“My dad gets out, and just like our drive around Worcester, shakes on doors,” Power said. “We go to the Palestra front door. He shakes it three times. It opens, and I walk in, and for some reason, the lights are on. I’m standing right there, 1:30 in the morning. It’s just my dad and me. We’re looking at the Palestra. I’m coming here. I got to come here.”

Fran was committed to helping Power get back on track, which showed in their first few practices together.

“If I struggled, he knows what’s on the other side of that wall once I climb it,” Power said. “So that was a huge factor in my decision. I wanted someone I could trust again, and someone who has my back when I inevitably struggle.

“The first thing Fran said when he called me was, ‘We’re going to have fun playing basketball again.’ No other coach said that.”

Power returned to the form that made him a five-star recruit in high school.

And he’s found a home — on and off the court.

After years of chasing the best opportunity to help him go pro or get the most playing time, Power chose Penn for another reason: to find who he is outside of the sport.

“Basketball used to be my identity,” Power said. “People ask me, ‘Who am I?’ I play basketball, I’m a basketball player. When I switched that to my relationship with God coming first, and then my identity is built through that relationship with God. ... That path is so much more rewarding. My identity comes first, and ... my mission is to play well, and I think that’s going to give me what I want.”