An important part of the Washington State men’s basketball team as a student-athlete the last four years, Junior Longrus, will join the staff as the team’s graduate manager, head coach Ernie Kent announced Wednesday. Longrus replaces Robert Johnson who served as the team’s graduate manger the last two years and will receive his master’s in education this summer.
“I’m happy to have the opportunity to assist former student-athletes pursue their master’s degrees here at Washington State,” Kent said. “It’s great that Junior will be in the position to do that, while also using his knowledge as a student-athlete here to guide incoming and current Cougar men’s basketball team members.”
A native of Oakland, Calif., Longrus is third in Washington State history with 125 career games played. He joined the team as a freshman in 2012-13 and graduated with two degrees in May of 2016, one in management operations and the other in marketing. He started a total of 32 games in his four-year career, averaging 1.9 points and 2.7 rebounds in 14.1 minutes per game. Longrus is tied for 15th in WSU’s career record books for blocked shots with 74. He’s a three-time Pac-12 All-Academic honoree, picking up second team honors his sophomore and junior years and first team accolades as senior. Longrus will pursue a master’s in business administration at Washington State.
“I’m very excited to continue to be a part of not only the Washington State men’s basketball team, but also the Washington State community for another year,” Longrus said. “When Coach Kent presented this opportunity to me, I couldn’t pass it up for many reasons. One obvious reason is that it affords me the ability to pursue my master’s degree from a prestigious business school, the Carson College of Business. Working with players I’ve played with and new players gives me the opportunity to pass along some of my knowledge from experience as a student-athlete that I wish I had when I was in school. Thirdly, this is a great chance to observe Coach Kent and his staff and learn from people with a lot of knowledge about not only basketball, but life. I feel like there’s a lot I can learn from Coach Kent, both on and off the court.”
Johnson, whom Longrus replaces, was also a former student-athlete of Kent’s, as he played basketball at Oregon during the 2002 and 2003 seasons after earning his Associate Degree from Santa Rosa Junior College in Santa Rosa, Calif. While at Oregon, Johnson helped lead the Ducks to a Pac-10 Championship (2001-02) and the Pac-10 Tournament Championship (2002-03), as he was named the team’s defensive player and rebounder of the year. Johnson joined Kent’s first staff at Washington State when Kent was hired as head coach following the 2013-14 season.
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Photo Courtesy WSU Atheltics
