A little more Fresno State background

Here's a column, not an article, on the state of basketball down Fresno way:

Penance over, Cleveland starts anew
Matt James
The Fresno Bee
10/22/08

It's a good question, and Steve Cleveland has thought about it often.

Being the men's basketball coach at Fresno State will make a man go through extensive periods of self-evaluation.

We will not relive every shovel-full of dirt that got the program into this predicament, just start with the premise that there is a hole and the program is not observing it casually from above.

You could say it's climbing out. You could say it's at the bottom. Whatever. There's a hole.

So when Cleveland took the job three seasons ago, he had a choice. He could go get the best freshmen who were willing to be Bulldogs, playing along with the idea that incoming freshmen are innocent and naive and hard-working. Hot spinning clay, ready to be molded. Also, they study.

Or, he could go get the best basketball players available, which is to say Division I transfers and junior college transfers. And we will go along with the notion that these players are more risky, because that is the notion...

Go here for the remainder.