Ray Lopes back in Fresno

So just how will the crowd react when Idaho appears at the SaveMart Center tonight with Ray Lopes as part of the Vandal coaching staff? Do the assistant coaches typically get introduced before the game?

Lopes era one to forgive or forget?
Lopes returns with Idaho, but Bulldogs still feel effects of his reign here.
Daniel Lyght
The Fresno Bee
Fenruary 27, 2009

Vonn Webb met Ray Lopes on a sunny day at a golf course in 2002.

The opinion of Lopes he formed that day never changed, even after Lopes admitted in March 2005 that he violated NCAA rules as the men's basketball coach at Fresno State.

"He's a good guy," said Webb, a former Bulldogs assistant under Lopes and now an assistant at UC-Riverside. "He has a real good demeanor and treats people real well. We hit it off the first day we met. Not even as coaches but as people."

Tonight's matchup between the Bulldogs and Vandals will be former Fresno State coach Ray Lopes' first game back in the city since leaving in disgrace in 2005.

Ex-colleagues, fellow coaches and past players say they've forgiven Lopes and that he is a good person. People make mistakes, they say.

But what about Fresno State fans?

Go here for the remainder.

We hope this isn't seen as being gratuitous but here are links that provide some background to Lopes' tenure in Fresno:

Some accusations against Lopes

This offers a bit more

Lopes' response to these accusations

Here's Pettis testifying in another legal matter involving Fresno State