Tommy Bruner knew nothing but winning.

While he was winning state championships as a middle schooler and high schooler in South Carolina, he also watched his sister, Ashley, reach the Sweet 16 as an all-SEC player for the powerhouse that has become Dawn Staley’s South Carolina Gamecocks.

A few years later, his brother, Jordan, became an all-conference player for an NCAA Tournament team at Yale. Both of them went on to have professional careers overseas.

When Tommy got to USC Upstate, he went 13-20 as a freshman. In his sophomore year, he only won five games. It was something he never experienced before.

“I thought you just win,” Bruner, who’s currently third in the country in scoring, told The Denver Gazette recently. “I never was exposed to losing until I had to go through it myself. I wasn’t at the level (my siblings) were at. It was tough for me to get past that. Once you figure out why you’re losing, you can figure out why you’re winning.”

After one season at Jacksonville, he’s now in his second year as the star for Jeff Wulbrun’s Denver Pioneers, and Bruner is starting to remember what winning feels like again.

Picked to finish last in the Summit League preseason poll, Bruner has DU looking like a real contender in the always-competitive mid-major conference.

The Pios sit at 6-4 ahead of a second-straight road matchup against a ranked team, this one against No. 17 BYU. Just last week, Bruner helped DU give a scare to then-No. 13 Colorado State in Fort Collins, even going into the halftime locker room with the lead.

Bruner finished with 28 points and eight assists, showing off his natural abilities as a three-level scorer who averages 24 points per game. He’s lived up to the expectations that Wulbrun had for him when he was recruited out of the transfer portal.

“He was just someone that scored easily, scored in a variety of different ways,” Wulbrun told The Denver Gazette. “He was a good 3-point shooter. He was excellent in ball screens. He read the floor, he read the defense. We’re at our best when Tommy draws attention, like he should, and (he’s) finding guys.”

He did just that in arguably DU’s best win of the season to date — a true road win over Idaho that featured a game-winning 3-pointer in the final seconds by Isaiah Addo-Ankrah.

“They put so much attention on Tommy and Isaiah was the byproduct of all that attention on Tommy,” Wulbrun said. “We’re at our best when he’s making those reads and he’s taking what the defense gives him.”

His play has quickly raised the stakes for what the Pioneers are capable of in 2023-24.

“We thought going into the season that he certainly was a first team all-Summit League candidate and in my eyes, based on our success this season, maybe a player of the year candidate,” Wulbrun said.

Getting DU to its first ever NCAA Tournament is the ultimate goal, but as Bruner has learned, it’s not easy. Even in his lone year at Jacksonville, when he won 20 games, his team came one game short of reaching March Madness, as they lost in the finals Atlantic Sun conference tournament.

“Teams that lose are eager to win,” Bruner said. “Teams that win are eager to do all the things it takes to win. I’m just learning to do all the things it takes to win, instead of just being so eager to win, win, win. There’s a lot of things that go into those 40 minutes just for there to be one winner.”

Bruner added: “We’re just learning every day as a whole. We all just try to do our job in pushing the program forward.”

Current NCAA Division I scoring leaders

1. Zach Edey, Purdue: 24.8 points per game

2. Xavier Johnson, Southern Illinois: 24.2

3. Tommy Bruner, Denver: 24

4. Jordan Johnson, New Orleans: 23.8

5. Tyler Thomas, Hofstra: 23.6

6. Jaedon LeDee, San Diego State: 22.8

T7. Tyson Acuff, Eastern Michigan: 22.2

T7. Vonterius Woolbright, Western Carolina: 22.2

9. Blake Hinson, Pittsburgh: 21.9

10. Jalen Blackmon, Stetson: 21.7