Four-star forward Power recaps his official visit to Virginia

UVa’s Tony Bennett and his staff hosted four-star power forward TJ Power last week for an official visit that allowed the Wahoos to accomplish a lot during his time in Charlottesville.

And the visit left Virginia in a solid footing in the 6-foot-10 prospect’s recruitment.

“The visit was awesome,” Power told CavsCorner. “I didn’t really know what the campus looked like going in but I was pleasantly surprised. You can tell it is a historic town and I really like that. There seems to be a lot of places to eat and always a lot of activity going on.”

Power was excited to get in and learn more about what makes Grounds so special.

“The campus just really surprised me,” he explained. “I have been to a lot of campuses and a lot of them are really modern and Virginia is this kind of old Victorian style place with all of the pillars and the Rotunda and I actually kind of liked that, honestly. It was really cool to see all of the history of the campus. Even though there were not a lot of kids on campus, you could tell it had a really cool vibe. It looks like the campus was built where all of the kids can be connected.”

Being able to be face to face with Bennett and the entire staff and to be able to see the type of facilities Virginia has to offer was something that Power really enjoyed as well.

“It was awesome being able to just hang out with Coach Bennett a lot and I was super impressed with how nice the staff is from top to bottom,” he said. “They were all super engaged. And obviously the facilities are top notch. They have everything and anything that you could ask for.”

Right away Power, No. 64 overall in 2023, felt how much Bennett and UVa are prioritizing him when he and Bennett had dinner together, just the two of them, on the first night of the official visit.

“The time I spent with Coach Bennett was the most important thing for me,” the Worcester Academy standout said. “I would ride with him in one car and my parents would drive with the assistants in another so you could really tell Coach Bennett was prioritizing our time together. We got to talk about a lot of things and I even got dinner with him on the first night and it was just us two. Getting to know him and knowing how much faith means to him and his philosophy of coaching was really cool.”

One person who has had a long relationship with Bennett is fifth-year guard Kihei Clark and he was able to speak one on one with Power, something else about the trip that he really valued.

“Well the first thing that stands out with Kihei is his leadership,” Power said. “He is in the position to lead right now because he remained loyal to the program and he stressed loyalty a lot when I was talking to him. He was telling me how much confidence he gets from coach and how much they are in the gym together as the staff really wants him to succeed.

“At the end of the day,” he added, “you can tell the staff really wants the best out of the guys after they graduate college. You can tell there are a lot of good things going on with the program.”

From talking with a lot of recruits, the staff is stressing the importance of how bad the team needs shooting and Power would be used as a player to take a lot of shots in UVa’s system.

“Well from watching some of the guys work out and talking with Coach Bennett, I would come in and play in that versatile wing spot,” Power said. “I would be running off a lot of screens and be shooting a lot. Coach Bennett really emphasized how they are going to need a lot of shooting and I will be given that opportunity a lot. Coach Bennett also talked about playing time with me and he thinks I would be a person that could play a lot early on if I were to go there and that is something that is important to me so that was cool to hear.”

In terms of what is next, Power has a rough idea of how his visit plans will stack up.

“I probably won’t go to Indiana until the fall but I am set to visit Notre Dame on June 12th and stay there until the 14th,” he said.