Leo Papile Talks T.J. Power & Takes Us Down Memory Road
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North Carolina extended an offer to 2023 forward, T.J. Power on Tuesday. We spoke with him shortly afterwards where he introduced himself and detailed his feelings and thoughts about getting the esteemed invite.
Tar Heel Illustrated also reached out to Leo Papile, who is Power's coach with BABC (The Boston Amateur Basketball Club) as well as the program's founder and director. Papile is living and breathing basketball history. Since 1977, the BABC organization has won 26 national championships including the 2011 EYBL Peach Jam.
One the program's earliest alums is Patrick Ewing. That is enough to stop traffic, but it isn't close to scratching the surface. Household names such as Dwayne McLain, Dana Barros, Rumeal Robinson, Chris Herren, Wayne Turner, Scoonie Penn, Phil Pressey, Nerlens Noel, Wayne Selden, and Bruce Brown to name a a few are also alums of the program. In all, BABC has produced 17 NBA players and hundred's more collegiate student athletes.
It doesn't stop there. Papile has been a Division I college assistant at two stops, including one under Rick Pitino and Boston University, as well as a head coach in the professional ranks such as the old CBA. He was Assistant Executive Director of Basketball Operations and Director of Player Personnel for the Boston Celtics. Papile currently is a scout with the Los Angeles Clippers.
Papile was also one of the first individuals on a national level the I met and befriended when I broke into AAU coaching in 1993. In a nutshell, when Leo Papile talks, I land may others listen. So, I was extremely pleased when I could begin covering one of Leo's players for THI.
He was more than happy to cooperate for one of his players. In fact, Papile began singing the praises of Power and UNC before I asked the first question. It was an enjoyable experience. This interview may be somewhat different, but ride along and enjoy as he takes us through stories about Dean Smith and Roy Williams as well as everything you need to know about T.J. Power:
Papile at the outset: "The last time Carolina was with BABC it would have been on Holy Saturday of April, 1984. We were playing the old Akron All-American Cage Classic Championship Game late at night. We were playing a team from Georgia who had Chris Morris who ended up going to Auburn. He was one of the top players in the country. Coach Dean Smith and Coach Bill Guthridge were there at the game. I had a bunch of hard nosed guys, but they weren't as well known maybe as Chris Morris. He was an Atlanta kid who was a pretty good pro, but in high school he was like a real big timer. We beat them pretty good. Coach Smith comes in the locker room afterwards and says, 'Geez, I didn't know there were guys like that up in Boston, coach. I'm a little embarrassed. I guess we haven't been doing the job we're supposed to (laughing).'
"I said, 'Well coach, they're all locked up. They're all seniors. They're all signed. I've got one junior over there. I couldn't get him in tonight. He isn't quite ready, but he's pretty good.' His name was Steve Bucknall. He was a four-year starter; played for the Lakers. Coach said to me, 'Coach, if he is on this team tell that young man he has a scholarship (laughing).' The kid committed like a month later. I give Coach Smith credit. He was kind of a funny guy. The guy (Bucknall) was really good there. So that was the last one.
"With Roy (Williams), he liked a couple of the guys. Another I give you is Bruce Brown who loved Carolina as a boy. I called Roy. He said, 'He's good. I'm stuck. I'm committed. I'm loaded.' Roy being the ethical guy, this was the kind of guy he is. 'He's pretty damn good, but I'm crowded. I don't run guys off.' His freshman year they went down to Miami, and Miami put it on them. I do NBA stuff, so I ran into Roy in the post game and he said, 'What's wrong with me? Why didn't I just take the kid (laughing).' The kid was recruiting him, but Roy being the ethical guy he is was full. He had a couple of commitments and all that.
"I don't stick my nose in recruitment. All I will say is this, to have a legacy program like Carolina recruit one of our guys is an absolute honor. Number one, forget about the wins. They do things the right way. I hope you'll quote me on that. Coach Smith became a guy who would drop you a note now and then, and Coach Bill was just the same way. He would always say, 'Anybody up there for us?' Coach Roy was the same way. When Roy took it it stayed in the family. Eddie Fogler was there as an assistant with Coach Bill. All the years when I was with the Celtics I would go to the Carolina games. They are just nice guys. I don't know Hubert (Davis). We were in the NBA at the same time. Like I said, it's an absolute honor when they come calling."
Papile on T.J. Power: "I know you want to get the lowdown on T.J. If there was a Carolina type I guess you could go back to (Mike) O'Koren. He's a little bit different now. Up until three years ago he was a left handed quarterback. He was a pretty high level starter as a freshman. They tell me he if told the baseball guys he was going in the baseball draft of 2023 he might be the first pitcher selected in that draft. In baseball you have to make the decision if you don't go you're not eligible for three years. Playing college basketball is his priority. But that's really something for your readers to know. Here is the ironic thing. He pitches left handed, and he plays basketball right handed.
"We play a lot of games up in Boston outside of the EYBL. He'll ask, 'What time are we playing tonight? I'm pitching.' He'll come from the baseball game, jump in the locker room and put on his basketball uniform. You don't see that anymore. That's a throwback to my day like the three athletes. He has an uncle who was a quarterback in the NFL, at Boston College he succeeded Doug Flutie, Mike Power. The family lineage, his great-uncle, Frank Power, was Bob Cousy's assistant at Boston College all the way through Tom Davis and Gary Williams. He probably spent 40 years as an assistant at BC. So he comes from a basketball legacy family.
"He's a three sport athlete. When you mention NIL, not to be disrespectful, but he would probably say, 'What's that?' Harvard's all over him. Not anybody gets in Harvard. He's been in our program five years. I don't want to get sentimental or corny, but he's a throwback when things were a lot simpler, and you went out and tried to win games, go home and try to win a game the next day. There's no added side to him or his family for that matter. I think if you get him down there he would be the type of guy that on Senior Night he wouldn't be the guy looking at the freshman year where am I ranked, and the mock drafts. He doesn't have that in him, and it never will be, because he wasn't raised that way. It's not in his culture. It's not in his family's culture.
"He has a lot of the ingredients that a lot of the guys you've had there that have had great success. He's a helluva of a player too. We challenged him this year to get up on the glass, because we're a little small, and having to guard big-time four's and fives. Get more of a defensive physicality is the word that I use. He's responded well. He's had a big 15 rebound game in a big win over Houston Hoops the other night who is loaded with talent and athleticism. So the best is way ahead for him. He's not one of these what I call high school phenoms that's fully developed at 18. This guy has got huge physical upside. The three sports will probably cut down to one in college, although he wants to pitch. He wants to relieve in the spring if the basketball coach will let him. Not to take away from his basketball. Once the season is done if they need an extra reliever or whatever he'll throw the uniform on. He's a very unique guy in that regard. He's a helluva basketball player.
"I don't want to go too far on it, because I have the NBA connection, but I'd be surprised if he isn't in basketball for the next 15 or 20 years. He's a good man all the way around, and from our perspective as a program we're kind of like the recruiting belongs to the family and the high school coach. If they need our opinion and anybody asks our opinion I would say come one man. You can't do any better.
"I don't have any allegiances to any college programs, but I'm a big believer in facts and history. Let's just pull out the record books and we'll go through them. You hit Carolina, and it doesn't get any bigger or any better, or better people. Like I said, I don't know Hubert, but I know Roy and I knew his staff, and Coach Smith God rest his soul, Coach Gut. I consider them friends and they were good guys. If they hire Hubert from that tree, I knew Hubert as a player as an opponent in the NBA. He's got to be cut from the same cloth. That's pretty much from my heart and how I feel."
THI: The BABC Twitter feed called the Houston Hoops game historic. I didn't rad it closely at the time, but T.J. ended up with 41 points, 15 rebounds, and 8 assists. Then it made sense. That is a mouthful with as much as you guys have seen and been a part of.
PAPILE: "Look at this year's squad. We had two down going to Louisville. One with surgery, and another who is terrific looks like he had a stress fracture in his foot, so he's sitting down in street clothes keeping stats. These teams were all fighting for spots in th first division in the playoffs in the Nike stuff. It's a knockout game. It's at 11 o'clock at night. We had lost a tough one in the morning, and the Houston Hoops is loaded with everyone running to the rim. I said it was a game for the ages. That was the quote. The numbers weren't just it, but the nature of the numbers: 41, 15, and 8, and he missed eight free throws out of fatigue which he doesn't do.
"He's an 88 to 89 percent free throw shooter in his four years here. I couldn't take him out. He played the entire game in the morning. He's tired. It's his second game of the day at 10:30 at night in Kansas City. We're on eastern time so it's 11:30. We're up six or seven, and the EYBL rules are the double bonus and two shots. He was making one our of two down the stretch or he might have had 50. The point is just the nature of it. The night before we had an overtime win against Seattle. The same thing; Norman is out and it ended up going into overtime.
"Between the OT and the fourth quarter he had 24 more points. They're loading up on him too. We're missing a key scorer who has the ball in his hands. So T.J. has the ball in his hands a little more. They're loading up on him. They're locking and trailing. They're trapping him. They're doubling him, locking and trailing him off the ball. So the points don't come easy. This league is hellacious: the athleticism and the depth you see. That's what I meant by a historic win. It was a win for the ages, and he carried us on his back. We have had four one-point losses and three starters out.
"It hasn't been a fun season, a lot of frustration. To see a guy like this come back everyday, and give it all he's got it makes it worth it. This is season 45 for us, and you keep it in perspective. That's what we meant as a historical win for the ages. His whole persona and impact is just undeniable."
THI: There are basketball people who call him the the best outside shooter in his class.
PAPILE: "Yes he can. I have a term for that from my NBA days. I call them field goal kickers. The guys that come in in January, 16-14, and you're up in Buffalo with nine seconds left. They call a timeout, and you're on the 49-yard line and you knock it through. But that's all you do. You don't get dirty. That's not a knock, but I don't see him like that. He can shoot it.
"A scouting service up here had him on the floor one night. He hit 40 straight three's after a three-hour workout with the guy who got it on film. He's a knockdown shooter, but there's a lot more than that. His competitiveness and IQ, he rebounds at a high level. He's a playmaker, can handle the ball. He's not just that. He's a 6-9 guy. You can put the ball in his hands and make plays. He will go get the ball off both glasses. He's become a help-side shot blocker. He's a great shooter, but if I'm writing this article that is going to be in the last paragraph.
"There is a lot there in terms of being a basketball player. That comparison of a field goal kicker. There have been lots of great ones in the NBA. Kyle Korver and guys like that come to mind. They shoot 48%, but that's what they do. This is among the things he does. He's an impact player checking all of the boxes."