The Duke Blue Devils (22-3, 14-1 ACC) are headed to Charlottesville tonight to take on the Virginia Cavaliers (13-12, 6-8 ACC) on ESPN at 8:00pm ET. The Blue Devils have won 18 of their last 19 games and sit as the #3 team ranked in the AP Poll. Virginia has won three games in a row including two on the road against Pittsburgh and VIrginia Tech.
Some Duke basketball players will be facing off against their former teammate, TJ Power, who played his freshman campaign at Duke before transferring to Virginia.
Although Blue Devil basketball dealt with tons of roster turnover this past offseason, veteran guards Tyrese Proctor and Caleb Foster will be on the other side of their former teammate Power tonight.
Power was a five-star prospect and #17 overall player in the class of 2023 by 247sports. He was a part of the 2023 Duke recruiting class that ranked second in the nation, pledging to Durham along with other top prospects such as Jared McCain and Sean Stewart.
Power wasn't the only member of Duke's 2023 recruiting class to hit the portal, as Stewart transferred as well to Ohio State after last season.
The forward struggled to see consistent time at Duke during his freshman season and was never a regular piece of the rotation. Power averaged 2.1 points on 33.3% shooting in 6.7 minutes a game for the Blue Devils throughout the 2023-24 season.
After his freshman season where Duke was bringing in the #1 ranked 2024 recruiting class headlined by Cooper Flagg, Power ultimately decided to hit the transfer portal and landed in Charlottesville.
As Power was looking to revive his college career with Virginia, he was hit with a shock after Tony Bennett elected to retire out of nowhere just before the beginning of the 2024-25 season, citing that the new era of college sports and NIL brought areas to the sport that he was "not great at."
Former Virginia assistant Ron Sanchez is currently serving as the interim head coach for Virginia basketball.
Power has appeared in 21 games for the Cavaliers this season and started five early on. Although, his impact has slowly been fizzling out throughout the season as Power hasn't played 20 minutes or more in a game since November 22nd when the Cavaliers lost to Tennessee.
The sophomore is averaging 1.5 points and 1.2 rebounds a game this season on 20.9% shooting from the field.
Duke is 13.5-point favorites with a -1800 moneyline tonight per ESPNBET.