WSU coach Ken Bone says he hopes former Rainier Beach guard Reggie Moore is first of many Seattle-area recruits

When Ken Bone was introduced as the men's basketball coach at Washington State on April 7, he made a point of saying he planned to increase WSU's recruiting presence in the Puget Sound area.

Even Bone didn't know then how quickly that would take place.

Some 22 days later, WSU announced the signing of point guard Reggie Moore of Rainier Beach High and Brewster Academy in New Hampshire. That transaction has proved to be more than a symbolic move for the Cougars.

Entering tonight's Cougar Hardwood Classic at KeyArena, featuring WSU (9-2) and Louisiana State (8-2), Moore has stepped seamlessly into the starting point guard role. His numbers are productive across the board, one reason WSU is looking like a club that should threaten the Pac-10 first division after being picked eighth by the league media.

"I'm as pleased with Reggie as anybody on the team," Bone said last week.

Why not? Moore has put up back-to-back season-high assist totals of 10 and 12 against Air Force and Portland State, giving him 57 assists against 23 turnovers. He's shooting .486 with 10 of 26 made three-pointers (.385), and he has been the team's best foul shooter (.855).

In October, before the rotation began to settle out, Bone feared Moore might be too much of a risk-taker with the ball. Early impressions have morphed into a more pleasant reality.

"He's not as much of a risk-taker as I thought," Bone said Monday before a WSU workout. "The ball's in his hands a lot, so for him to have minimal turnovers is impressive."

Moore's start has radiated easily back to where he began emerging as a solid Division I prospect.

"We stay in contact quite a bit," said Mike Bethea, Moore's coach at Rainier Beach. "Talking with coach Bone and coach [Ben] Johnson over there, they couldn't be happier with him.

"Reggie's really taken a liking to it over there. It's a great situation for him."

The Bennetts, Dick and Tony, couldn't find many of those "great situations" for Puget Sound-area recruits during their six years in Pullman. The region has been essentially locked down by Lorenzo Romar's staff at Washington, and ones who slip out — Peyton Siva or Josh Smith — typically choose high-profile programs like Louisville or UCLA.

"It wasn't because he didn't come over here," Bethea says, referring to Tony Bennett. "It was one of those things where [recruits] had their minds made up."

Of course, it was a particular type of player the Bennetts were seeking — one committed to defense and not hung up on pace — so the pool naturally became more shallow.

Said Moore: "I know when the Bennetts were here, nobody [on the west side] really wanted to come here because of the playing style. I think that's why people chose to go other places."

The Bennetts roamed far for Aron Baynes (Australia), Derrick Low (Honolulu) and Kyle Weaver (Wisconsin), great gets all. But Bone has long-standing ties to the Seattle area, having coached at Seattle Pacific and under Romar at Washington, and plans to utilize them.

"We hope to be able to grab a player out of the Seattle-Tacoma area every year if we can," he said.

"Once kids get to know him," Bethea said of Bone, "they kind of naturally gravitate to him."

That's what happened last spring. Moore had spent a year at Brewster, and Bethea said he was getting calls from, among others, Memphis, Miami, UCLA and Oregon. Moore took a visit to Eugene and was inclined to commit to the Ducks, but his mother and Bethea advised him to be patient.

"Check Coach Bone out," Bethea told him, "and see what you think about it."

Moore did that, immediately decided on WSU and now says, "It's kind of like a dream come true. When I was growing up, I never saw myself playing Pac-10 basketball. I was one of those guys who hung out with friends. I didn't take basketball that seriously."

Moore transferred from O'Dea to Rainier Beach after his sophomore season. A year later, he committed to Fresno State and signed with the Bulldogs.

But he says he wasn't really happy with the decision, indicating it was partly because "my mother and grandfather didn't want me to get hurt my senior year and have nothing."

Moore said he "didn't feel comfortable when I went down there to visit," and thus asked for a release from his letter. The Bulldogs denied it, which turned him toward prep school.

"I understand why they were mad," Moore said. "I kind of put them in a [tough] situation."

Tonight's game will be a testimonial of sorts for Seattle high-school basketball. LSU has Aaron Dotson, a former Beach teammate of Moore and a starter in his first nine games. Dotson's transition to college play has been harder than Moore's — he is shooting 27 percent — as he comes back from a knee problem.

"I can't emphasize this enough: They're both good teammates," said Bethea. "From a basketball-skills standpoint, Reggie is great at breaking people down and getting the ball to the right people, and it couldn't have worked out better for him than to have the top scorer in the Pac-10 [WSU's Klay Thompson].

"Aaron is very explosive. He knows where to get his shots, shots he can make."

Both benches will have deep Seattle roots. LSU coach Trent Johnson is the former Franklin High standout who coached at Washington under Lynn Nance before going on to head-coaching jobs at Nevada and Stanford.

Bone's staff, meanwhile, includes ex-Seattle Pacific coach Jeff Hironaka and former UW guard Curtis Allen.

Note

• Organizers are encouraging fans to arrive early. In the past for this event, fans showing up near game time have faced long lines to enter the arena.