Bulldogs can climb WAC mountain with a tune-up

In the engine of a car, at least for the most part (for our purposes, we will agree on all the time) if one part fails to do its job, the car doesn’t go.

However, even if the engine doesn’t fire, the car can be pushed down the street with a little old school manpower.

Now let’s apply this same theory to the Fresno State basketball team, using the 12-man active roster as the vehicle. First, we’ll identify the part of the car that is struggling to fire up in the right manner — Ja’Vance Coleman.

It’s easy to point the finger and play the blame game, but Coleman is arguably the most important part of the car, and his play has been sub-par to his own standards, which are without a doubt higher than anyone else’s.

Comparison two: Let’s say Coleman is on the floor with four other teammates. Doesn’t matter who, just pick your flavor. Let’s also say that all of them have a rope tied around their waist, which connects the five guys together. Finally, we’ll give them a task to complete — run to the west end of the floor.

It sounds simple enough, until you find out one player is blind-folded and doesn’t know which direction to run. It’s Coleman of course, but it’s not his fault. He didn’t choose to be blind-folded, he was just the victim of natural selection.

Now, of course the other four players will make it to the stated destination, but the unintentional resistance of a handicapped player just slows down what could have been an easy task.

So there you have it, two examples of the effect that the struggling Coleman is having on the team.

Both hypothetical of course.

When applied to on the court performance, Coleman has been unable to find his shot for quite a while now. The easiest example comes from last night’s win against San Jose State. As a team, the Bulldogs shot 36-percent from beyond the arc. That’s not bad, until you think about what could have been had Coleman knocked down even two of his seven 3-pointers. Final statline: 0-9 shooting, including 0-7 from 3-point land.

It’s a situation that even his coach, Steve Cleveland, can’t find a solution for.

“I’ve been doing this for 30 years and it’s a unique situation,” Cleveland said. We haven’t tried hypnotism yet. We try to be positive. He’s taking open shots. Every shot he took tonight he was just wide open and they’re shots that he can make.”

“There is no magic dust or magic formula,” Cleveland said. “You just keep practicing hard, you stay positive. You make them accountable and that’s how you get better.”

The bottom line is that Coleman is struggling, and nobody knows why. It’s like trying to solve a Rubik’s cube. Sure there are a few Poindexter’s out there who can do it, but the Bulldogs don’t have the basketball version of that guy at their disposal. Hardly anybody does.

But maybe there really is a solution. Everyone, including Coleman himself, is giving the guy advice on how to find a quick-fix solution. We all care; we all want the Ja’Vance of old.

It’s OK that everyone cares, it’s just ironic, because Coleman shouldn’t.

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