MORGANTOWN — The first thing you notice about K.J. Tenner is the smile, it lights up the room.
Then comes his exorbitantly positive outlook on life.
“I have this saying,” the WVU freshman men’s basketball guard begins. “If I’m alive there’s no such thing as a bad day. Somebody didn’t wake up today, but I have another opportunity to go chase my dreams and do something new.
“This is who I am and this is who I will always be, regardless of whether I have a good game or a bad game.”
The confidence is there, too, whether that is on the court or sitting in the media room with a bunch of local reporters he’s never met before.
Most college freshmen are shy or nervous, almost afraid to open up too much, believing they may sound out of place or strange.
Not Tenner, who was named Tennessee’s Mr. Basketball as a high school senior playing at Cordova High in Memphis.
He is quick to relay stories about his feeling of loyalty to WVU head coach Darian DeVries or how growing up in Memphis made him tougher.
“The city of Memphis runs through you,” he said. “That’s where I get my gritty grime from. I’m not scared of anything.”
To that point, it may be a shared trait with fellow freshman teammate Jonathan Powell.
While their first college season is still in its infancy, neither have been scared or overwhelmed by much.
Tenner came off the bench and went 2 for 2 from 3-point range to score 10 points in the season-opening win against Robert Morris.
Powell, from Dayton, Ohio, is a combined 5 of 13 from behind the arc and has reached double figures in both games.
On a team loaded with older teammates and 3-point specialists, Powell’s 13 attempts are second behind only Tucker DeVries’ 14.
“Powell is my guy. We’re very tight,” Tenner said. “We’re roommates, too. We go home and talk about practice, the transition to college. Of course, coming in you’re trying to feel out how to play on this level, but man, the strides we’ve made on this level, it’s shocking to us.”
Tenner was always supposed to be with Darian DeVries, or so it would seem.
He had committed to Drake in his junior season of high school, only to have a few more schools show a lot more interest once he was named the state’s Mr. Basketball.
He stayed true to his commitment, which included when DeVries took the WVU job last March.
“It took some time to think about it, but I’m a pretty loyal guy and when he offered me it was a no-brainer,” Tenner said. “My mindset was I was going to play for him anyway, so why not follow him to this level.”
Powell’s journey to WVU is a different story. He was a top 150 national recruit coming out of Centerville High School, once recruited by the likes of Ohio State, Clemson and Michigan State, before signing with Xavier.
In May, he asked to be released from his letter-of-intent and announced on social media he was a potential recruit once again.
“We were looking around to see who was still available and we found Jonathan,” DeVries said. “We were certainly glad he was still out there.”
The freshmen duo are now getting set for their first-ever Backyard Brawl, as the Mountaineers (2-0) travel to rival Pitt (3-0) at 8 p.m. Friday.
It may be an eye-opener for both, with Tenner admitting he knew very little about WVU other than watching highlights of Tavon Austin and Jevon Carter before arriving in Morgantown.
If he happens to be the star of the game, rest assured Tenner is already prepared for the media blitz.
That was the other great story Tenner told about his prep days.
“In Memphis, we don’t have much media,” he said. “We have certain interviews, maybe there were three my senior year.”
So, he would sit down with family members, who would hold a pretend microphone. They asked him the questions, some goofy, some about the game he had just played.
“What helped me was practicing with my family,” Tenner said. “We always believed I’d get to this level and my mom and dad and sister and brother would interview me like you guys.
“Just being able to have a conversation and be myself; I am who I am and I’m not going to change regardless of what’s going on.”
