West Virginia has two freshmen solidly in the rotation at this stage and both should remain that way.
Guard Jonathan Powell and point guard KJ Tenner were added this off-season by head coach Darian DeVries to his first roster in Morgantown and the pair have only continued to improve since the summer.
The pair combined for 21 points on 8-13 shooting in the opener across 36 combined minutes. Perhaps more importantly, the duo combined to register four assists without a turnover.
“I always say it takes about your first 50 points before you stop thinking about it but they don’t seem to think about it too much they kind of go out and play which is great and we want them to do that,” DeVries said. “Both of those guys have made tremendous strides from June until now and they’ll only continue to grow and get better.”
The poise that the two have played with is encouraging and is just a continuation of what they have been able to show in practice. It’s often hard for young players to go out and play freely and while there will be some mistakes given that inexperience, it is critical to play with confidence.
“I just love the confidence they play with, which we love, and told them to go out and be aggressive.,” he said.
Tenner is a recruit that DeVries initially recruited to Drake, but gave him the open invitation to follow him to Morgantown which he obviously accepted.
Tenner is coming off a season where he averaged 21.2 points, 4.3 assists, 3.3 rebounds and 2.5 steals per game en route to winning Mr. Basketball in Division 4A in Tennessee. But DeVries got involved before then as he impressed during the summer circuit with his skill set and intangibles.
“Thought he had a great feel for the game, great instincts,” DeVries said. “Thought he was a winner, I really liked that. He was able to carry a team pretty far.”
Powell initially signed a letter of intent with Xavier, but requested out of it in May. He would visit Morgantown just a few days later and would commit and sign with DeVries basketball program. There wasn’t necessarily any connection there but the opportunity presented itself for both.
“We needed a lot of guys at the time so we were thankful that West Virginia was an option,” DeVries said.
The first-team all-Ohio selection averaged 19.1 points per game last season and was the second-leading scorer in the Greater Western Ohio Conference.
And now with 30-plus games remaining the Mountaineers are going to need both to play critical roles moving forward as they continue to become more comfortable with playing at this level.
“They’ve grown up quickly through practices and things. We can see as coaches the progress they’ve made from summertime to now and now to see it out in the games. Again, I just love the confidence they play with. We love and told them to go out and be aggressive,” DeVries said.
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