Guard DeMarquise Johnson, forward Brett Boese and forward Richard Longrus Jr. each signed letters of intent today to play basketball at WSU next year, with a fourth from center Richard Peters expected to arrive in the next day or two.

The class represents what is roundly considered the school's best class since the Klay Thompson class of 2008, complete with a reasonable facsimile of Thompson himself in the person of Johnson, a sweet shooting 6-foot-5 wing who is rated the No. 1 shooting guard on the West Coast by Scout.com.

"From what we have seen as a staff, he is as good a shooter, at least on the West Coast, as there is out there," Bone said. "He can really shoot it. The nice thing about him is, he's not only a good shooter, but he's a very a good athlete. And sometimes that's what is difficult to find. That's where Que is really good."

Longrus is considered a bit of a defensive specialist with offensive upside, while Boese is thought of as a stretch four. Peters apparently is missing a signature on his letter, and will send it in once the signature is obtained.

We had a brief scouting report of Johnson here, and one of Richard Peters here. After the jump, you can read the release from the WSU Athletic Department and watch the video of Ken Bone's press conference.

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I expressed a level of skepticism about Ken Bone's 2012 recruiting class this week, saying that I wasn't all that impressed with the three verbals he had landed in the past couple of weeks. It was a solid class, but it would really come down to who that fourth commit would be. And it had to be an impact player for me to get really excited.

Well, I might just attempt a backflip now: According to Josh Gershon of Scout.com, coveted wing Demarquise "Que" Johnson has decided on WSU. DETAILS

At 6-foot-5 and 190 pounds, the Westwind Prep (Ariz.) product is an explosive scorer. He's precisely the kind of guy Bone wants to build an offensive attack around. Some will probably want to compare him to Klay Thompson, but their games are a bit different. Johnson's a little shorter and probably isn't as good of a shooter as Thompson, but he'll be better at getting to the basket than Klay was initially. Per ESPN's scouting report last May:

Johnson has that quintessential frame for the 2 or the 3 and the skills as well. He can stroke it from deep and he gets great lift and rotation on his shot. In addition, he has a terrific burst off the dribble and can slash his way to the basket exhibiting excellent body control. ... Johnson is one of the elite scoring guard prospects in the country. If he is willing to improve his all-around game (rebounding, defense, making others better) he should be an excellent Division I player.

Beyond the fact that Johnson is a good basketball player, consider this: The Cougars beat out Washington, Gonzaga and UNLV for him. This wasn't a case where those other schools sort of wanted him; three perennially top 25 schools really wanted him ... and he picked WSU. We've been waiting for Bone to win a recruiting battle for someone of consequence, and he just did.

Recruiting -- especially basketball -- can take on a sort of momentum, and this bodes very well for the future. Recruits and coaches talk. A lot.

I'll still be holding my breath a little bit, since Johnson can't officially sign on the dotted line until the early signing period begins on Nov. 9. But the fact that his commitment came so late, and he has no more official visits, allows me to relax and let go of a bit of my anxiety.

Johnson joins 6-10 center Richard Peters, 6-6 forward Richard Longrus and 6-7 wing Brett Boese in the 2012 recruiting class. If you also throw in the fact that Kansas transfer Royce Woolridge becomes eligible next season, the future is looking bright for Cougar basketball.

EDIT: Click on the jump for a little video of Johnson in action.

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With the early basketball signing period just a little over a month away, I was starting to worry just a little bit last week about Ken Bone's 2012 recruiting class. He had no verbal commitments and five scholarships to fill.

I'm still a bit concerned, but the news yesterday that center Richard Peters of Westwind Prep in Phoenix, Ariz., has verbally committed to play for Bone and the Cougars has got me pretty excited. ESPN, Rivals and Scout all have him listed as a three-star prospect, and WSU reportedly beat out Washington -- yes, you read that right -- Clemson, Missouri, Florida State, Oklahoma, UConn, Alabama, Louisville and Texas Tech for his services, according to Adam Zagoria, who broke the news of the commitment.

"The coaching staff was really good, the team was really good, coach Bone has been successful everywhere he's been at, they have both majors I really want to pursue, they need a big man, and I feel like I can really go in there and be an impact player because they need a rebounder and a presence down low," Peters told Scout.com (subscription only).

Peters is 6-foot-10 and roughly 250 pounds (depending on whom you believe) and will fill an immediate need for the Cougars, as Brock Motum and D.J. Shelton are the only current frontcourt players who figure to be on the 2012 roster. Multiple scouting reports suggest he's got good physical tools, but isn't the type of player who's going to overwhelm defenses with athleticism. You'll see that in the videos below. As Craig pointed out on the podcast, if he was dunking all over people at 6-10, he'd be a five-star recruit instead of three.

Still, he's got some skills beyond his raw size that make him a nice pickup for the Cougars.

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I remember when I first heard that DaVonte Lacy -- a guard from Curtis H.S. in University Place, Wash. -- had committed to WSU. My first thought was ...

Who?

Many of you know that I teach at Rogers H.S. in Puyallup, which plays in the same league as Curtis. I'm even the boys basketball announcer. And yet, I had no recollection of Lacy after his junior season.

To be fair, Curtis is a basketball powerhouse in the state, and it's not uncommon for some pretty good players to be the third or fourth (or even fifth) option for the Vikings. But it seemed like a stretch to think that a legitimate Pac-10 recruit could be that nondescript.

So, I walked upstairs and asked our basketball coach: "Did Lacy play against us last year here?" Of course, the answer was yes, but I still for the life of me could not remember anything he did on floor. I asked him what he thought of Lacy -- whether he was a legit Pac-10 guy. He was polite in his assessment, but his answer wasn't exactly effusive and did not inspire confidence. I did not find this comforting.

Looking back today at the box score from that junior-year game at Rogers, Lacy indeed didn't really do anything to stand out -- 3-of-9 for 12 points, 0-of-3 from 3-point range and 6-of-10 from the free throw line. This explains why I had a much stronger recollection of his teammate, Julian Vaughn, who blocked 10 shots in that game. But I digress.

Interestingly, Lacy averaged nearly 20 points in that junior season. But you know how you can usually tell when a kid is a legit recruit, even if he doesn't have a big game? How you can just see the tools, even if the results aren't there? It bugged me that our newest recruit hadn't jumped out to me in that way.

Fast forward to today. As I sit and write this post, I could not be more excited about Lacy becoming a Coug. After watching him last year, I believe Ken Bone has signed a future All-Pac-12 player, a guy who will be a star soon.

How did a guy who didn't stand out as a junior turn into a guy who I think is going to become the cornerstone of the program?

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In a move that was expected since his verbal commitment three weeks ago, 6-foot-9 forward D.J. Shelton has reportedly signed his letter of intent to play basketball at WSU, according to Cougfan.com. As a junior college transfer who started his career redshirting at Cal State-Fullerton, he'll have three years to play three seasons. 

We profiled Shelton a couple of days after his verbal commitment, and if I may be so bold as to quote myself, here's the relevant portion if you missed it and have no desire to click on the preceding link and read the entire thing:

The bottom line is this. Shelton's probably not going to come in and set the world on fire next year, but he'll make the team better immediately just by being big and being able to go get some rebounds. And that's not a bad thing.

Of course, that was written before we knew that it's now a virtual certainty that DeAngelo Casto is leaving the program to pursue professional opportunities, presumably overseas. Shelton likely will be counted on for more than just being big and grabbing some rebounds, unless Bone's got another big man up his sleeve who isn't signed and is ready to play right away.

This brings the total in the recruiting class to three, as he joins 6-8 forward Greg Sequele and 6-3 guard DaVonte Lacy. As most everyone knows, the Cougars currently have 16 scholarships promised for next year with only 13 to give; all that stressing out about where the open spots were going to come from seems a little silly now, doesn't it?

If you haven't see Curtis senior DaVonte Lacy, tonight is your chance. Lacy and the Curtis Vikings take on the Gonzaga Prep Bullpups at the Tacoma Dome on Saturday night at 9:30 p.m. For those that can't get down to the Tacoma Dome, the game will also be broadcast live on FSN Northwest immediately following the Washington-USC game.

Lacy has been on fire in the tournament and impressed so far. Ryan Divish, Tacoma New Tribune sports writer, has been effusive in his praise while giving Jeff daily updates. Lacy is Curtis, for the most part, and has been carrying the team all year. His jump shot is deadly, his athleticism is terrific and he has the ability to bring it on the defensive end.

So tonight, we're all Curtis fans. If you'd like more on the tournament, and a look at the bracket, check out my WIAA boys basketball StoryStream at SB Nation Seattle. I still need to update it with tonight's results, but it's a good baseline.

And, yes, I'll be back with more on the WSU game later tonight after I gather my thoughts.

If you happen to live within driving distance of Rogers High School in Puyallup, I'd like to officially invite you to be my guest at the Paul M. Stilnovich Pavilion on Friday night for what promises to be one heck of a high school basketball game between Rogers (where I teach) and No. 8 Curtis at 7 p.m.

The game features not only incoming WSU guard Davonte Lacy but also is a clash between the two top teams in the SPSL South. Curtis has been ranked all season, and Rogers is now hanging out on the fringes of the top 10. The first game at University Place went to overtime, and this one will be electric.

If you want to make sure you get a great seat, I'd suggest getting there no later than 6:30 p.m. It's going to fill up, and you might get relegated to the bleachers above if you get there too close to 7. My seat will be fantastic, as I'm the announcer. Unfortunately, that means I won't get to chit-chat during the game, but if you are planning on being there, hit me up via e-mail with your phone number so we can connect afterward.

As we passed along earlier, Cougfan.com is reporting that the Cougs are reportedly looking at Emerson Murray, a 6-3 combo guard from British Columbia, to fill one of the scholarships vacated in the last week. Since he hasn't committed -- or apparently even been offered -- I'm not going to go too in depth into analyzing him. But I think his recruitment in general might give us a little insight.

The good thing about Murray is that there is literally a load of Youtube video out there on him. This first video shows off his athleticism. He reportedly injured his ankle sometime this past season, but this video is from last summer -- before the injury:

Now, I'm never an enormous fan of using videos like this to create a cast-in-stone evaluation, because basketball is so much more than a series of isolated clips. I mean, if you took a series of Reggie Moore's highlights from this year, you'd conclude he was one of the top point guards in the country. He was very good most of the time, but he also has some serious flaws in his game that he needs to work on -- flaws that wouldn't show up in a video such as this. So I'm not going to take this thing as gospel.

That said ... this is pretty awesome. It's obvious the competition isn't the greatest, but that explosion off the floor is good against anyone. Quickness-wise, it's tough to tell what he's really got, again because of the competition, but it seems decent.

This is the second video. It's more of the same, apparently recorded during a similar time frame, but I like this one because we get a better look at his jumper, which shows up multiple times:

Really nice form on that jumper. Will it translate to the college level? Tough to say because he doesn't generally shoot under duress in any of these clips. He's generally being guarded by guys who are shorter. But it does give you some confidence that he could knock down an open 3, which is a nice skill.

In total, a really nice package of a player if there are no lingering effects from his ankle injury. He's long, athletic, and ostensibly is precisely the sort of player Ken Bone wants -- he seems to be able to get to the rim and shoot from outside equally well. While he doesn't exactly have the ball on a string, he looks like he could competently hold down the point guard spot for stretches. He actually looks a lot like Marcus Capers with a jumper, if that makes sense.

I find it a little curious, though, that he hasn't been offered a scholarship by Bone. This leads me to one of two conclusions:

1. He's not as good of a basketball player as he looks against mediocre competition.
2. Bone has someone better on his radar and is holding out for him.

My guess? It's probably a little bit of both. Murray reportedly only holds scholarship offers from a couple of mid-majors -- although one is St. Mary's, which ought to make you sit up a little and take notice -- which suggests he might not be as good as he appears. This could be chalked up either to inherent lack of elite talent or (as Coug Friendly Canuck suggests and I would tend to agree with) perhaps a lack of development from the weaker competition up north. He might just need a little bit of seasoning, which is why it wouldn't surprise me if Bone was targeting someone a little more Pac-10 ready, especially with our immediate need for another competent ball handler.

In either case the news that the Cougs are on Murray's trail should excite you. If we land someone better, that's fantastic. If we end up with Emerson, we've landed a recruit who looks like he's got loads of potential. Not a bad place to be.

I've embedded more video in a playlist after the jump. The first is a video that you'll just want to skip the first 20 seconds. Trust me, it's worth it after that.

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