Washington State DeAngelo Casto's knee injury may keep him out of action until the start of practice in September.

Casto, who suffered what was believed to be a slightly torn meniscus while playing in the U19 World Championships, had surgery on Thursday and will be on the mend for 2-3 months.

"It was worse than we expected," Washington State coach Ken Bone said. "The knee wasn't in good shape when they went in there to have surgery."

"Even if he comes back out of shape for practice, I'm OK with it," he added. "Better it happen now than in October."

The 6-foot-8, 230-pound Castro is expected to team with long and talented 6-foot-6 ½ sophomore Klay Thompson to give Bone a couple of players who should be able to match-up with just about anyone in the Pac-10.

Bone is also excited about the addition of freshman forward Brock Motum, who played well for Australia in the World Championships. 



The key for Bone will be whether his team has enough quality depth to go along with those three guys.

Bone said he won't change much on the offensive end, since he ran a similar motion offense that ex-Cougar coach Tony Bennett utilizes. However, he will try and push the ball more in transition when possible.

He also said he'd like to eventually be able to pressure the ball more on the defensive end.

Bone was excited about the late-signing period addition of Reggie Moore, an athletic combo guard out of Seattle who spent last season at Brewster Academy playing for Jason Smith. 



"We were ecstatic we were able to sign a kid of his talent in mid-April," Bone said.

Bone also was able to re-commit Patrick Simon, a skilled forward that had chosen to open things up following the coaching change. 



DON'T COMPLAIN TO EUGENE



For the next 10 days, Eugene Harris is a one-man show.

While many high-major staffs whine to me that they need and want the NCAA to allow a fourth staff member to take the road during the July recruiting period, the Florida A&M head coach will be out for the entire 10 days all by his lonesome. 



"It's pretty difficult," Harris said. "Especially when you've got to cover four courts in one game. I try to watch a volume of players in the summer, but there's no way one person can get the job done correctly."


Harris doesn't have a secretary and hasn't been allowed to replace assistant Johnny Jones – who retired this past January – due to the economy. His one assistant, Reggie Sharp, is expecting his first child any day. 



"I didn't want him to come out on the road, with this being his first child," Harris said. "I'm a family man, and sometimes we get caught up in this business. I believe the first four weeks is the most important time of a child’s life, and he can help his wife, too."

Harris, who said he had 10 buy games and pulled in an excess of $600,000 last year for the school, feels good about this year's team. Entering his third season at the helm, he'll have a roster filled with players he recruited.

"A year ago, we had a 5-foot-10 small forward," he said. "Now we'll have three guys at that spot who are all 6-foot-6."  



KENTUCKY IN MIX FOR TOP FOUR POINT GUARDS



While I am hearing that Kentucky is at the forefront of Josh Selby's list upon his de-commitment from Tennessee, one thing that is forgotten is that the Wildcats can't get all of the top point guards in the Class of 2010.

Kentucky is heavily in the mix for Brandon Knight, Kyrie Irving, Selby and Joe Jackson – Scout.com's top four floor leaders in the country. 



A reasonable scenario has one of them going to Kentucky, especially since the Wildcats will likely have talented point guard Eric Bledsoe running the team in the 2010-11 season after John Wall leaves. 



But don't count John Calipari out from landing two of the top point guards, either. Many people I've spoken to feel that Kentucky is the front-runner to land Knight, and the Wildcats have a natural connection with Irving since assistant coach Rod Strickland is Irving's godfather.

I've been told by multiple sources that Kentucky, UConn, Kansas, Oregon and Louisville are in the hunt to land Selby.

RANDOM NOTES: UNLV's Mike Hamrick has been hired as the new AD at Marshall University. ... UC Davis coach Gary Stewart has hired Brandon Laird as an assistant. ... The U.S. lost to Russia, 73-71, in the Maccabiah Games and will need to beat Argentina to get into the medal round.