K-State adds juco guard

With the ink hardly dry on the letters of intent being signed by the fall signees for the 2009 recruiting class, Frank Martin has continued to add to the talented group of prospects coming in to the Little Apple next year. While he won't sign this week, the fifth member of the class of 2009 has made his verbal commitment to play for the Wildcats.

"Devon Peterson has committed to Kansas State today," Peterson's long-time friend and coach Anton Marchand said. "He will be on scholarship at Kansas State, if he gets his grades in order. He won't sign until the spring, so he has time to get the grades in order."

The 6-foot-3, 190-pound Peterson spent his freshman season at Broward County (Fla.) Community College. He averaged 23 points per game last season. He will not play during the 2008-09 season while at Cloud County (Kan.) Community College.

"He is at Cloud County paying his own way to get his grades together," Marchand said. "He had committed to Hofstra University, but he decided he wanted to go somewhere other than there. He wanted to play for a tough coach and someone who fit his style of play. He picked Frank Martin. He wanted to go there."

Peterson has been a winner since beginning to play as a freshman at Lincoln High School in New York. He helped lead Lincoln to a state championship in 2007 and three city titles (2005, 2006 & 2007). He was named most valuable player of the 2007 New York state championships and was a first-team all-city selection as a senior.

Marchand believes Peterson will do what is necessary to join the Wildcats as a signee in the spring.

"I'll be honest, Devon has some work to do grade wise, but from what I'm hearing from his teachers, they are very happy with him. I told him he is going to have to get this done and prove to everyone that you can do it. Nobody can do it for him. He was going to go to Hutch, but decided to go to Cloud since it was a little bit smaller place where he could really focus on the grades."

Peterson played AAU basketball for the Juice All-Stars and was teammates with Sebastian Telfair early in his high school career.

"He played with Sebastian Telfair when Sebastian was a senior and Devon was a freshman. He always got lined up against Sebastian since he wouldn't back down and stuck with him. Sebastian really admired him for going all out on him.

"Devon is a very good offensive player. He shoots it good and can get to the basket. He can defend like a mad man. When he's out there he's a killer. He will play hard. The fans will love him. He will leave it all on the floor. He will make some mistakes, but a coach would rather tell a kid to slow down just a bit than to speed up."

Peterson will have three years of eligibility remaining after sitting out the 2008-09 season.