JC basketball player commits to Cougs

PULLMAN – Washington State received a verbal commitment from Rodney Edgerson, a wing from Illinois Central College in Peoria.

Edgerson is the first player this spring to commit to the Cougars basketball team and joins Antonio Chavers and Caleb Forrest, who both signed letters of intent in the fall.

Edgerson led his junior college team in scoring in each of his two seasons there, tallying 24.6 points a game this season. He’ll have two years of eligibility at WSU after telling Dick Bennett and staff that he’d be a Cougar on his visit to Pullman during the weekend.

“Even though he was double-, sometimes even triple-teamed, he still was able to put the ball in the basket,” Illinois Central coach Tony Wysinger said. “We actually thought he should have shot more, but he’s an unselfish player and that’s his style.”

WSU was also helped by the fact Mark Vershaw, a former Dick Bennett player at Wisconsin and current graduate assistant, began this past season as an assistant at Illinois Central.

“It helped influence it a lot because that’s somebody there I know already,” Edgerson said. “The conference is one of the best in the nation and the fact that they lost five seniors – they probably need people to come in and play who can do things.”

Edgerson agreed with his coach, saying he considers his scoring ability to be his greatest strength. That’s something the Cougars could use after losing their top two scorers from last season to graduation. Edgerson could end up stepping into the starting role vacated by Thomas Kelati, an All-Pac-10 player this season.

But while Kelati and Edgerson are similarly sized – the Illinois native is 6-foot-5, 191 pounds – the newest player to commit to the Cougars is less of a spot-up shooter and more of a slasher to the basket who will put the ball on the floor to create space.

WSU officials can’t comment on Edgerson until he signs an official letter of intent. The spring signing period for men’s basketball begins April 13. The Cougars have three more scholarships available to give after Edgerson’s commitment, but will likely use no more than two of them to help balance out the classes on the team. Currently, Edgerson and Chavers will be the only two juniors, and returner Randy Green is the only senior.

Wysinger said Edgerson’s game is not yet complete, but the wing’s weaknesses appear to match the WSU staff’s greatest coaching strengths.

“He had to work a little bit harder on his defense, and I know that Coach Bennett and his guys will help him improve,” Wysinger said. “Because he’ll bring that scoring with him.”