Mike Howells/The Collegian
Fresno State men’s basketball coach Steve Cleveland’s days roaming the sideline at the Save Mart Center are over.
Earlier tonight, at a press conference at Fresno State, Director of Athletics Thomas Boeh announced that Cleveland would be stepping down. He will be staying at Fresno State as the special assistant to the director of athletics.
The announcement came on the heels of Greg Smith’s declaration that he was leaving Fresno State for the NBA Draft.
Cleveland was 92-98 (14-17 this year) in six seasons at Fresno State after spending eight seasons at Brigham Young University, leading the Cougars to three NCAA Tournament appearances. He was largely brought in to clean up a program that had suffered crippling NCAA sanctions. This year was the first year since Cleveland has been head coach that Fresno State had all of its scholarships at its disposal.
Cleveland’s overall record as head coach at BYU and Fresno State is 230-206.
Anonymous • Mar 18, 2011 at 5:54 am
I suppose there were multiple factors as to why FS didn’t just can Cleveland and pay him off. I don’t know how firing him would have been bad publicity, or hurt ticket sales and revenue, which surely was one of the factors in making the change, in addition to the consistent losing and mediocrity in a sub-par conference. These consultant positions are facades since they are supremely useless. Cleveland gets paid either way, so again I am confused as to why they didn’t just can him. Perhaps they reached a settlement that will pay him far less as a consultant.
Most important is that FS has rid itself of a mediocre head coach, and it at least sends the message that they do not intend to tolerate mediocrity. Despite the praise he has received for his results at BYU, a Mormon school that suits him well as a Mormon himself, BYU has actually had better success since he left.
The credit he has received for “cleaning up” the program is dishonest. There was nowhere to go but up when he arrived, and running a clean program that doesn’t violate NCAA rules is the MINIMUM requirement of any D-1 coach. And the graduation rates and academic accomplishments do not necessarily reflect the head coach. I never understood holding the coach completely responsibility for the academic accomplishments or shortcomings of its players. And a professor who works in the AD told me once that Clovis HS players didn’t even listen to the guy.
Bringing back Chris Harren to coach the team and get players hyped up off blow would be better than bringing Cleveland back.