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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

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More on WSU signees and hoops


COUGARS

We're going to have a story later today for tomorrow's S-R concerning Washington State's basketball signees and the practice of signing more players than there are scholarships available. But on the link we have some notes on WSU's two signees, Davonte Lacy and Greg Sequele, along with other thoughts from coach Ken Bone on the season, which officially opens Saturday night.
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• We'll start with the new kids. ... Lacy is a 6-foot-4, 200-pound combo guard from Curtis High in Tacoma who averaged 19.8 points, 7.0 rebounds and 4.5 assist per game last year for the 20-5 Vikings. He will probably be a shooting guard at WSU, what with Reggie Moore and Dre Winston already in the program. "We've seen Devonte play for a few years," Bone said. "He's a great kid, we know him pretty well. He's been to our camps and we've been to his games off-and-on for the last few years. We're excited about him joining our program not just because he's a good player but he's an outstanding kid." ... Sequele is a 6-8, 225-pound power/small forward who Bone compared to DeAngelo Casto when Casto was at Ferris High. Sequele was born in France, lived in Mexico and came to Southern California to attended high school (Ribet Academy). Last season he averaged 15 points, 11.4 rebounds, 1.7 blocks and 1.3 steals a game for a 21-11 team. "He's 6-8, big, strong, wide shoulders, has a great frame to work with and to build on," Bone said. "There are times he could be a power forward because he's big, strong and explosive, similar to how DeAngelo was in high school. ... He needs work on his skills, but he can also step out and play on the perimeter, especially on the defensive end because he's a very quick kid, again, like DeAngelo. We're excited about him, he's an outstanding student, a great student, a great kid. He enjoyed his visit and we enjoyed having him." Bone said women's coach June Daugherty spent some time on that visit talking with Sequele in his native French. ... As for the season opener, Bone said he knows nothing at all about Southern, Saturday's opponent, right now. Practice has been geared to getting the Cougars right, working on, among others, the one thing he didn't like in the exhibition game, the decision-making in transition. However, he'll start looking at Southern tomorrow. ... The Jaguars will play at GU on Friday and Bone said that could be a good thing – they get tired – or a bad thing – they work out the kinks against Gonzaga. ... When asked who his most improved player is, Bone mentioned Marcus Capers and Klay Thompson. He was especially impressed with Thompson's play on the defensive end against Lewis-Clark State. ... Abe Lodwick will start at the 4 against Southern. ... A decision whether to redshirt rail-thin freshman Dexter Kernich-Drew will be made this week. Bone praised his work ethic and said that, coupled with the need for Kernich-Drew to get stronger, makes him a perfect candidate to redshirt. ... Asked about Faisal Aden's role, Bone said he sees the junior college transfer coming off the bench to give the offense a kick-start. He said he's really pleased with the way Capers is playing on both ends and Aden has a lot of work to do on the defensive end. ... WSU has no seniors on its roster, though it does have one unused scholarship. Plus, as Bone said Wednesday, transfer Mike Ladd "is in line" for a scholarship. Our later story will go into this in more detail, including some thoughts from Bone.

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• That's about it for now. We'll be back with our story later along with a football practice report. Until then ...



Vince Grippi
Vince Grippi is a freelance local sports blogger for spokesman.com. He also contributes to the SportsLink Blog.

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