But the Bulldogs are playing better the last two weeks -- although not surprisingly their three-game winning streak has been entirely at home -- and are a couple steps closer to where I thought they could be at this point in the season. Coach Steve Cleveland has talked a lot about where he thinks this team could be by the end of the season, but I really thought he was under-selling it. I thought based on raw talent and a pretty weak schedule, they could be playing good basketball throughout December. I was as wrong as I am short and bald.

Fresno State looked lost. Freshman Greg Smith looked uncomfortable. He was taking rushed shots, that hit backboard more often than net. Michael Ladd disappeared after the exhibition games. The defense was fleeting and unreliable at best. But slowly things have started to turn of late. The Bulldogs played BYU pretty tough. They beat Boise State, which looked like a pretty good win until Boise State went to Hawaii and got beat. Well then Hawaii came to town and Fresno State beat it, too. Steven Shepp has taken over the point guard position, and is shooting a little more. I hear he dunked the other night against Hawaii, which I can neither confirm nor deny. Ladd seems to have appeared as quickly as he disappeared. Paul George is doing what he should be doing, which is taking over games at the end.

The main problem is -- and this is the same problem Cleveland's had since he got to Fresno State -- the Bulldogs have no meaningful bench. This was supposed to be the year they finally did have some kind of bench, because they finally had all 13 scholarships. A couple of last year's starters would probably be coming off the bench. Again, it looked like they might have something sitting next to the coaches.

Well, they don't. Not even close

And I really don't know how Cleveland is going to continue to win games and keep his five starters alive the entire season. Brandon Sperling is the leading scorer off the bench with 2.8 points per game. One bucket and a free throw. That's the leading scorer off the bench. Ned Golubovic is shooting 26% from the field and even worse from the 3-point line. And now Brandon Webster, the never-ending basketball project, is done for the season and transferring next season, not that he was doing much anyway, but at least his big body ate up a few minutes.

At the end of last season, George was physically drained. He was a true freshman and he'd played pretty much every minute of every game, and he just looked tired at the WAC Tournament. Really tired. He wasn't driving past defenders the way he did early on. He wasn't dunking. He wasn't pulling down rebounds in crowds. What could you expect, though, he carried the team a lot.

I'm not sure how Cleveland is going to avoid that scenario again, with George, with Ladd, and especially with true freshman Greg Smith. There is just no production after the five starters. I wish I was exaggerating for effect, but alas, I'm not. I don't want to blame Ned Golubovic, because he's been hurt and missed a couple games, and the few times I've been around him, he seems to be a genuinely good guy. You can tell he really, really wants to be a vocal leader on this team, but there's just no way he can be in that role, not the way he's playing.

In 205 minutes this season, he's made only 11 field goals and has just 22 rebounds. That's 11 field goals and 22 rebounds in the equivalent of more than five full basketball games. And because he's only playing 14 minutes a game, he should have been fresh for all 205 of those minutes. Those are some pretty astounding numbers, actually, when you think about it. On sheer size and luck alone, he should be getting more rebounds than that. If he never even chased one, just grabbed half the ones that came directly to him, he should be getting more than that.

Ned is shooting 26.2% from the field and 18.2% from the 3-point line. In case you were wondering, that's 4 of 22 from the 3-point line and he's still shooting them. I don't want to tell anyone what to do, but the scrappy, hustling guy without a lot of raw skill, should have more rebounds than 3-pointers attempted. I'm not saying it should be law, but how about just a general guideline.

Again, I'm not trying to pick on Ned. There are other great examples of bench players who are producing absolutely nothing, but coming into the season, Ned was one of the guys Fresno State was counting on. He's a junior who has played significant minutes. Cleveland is still defending him (calls him the "Glue Guy," whatever that means), though it's getting more difficult every day to understand why. Ned has five assists, three blocks and four steals for the entire season. Not everyone can be the top scorer, I realize. There is more to basketball than statistics, intangibles and all that, but right now he's the guy running around setting screens and committing a foul every three minutes.

Now if Fresno State was blowing some teams out, you could hide a bench problem, but there just aren't going to be many games where the Bulldogs lead for significant minutes, especially on the road. Sperling is a defensive sub, and just doesn't have a lot of scoring potential. Jerry Brown has had moments where his potential shined, but he's still a freshman.

Like a lot of the team, though, he's going to have to develop quickly, at least if this team wants its five starters to still be walking come tournament time.