T.J. McConnell

T.J. McConnell Jr. was born in 1992 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He played his high school basketball at Chartiers Valley High School in Bridgeville, Pennsylvania. His father, Tim, was his head coach. During his 2009-2010 senior season, he averaged 34.2 points, 9.1 assists and 8.2 rebounds per game. That led to first-team all-state honors and the AP naming McConnell the Pennsylvania Class 3A Player of the Year. McConnell's aunt, Suzie McConnell-Serio, was an All-American basketball player at Penn State, Olympic gold medalist and WNBA standout before being inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2008. She later became head coach of the women's team at Duquesne University. Learn more about T.J. McConnell on Instagram (@tjmcconell4). T.J. McConnell spent two years (2010-2012) at Duquesne University before transferring to the University of Arizona, where he spent another two years (2013-2015). As a freshman at Duquesne, McConnell became a productive player almost immediately -- pitching in with 10.8 points, 4.4 assists and 2.8 steals per contest over 32 games, starting 30. He got better as a sophomore and generated 11.4 points, 5.5 assists and 2.8 steals per game. He also started all 31 contests he played. McConnell then sat out a year as part of transferring to Arizona, where he again assumed an important starting role. As a junior, he put up 8.4 points, 5.3 assists and 1.7 steals per game,. McConnell also shot 45.4 percent from the field. Those numbers helped McConnell to the All Pac-12 second team, and the guard was also recognized by the Pac-12 for his defensive play. McConnell's senior season was his best. He scored 10.4 points and sent out 6.3 assists per contest, numbers that helped make him make the All Pac-12 first team. He also snagged 2.2 steals per contest. By the time he graduated and declared for the NBA draft in 2015, McConnell had played in 139 games of collegiate basketball, dishing out 751 career assists, collecting 324 total steals. His 324 NCAA steals currently (March, 2020) rank 24th in all-time.