Obviously, I haven't polled everyone in Fresno, or everyone who cares about Fresno State sports, but the hiring of former Texas assistant Rodney Terry as men's basketball coach seems to be popular. He's young. He's well spoken. He dresses the part. What's not to like, right?

Sure, plenty of young, well-spoken, sharp-dressed men have failed at things. On the surface, though, he seems like a great choice, and the surface is all we have at this point. People who have coached with him and been recruited by him are endorcing the choice. You'd expect that. But readers who are normally critical of Fresno State athletic director Thomas Boeh and his staff, are sending me glowing emails about the hire.

Fresno State has been without a men's basketball coach for 11 days. Admittedly, that does not sound like that long. I recently deposited a check and the bank put a hold on it that has lasted longer than that. No kidding.

But in the college basketball coaching world, 11 days is a while. This Fresno State athletic administration prides itself on not making knee-jerk reactionary decisions. The members meet. They discuss. They have committees. They don't go willy-nilly. That is pretty much the standard response to most any tough question: We will sit down after the season and discuss it. We will evaluate. Oh, do they love evaluating.

When Ned Golubovic was being recruited, administrators at Fresno State worried about his academics. He grew up in Serbia. His parents did not speak English and they never pressured him to get good grades. School was not necessarily his priority. At age 14, he moved eight hours from his home to attend a basketball academy. Then he went to a prep school in Las Vegas for a year.

LAS VEGAS -- We are nearing the tip-off of Fresno State's first round Western Athletic Conference Tournament game. The Bulldogs are the No. 7 seed, playing the No. 6 seed Nevada. It has not been an especially great year for the WAC in men's basketball. OK, it's been a pretty bad season. You know it hasn't gone well when the No. 2 seed in your conference tournament has an RPI of 121.

This is the time of year when numbers like RPI suddenly become relevant, so let's take a look at Fresno State's numbers. Because it would be easy to just say, "They were awful," because they're the No. 7 seed in a bad conference and nobody seems to care about the team in its own city. And it would also be easy to look at the team's overall record (14-16), and say, "Hey, they were average. Maybe it wasn't that bad. Maybe they really are still rebuilding."

I've been getting some remarkable feedback concerning Tuesday's column about Kim Pree, the Clovis East basketball player who played well in two playoff games last week.

During the first game, her only sister was having brain surgery. The sister, Alescia, died the next day. And then the very next day, Kim played in another playoff game, this time against rival Clovis West. Clovis East won in double overtime. There was a buzzer-beater at the end of regulation. Kim, who is known for defense more than offense, scored 17 points. I can't even imagine what she must have been feeling during those two hours.

You know, if you've read my column with any sort of regularity, that I'm from the state of Kansas and that I grew up on a farm, driving a tractor, wearing a baseball cap and listening to the Kansas City Royals on the radio. If you do not think that is Americana, then John Mellencamp will come to your house in a Ford truck and spit in your eye.

I was a short catcher who played hard. My dad was a short catcher who played hard. My grandpa was a short catcher, too. They say in his prime he hit massive home runs with his big forearms. They both drove tractors and wore baseball caps. When I was little, I would ride with them on the tractor and listen to Royals' games. I am grinning just typing that.

OAKHURST -- As you know, (because you read this column on Sunday) I spent some time up in the mountains at Yosemite High School last weekend. I'm still a little shocked at the number of professional ballplayers who've graduated from there. I went up to do a piece on the most famous athlete from there, Dodgers' starter Ted Lilly, but I honestly had no idea what I was going to see.

Take a look at the photo above. These are the two rosters from Saturday's Yosemite alumni game. The blue shirts are former Yosemite players from 2001 and before. The gray shirts are the team of players since 2002. Remember, it's a pretty new school, so that's a relatively down-the-middle split. I think the gray team won, 5-0, but I don't remember exactly. I know for sure the old guys got shut out.

As 1998 graduate Ryan Olson said of the blue team before the game ever started: "We're loaded with arms. Our staff is stacked. We just can't hit."

Consider this starting rotation, and here I am only listing pitchers from before 2002 ...

Today there is a press conference at Fresno State. I think I know what it's about, OK, I do know what it's about, and my guess is that it will upset people. It's only a guess, but with these kind of things, guessing that people will be upset is usually a good guess.

People hate change, and this announcement involves a "new priority seating and parking program for football and men's basketball."

Uh-oh. People really, really hate change when it comes to sports, and they really, really hate change when it pertains to parking and sitting. Also, paying. I have a feeling there will be some changes in paying. I might wear protective headgear to the news conference.

By far the most entertaining part of last night's BCS title game was postgame Gene Chizik. And I'm not even referring to when the Auburn coach awkwardly made everyone at the on-field trophy presentation kiss the crystal football and the players flashed that "I don't know where that thing's been" look before putting their lips to it slowly, like it was their Great Aunt Ruby who doesn't wash her hands after changing diapers at Thanksgiving.

No, the highlight was his response when on stage they threw him the standard, "Here's your chance to congratulate the losing opponent" softball question ...

"Hey, Gene, what were you thinking toward the end when Oregon tied the game on that 2-point conversion?"

GENE: "I wasn't thinking anything besides Auburn has the best football team in the United States of America. We have the best administration, the best players, the best assistant coaches, the best fans, the best trainers, the best landscapers. When we call a cab, it is the best cab from the best cab company in the best shade of yellow and we request the best driver. If we were to hold a bake sale, we would have the best carrot cake. When we pray to God for a victory, He drops everything and makes sure to answer our prayers first. I think I speak for every man, woman, child, pet and elderly person on earth -- including Mother Theresa, Nelson Mandela and Fred Thompson, who is now a senator but I'm pretty sure was on "Law & Order -- when I say, 'DEATH TO THOSE WHO DO NOT KNOW AND LOVE WAR EAGLE!!!'"

I am not paraphrasing. That was a direct quote. I have DVR.

This is when you can really evaluate a college football season. When it's finished. When every team on your schedule has played every game on its schedule. That's not as fun as freaking out in Week 3, I realize, but it's probably more accurate.

I keep thinking about Virginia Tech fans and what they must have been thinking after losing to Boise State in the opener and then turning around and losing to James Madison. Can you imagine? It was so easy to assume it was a down year for the Hokies and that it would ruin Boise State's strength of schedule and possibly the Broncos' BCS hopes. And then Virginia Tech wins its next nine in a row and makes the Orange Bowl.

Point being, you don't have a true picture of the crime scene until all the evidence is in. That said, I've placed all 13 of Fresno State's game into one of four categories: 1.) Good. 2.) OK. 3.) Bad. and 4.) Irrelevent.