This kid can play.
Waubonsie Valley freshman T.J. Adams is just three appearances into a budding high school varsity career, but the 6-foot point guard looks right at home already for the Warriors.
During summer workouts, Adams worked with the varsity some, but he started the regular season playing on the sophomore and junior varsity teams.
“I was always hoping when I was playing sophomore,” Adams said of being called up to the varsity. “I just kept on trying to grind and grind and get better every single day.
“And eventually, it led to me getting to there, getting to varsity. I didn’t feel overmatched. It took a lot of getting used to, but eventually I thought I could at this level, no matter what size I am.”
Adams fit right in Wednesday night, finishing with eight points, three rebounds and one steal in limited minutes as Waubonsie cruised to a 47-23 DuPage Valley Conference win at DeKalb.
Coming of the bench midway through the first quarter, Adams promptly pulled up from the wing and made a 12-foot jumper in his first minute. Waubonsie (15-8, 4-3) was good to go from there.
Sophomore center Kyler Payne scored a game-high 13 points and senior guards Kris Mporokoso and Aidan Lee both joined Adams with eight points apiece for the Warriors.
Senior guard Myles Newman scored 12 points to lead DeKalb (11-15, 0-7).
But as far as being impressive, Adams continued to make his case.
“He’s a kid we knew about as a seventh and eighth grader,” Waubonsie Valley coach Andrew Schweitzer said of Adams. “We were excited about him. His dad played professionally.
“He’s a great kid. In a lot of ways, not to put this on him, but he reminds me of Tyreek (Coleman) a little bit.”
Coleman, a two-time Beacon-News/Courier-News Boys Basketball Player of the Year, is a point guard in his freshman season at Illinois State.
“T.J. is a sponge,” Schweitzer said. “He loves the game. In practice, he’s trying to learn everything. He’s extremely coachable. Obviously, as a freshman, the biggest question is the mental part and physical part.
“For me, he’s always had the mental part. He can process at a high level. But we didn’t know if he was physically ready yet. It kind of got to a point where he’s practiced with us a little bit and we had a week without a game and we had him practice all week with the varsity.”
Adams had made a cameo appearance a week earlier in a 54-43 loss to Metea Valley.
“We had an intrasquad scrimmage, and quite frankly, T.J. showed up,” Schweitzer said. “My biggest thing with anyone getting called up, freshman or sophomore, is do you look scared?
“He never looked scared out there. He looked like he belonged.”
Adams father, Tommy, grew up in Virginia, played college basketball at Hampton and was the player of the year in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference his senior season.
He had summer league appearances with several NBA teams before playing professionally for nine years overseas with stints in Venezuela, Sweden, Germany, Poland, Italy and France.
The first big test for T.J. was last weekend on the team’s trip to downstate Quincy. He scored 17 points off the bench, including five 3-pointers, to spark a 52-44 come-from-behind victory.
Mporokoso, who produced 16 points and a handful of steals, wasn’t surprised.
“He practiced with us before,” Mporokoso said of Adams. “He’s a full-blown varsity player now. He definitely has the talent, as we saw at Quincy. There’s so much more to come from him.”
Schweitzer was sold.
“He comes out and hits four threes in the first half,” Schweitzer said. “I turned to my sophomore coaches and said, ‘Guys, that’s the end of his sophomore career.’
“We’re really excited about him this year, but going forward, he’s going to be a huge piece of what we do.”
