New AD changing direction

Hath-Time
By NATHAN HATHAWAY

Paul Oliaro has been interim athletic director for less than six weeks. In that time, he has made more positive moves than Scott Johnson was able to in three and a half years.

Check out the happenings during Johnson’s tenure.

Hires:

•Men’s basketball coach Ray Lopes (resigned following admission of NCAA rules violations)

•Women’s basketball coach Stacy Johnson-Klein (fired after allegations of serious misconduct)

•Baseball coach Mike Batesole (81-83 in his almost three seasons leading the Bulldogs)

Departures:

•Men’s basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian (a legend who compiled a 104-79 record in seven seasons)
•Volleyball coach Lindy Vivas (fired after 14 seasons at Fresno State, where she posted a .612 winning percentage)

Litigation:

•Former associate athletic director Diane Milutinovich has a lawsuit pending against the athletic department.

•Vivas has threatened to file a wrongful termination lawsuit against the department

•A group of former Fresno State swimmers have filed suit against the department for ignoring complaints and putting the student-athletes in danger.

•The parents of former Fresno State equestrian rider Shana Eriksson have a lawsuit against the department pending that claims the department was negligent and provided an unsafe environment.

•Johnson-Klein has threatened to file a wrongful termination lawsuit

Miscellaneous:

•Men’s soccer, men’s indoor track and field, men’s cross country and women’s swimming and diving were all eliminated in 2003 in an effort to slash the budget.

•Track and field coach Bob Fraley, fearing his program would also be on the chopping block, forfeited his $95,000-a-year salary and offered to coach for free.

Those aren’t the types of things Johnson should be putting on his résumé. His tenure, quite frankly, was an embarrassment to Fresno State. Sure, he saw the Save Mart Center built, but his promises of expanding Bulldog Stadium fell flat.

To his credit, he was able to get USC on the football schedule — his last hurrah as athletic director — but overall, his time as athletic director proved to be a bust.

In his six short weeks, Oliaro has made some power moves to pull the department out of its three-yearlong tailspin by making some key hires and winning fans back.

Let’s look at Oliaro’s accomplishments.

Hires:

•Men’s basketball coach Steve Cleveland (This man is cleaner than a surgeon’s scalpel. He’s as likely to commit NCAA violations as Johnson-Klein is of getting another head coaching job.)

•Interim women’s basketball coach Adrian Wiggins (All the players say Wiggins was the real coach all along.)

Departures:

None

Litigation:

Trying to juggle the mess Johnson left behind

Miscellaneous:

Oliaro appears to be constructing the ladder necessary to pull athletics out of the chasm Johnson dug.

Perhaps this isn’t really a fair comparison yet. Oliaro has only been in charge for six weeks, and the coaches he’s hired haven’t even coached a game since they were officially named.

But if precedent holds, Oliaro may just be the link that brings Fresno State back to the upper echelon of college athletics where it once resided.