WSU basketball signs four
Today the basketball fall signing period began and new WSU coach Ernie Kent's recruiting class got its faxes in quickly.
All four expected signees sent in their National Letters of Intent by noon, giving the Cougars a class full of lanky, versatile players. Three players are 6-foot-7 or taller and only one of them is a traditional post. Two of WSU's signees were recruited out of junior colleges, while another will likely delay his enrollment by a year to attend prep school.
"The particular style of basketball that we play requires a certain skill level, and what I mean by "skill," the ability to pass, dribble and shoot the basketball at a fast pace, in a fast-paced system and we feel like the four young men that committed to us, all of them fit our style of play," Kent said during an afternoon press conference.
"They all can score the basketball, they all have a really high basketball IQ on the play, particularly in quick-thinking situations where they have to make split decisions in transition or in the half court. So their skill set is very good and we're very comfortable with the group we picked up."
Follow the jump to see what Kent had to say about each individual recruit, as well as a Signing Day Q&A with the Cougars coach.
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Robert Frank (6'7, 175, forward; Vancouver, Washington/ Evergreen High)
Kent's Quote: "Robert Frank is a skilled four-man that is strong. He can score inside, outside, tremendous passer. He has a very good feel for the game, he would be a tough matchup for people to have to guard because of his ability to put it on the floor – almost with point guard skills – at that kidn of size and his ability to score inside and outside."
Derrien King (6'7, 175, forward; Wichita, Kansas/Cathedral High, California/Santa Monica CC)
Kent's Quote: "Derrien King is a terrific shooter from deep range, he has an excellent midrange game, very athletic. He'll need to put some weight on and is very similar to (Dexter Kernich-Drew). When Dex came in the door, a little bit taller, a little bit more athletic, a little more offensive firepower but a high basketball IQ … I want to mention that Derrien King has three years of eligibility remaining, which makes him a really good get for us to get a junior college player that you can have for three years."
Jeff Pollard (6'9, 220, forward; Bountiful, Utah/ Bountiful High)
Kent's Quote: "Jeff Pollard – you'll recognize that name, he's from a basketball family – he has great size. He will be attending a prep school for a year and we continue to monitor that because we certainly feel like he's good enough to come into our program now. That was a recommendation they asked -- his brother did the same thing, he's now at Rice – where you play high school basketball then go to prep school for a year."
Renard Suggs (6'3, 200, guard; St. Paul, Minnesota/Woodbury High/Gillette College)
Kent's Quote: Renard Suggs. We felt like one of the biggest things we needed to do was to replace DaVonte Lacy and his ability to score the ball. Renard Suggs can do that. Prolific shooter, can shoot it deep, has a really good understanding of the game. He plays in a system that's even faster than what we play at Washington State although we certainly hope to get there. But he has an excellent skillset on him as well, his ability to see the game and make plays.
Kent Signing Day Q&A:
(Regardless of position it seems you added a lot of height in this recruiting class. Was that a priority?)
It was definitely intentional. I feel like we need to be, for where we want to get to, we needed more length and size on this team. Because our sights are set on the best teams in this conference – that's the Arizonas. And eventually you'd like to get your program to that ability and you look at their size, you look at their length, you look at the better teams in the country. It was length and it was skillset we were really looking for, the ability to score, because again in this system where you have a green light to shoot the basketball, as a coach, when it leaves your hand, I want to feel like it's going in as well as you feel like it's going in, also.
(What role do you foresee Derrien King having?)
Derrien and Renard Suggs both have the ability to play the 1, the 2, the 3 and in Derrien's case, the 4, because of his size. So again, their skillsets give them the ability to play multiple positions as well as Franks – he can play multiple positions. Franks could play actually the 3 with that kind of size. When you have guys that are not limited to just one position and they have a willingness to play multiple positions, because the more positions the more minutes you play, the more versatile, the more you can score, the more problems you cause defensive teams against you so that was a focal point, too, along with length was that skillset. That ability to play multiple positions.
In Derrien's case it depends on matchups. He could be the guy bringing the ball down the floor or it could be Suggs, or it could be Ike (Iroegbu), it just depends on who you're playing, and how you're playing and who rebounds the ball.
(Will he be encouraged to develop a back-to-the-basket game?)
He's definitely a face-up guy. He doesn't have the body to go back to the basket, unless you've got an undersized defender guarding him. Even in our offense now we've got opportunities to post-up wing players and that's kind of what I've done in the past with those bigger wings. You can shuffle them into the post and they become your post-up guys when you have scoring 6-foot-10 guys like a Josh Hawkinson that you can put on the perimeter, you can post up a Derrien King and have a mismatch. There's your post game with a guard. So it depends. It gives you the opportunities to play different ways.
(Do you see adding any more players to this class?)
You never, ever stop recruiting in this day and age. When you look at the numbers of three years ago – 400 transfers in Division I. Two years ago there were 500, last year there were 600. That's like 1.8 per program this year that are going to transfer out or leave early. You never know who's going to develop in this program. There's a body or two in this program that if they have a monster season they could look at going out.
So you have to continue to recruit and you do that to protect your program. You have to have irons in the fire, you've got to keep your doors open, you have to keep contact with people because you never know what's going to happen, particularly in this day and age.
(Does Pollard have to sign again in a year?)
No, he doesn't. And again understanding that here is a young man that may come in next year. We'll just wait and see how everything goes with our progress and out team this year, and his season as well.
(What do you see his role being?)
I see his role being a skilled big guy that can score with his back to the basket but has a nice face-up game, too. He has tremendous leadership skills. Here's a 4.0 student that – he would be the most vocal guy in our program coming in today as a freshman in terms of being able to talk defensively and shout commands on the floor, because he has that kind of understanding of the game, coming from such a strong basketball background.
(Is he someone that could use a redshirt season to develop?)
His family did that with his brother, seven-footer that's at Rice, and it benefitted him. He's going to go to the Impact Academy in Las Vegas and it's really a basketball environment as well as an academic environment, if need be. Here's a 4.0 student that really doesn't need the academic side of it but they've elected to say, "well, wait a minute." It's kind of like an extra year to play the game, to let him develop an extra year. I think his game is rapidly improving and I'm not going to count out the fact that he would come in the door next year. But as of right now, we'll let him play out his high school year of basketball and then go a year to the prep school and then come in the door.
(Suggs is obviously a good spot-up shooter. Does he have a complete game?)
He is a complete, all-around basketball player and what I mean by that is if you take away his 3-point shot, he has the ability to put the ball on the floor and get by you and he has an understanding of the game when to attack – and he's very athletic -- when to attack and explode up and dunk and finish, or he has an excellent midrange game. Derrien and Renard both have those complete games. They're very difficult to guard because they can shoot it, they can put it down and handle it, they can pull up and shoot the midrange and they have a very good what I call "feel" for the game, as well.
(Did you use many prior relationships to build this recruiting class?)
It's a class that if I look at where they came from, the conversations that I had with coaches, AAU coaches, parents, here's what I heard: No. 1, through Greg Graham, Silvey Dominguez and Curtis Allen they have tremendous contacts out there that open the door up to a lot of these players. The second thing I heard was, "We know who coach Kent is and how he ran his program at Oregon. That style of play, we saw those players; we've done our homework, he graduates those kids." That was the second piece. The third piece was then getting them to campus and once they saw this campus all of them said the same thing, "We didn't realize Washington State had so much." And it was an education process of utilizing coach Graham's contacts, coach Dominguez's contacts, coach Allen's contacts to open up doors, open up avenues and it was an opportunity to step in and have those people re-educated on what we accomplished at Oregon, that style of play, that system putting guys into the NBA, and then that third piece was, "Now let's introduce you to Washington State." When they saw the facilities, saw the players, saw the football stadium and football facilities, had a chance to meet Dr. Floyd, when they had a chance to meet Bill Moos, there was an impressive package we put together here that to a parent, that same comment came out, "we never realized Washington State had all this up there." And that's the beauty of what I call this community. IT's a matter of educating the rest of the country, as far as college basketball prospects, who we are. The know the conference, come understand Washington State, how we're going to play and what we do academically here.
