Cougars Sign Crosby, 3 Others 6-Foot-7 Forward From Colorado Tops List For WSU

Four players, including a Long Beach Press/Telegram Best in the West selection, have signed national letters of intent to join the Washington State men’s basketball team, head coach Kevin Eastman said Thursday.

Eastman’s second Washington State recruiting class includes 6-foot-7 forward Chris Crosby, from Littleton, Colo.; 6-7-1/2 guard Beau Archibald, from Provo, Utah; 5-10 point guard Blake Pengelley, from Eugene, Ore.,; and 6-10 center Justin Mott, from Cheshire, Conn.

“This group of four will be a very important part of our future,” said Eastman, whose Cougars are rated 28th in the preseason Associated Press poll. “We were able to cover a number of areas because they are all multi-positional players. We were able to get the skill players we wanted.”

Crosby, the Best in the West pick, led his Chetfield High School squad to a 21-2 record and No. 1 ranking in Colorado last season. He averaged 20 points and seven rebounds and was the only junior selected to Colorado’s special five-man All-State team that included all six classifications. The former point guard is a 3-point threat and possesses a 34-inch vertical leap.

“Chris is a guy we called from Day One this summer,” Eastman said. “He’s got size, strength and the ability to score inside and outside.”

The 150-pound Pengelley, meanwhile, was one of two unanimous first-team picks in the Midwestern League last season as he posted averages of 16 points, 10 assists and three steals. His South Eugene High squad finished 18-6 and advanced to the second round of the state tournament.

Archibald, a 1995 graduate of Timpview High in Provo, is a part-time student at Utah Valley State College, the same school that produced current Cougars forward Cameron Johnson. His parttime enrollment at Utah State classifies Archibald as a “grayshirt” and gives him a complete four years of eligibility at WSU.

Injuries limited Archibald’s playing time in his only season at Timpview, where his team went 19-5 last season. His father, Lynn, is an assistant basketball coach at Brigham Young University. Prior to moving to Provo, Archibald played at Corona Del Sol in Tempe, Ariz., where he averaged 14.5 points and five rebounds on a team that won the class 5A state title - beating Mike Bibby’s Shadow Mountain High squad in the semifinals. Bibby, whose father played at UCLA and in the NBA, is headed to Arizona.

The 6-10, 225-pound Mott averaged 12 points and 10 rebounds per game for Cheshire Academy. Mott’s best performance was a 22-point, 14-rebound effort.

The late signing period for men’s basketball runs from April 10 to May 13, 1996.

, DataTimes