Now that it's official that Steve Cleveland is no longer the coach at Fresno State, I'm looking to the future. The Fresno State basketball job is not just any other mid-tier, mid-major job. Consider:
Jerry Tarkanian and Ray Lopes proved you could get talent & take this program to a championship level. (Cleveland and his staff might not have made it to the championship level but they proved you could get talent, too. Two NBA players -- possibly three now with Greg Smith -- and a couple more overseas guys in six years isn't bad at all).
The Save Mart Center is less than 10 years old and waiting to be maximized. It was built because folks planned on rocking the thing with great basketball.
The fan base is there when you win. Al Davis quote here for all you Raiders fans ...
Add that to a move to the Mountain West, a league with plenty of basketball talent, & the school shouldn't have to settle for a bottom-rung candidate.
They don't want to move too quickly and make a bad hire but if they want to have any shot at retaining Greg Smith, their best player, from the NBA they'll want to get someone in his ear to sell him on development and the intangibles of a college basketball tournament run before he signs with an agent. Though from the quotes in today's story it looks like that might be a long shot.
Who do you guys wants to lead this basketball team? Let me know.
In this order Reggie Theus, Pat Knight, Ernie Kent or Phil Jackson.
Time to finally give Vance Walberg his shot. His last game at Fresno City, he got 8,000 people to come watch a JUCO game. People would come to watch his style of coaching.