Head coach Steve Cleveland has all his scholarships for first time in his six-year tenure
Mike Howells/The Collegian
With March Madness on the horizon and conference play nearing an end, teams are getting ready for the final stretch of the season.
But outside some teams’ All-American talents, most programs dance into the NCAA Tournament via their depth. Having a full complement of scholarships from the end of the bench to the leading scorer helps separate the first-round exits from the Final Fours.
This season marks the first year that Fresno State has the full amount of scholarships after the program was forced to serve a four-year probation. The NCAA cracked the whip on Fresno State basketball and its former coach, Ray Lopes, for recruiting violations. Fresno State was able to dodge the “death penalty” of being completely shut down, but couldn’t escape being stripped numerous scholarships and being under the NCAA’s watchful eye.
Current head basketball coach Steve Cleveland inherited a deflated program, and in his sixth year leading the Bulldogs, he finally has been granted his full 13 scholarships.
“That’s a good thing,” Cleveland said “It’s given us some depth, even though most of the depth is from freshmen. It’s put us in a position where guys don’t have to play tired. Defensively, we’re better as a result of it. To be here five-and-a-half years and never have a full complement of scholarships has probably been the most challenging thing of this job.
“We’ve never been able to establish any kind of continuity. The lack of scholarships and losing two or three guys to the NBA has really disrupted the continuity of trying to build this program, but I can tell you it makes a big difference having these scholarships.”
A full allotment of scholarships has been felt not only on the court, but on the recruiting trail as well.
“We can now go into more homes,” Cleveland said. “For the first three or four years, we never knew until the spring time what our numbers were going to be. Now, we have the knowledge of what we need. This entire team returns except for one senior so we don’t have a lot of scholarships right now. We will add one or two players for next year. We’ll go forward, but it’s nice to have an entire group coming back next year.”
Cleveland acknowledges that the nature of the program has changed, but says that one final step needs to be taken so the program can rise to the next level.
“The [Academic Progress Rate], the academics, the NCAA compliance all those things have been fixed,” Cleveland said. “The last step is to get this done and compete for championships.
The most important thing in this whole process is recruiting. Nothing else matters more than the quality of players that you can get. We’re now attracting not only a quality human being, but a better quality player and a better quality student.”
One quality player that was attracted was center Greg Smith. Smith was one of the few players actually on scholarship the past two seasons. He came to Fresno State before the program was reinstated the full amount of scholarships and can see the difference in the program.
“It has changed a lot,” Smith said. “A lot of guys on the team right now are young and it’s great to have all thirteen guys that can play. In the long run it’s going to do well for us.”
Despite being in only his second season wearing Bulldog red, Smith, Fresno State’s leading scorer, can see progress in the near future.
Mike Howells/The Collegian
“I see a lot of future in this program,” Smith said. “Thirteen scholarships mean that every player can play and you can recruit anybody that you want really. It’s just great for this program right now that we are going in the right direction.”
Fresno State guard Kevin Olekaibe is new to the program, but has heard how the program was impacted before it had its full amount of scholarships.
“I’ve heard about what happened in the past and coach Cleve [Cleveland] has taken care of that, so I think it means a lot from where they came from,” Olekaibe said.
The true freshman had many offers coming out of high school, but chose Fresno State because he wants to rebuild a once-proud program.
“I picked Fresno State because it was close and it’s a great program,” Olekaibe said. “I want to help build something here as long as I’m here.”
Like Smith, the second leading scorer on the team sees some optimism on the horizon.
“I see a big future for us,” he said. “For us to get to the NCAA tournament from now on, especially next year, all of the people returning and all the redshirts we have, I think we’ll be a great team.”