Our Opinion

Basketball gets another chance

THE DECISION ANNOUNCED last week by the NCAA to place the Fresno State’s men’s basketball program on probation for an additional three years of probation for a series of violations by former coach Ray Lopes and his staff is a satisfactory outcome to a troubling time for the university’s sports programs.

The decision largely continues the status quo the basketball team has found itself in since the university’s self-imposed sanctions went into effect after the departure of coach Ray Lopes.

Lopes was accused of making hundreds of impermissible phone calls to recruits during his tenure as head coach.

Fortunately for the basketball program, the university’s self-imposed ban on postseason play will not be continued by the NCAA, giving players a greater incentive to perform well on the court during the regular season.

It is likely that it was the university’s self-imposed penalties, including the postseason ban that gave the NCAA the impression that Fresno State is dealing with its program’s problems and saved the basketball program from harsher penalties.

Now that the NCAA has released its ruling, it is critical that the university do everything possible to prevent future violations.

The resignations of coaching staff was an excellent first step towards fixing earlier problems. This fact also surely played into the NCAA’s decision.

Fresno State will now be watched by the NCAA closer than ever before and any future violations of policy, no matter how small, will be seized upon and used to increase the sanctions against the basketball program.

“It is our responsibility to teach and to work with our staff, our student athletes, our community — and I think most importantly we are going to create a culture of compliance,” head coach Steve Cleveland said at the press conference announcing the NCAA’s decision.

It is this very culture of compliance, as Cleveland terms it, that the university must indeed create to ensure the survival and reputation of its sports programs.

It now rests upon Cleveland, and university administration alike, to ensure that Fresno State’s program keep to the straight and narrow and begin repairing its much-tarnished reputation.

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