Say it ain't so

Coleman's dismissal could be a catalyst for the future

There has been a lot of talk about Ja’Vance Coleman in recent weeks, so why should it change now?

Despite Coleman’s struggles on the court, the biggest noisemaker of them all comes after a mishap off the court; an undisclosed broken athletic department rule has Coleman dismissed from the Fresno State men’s basketball team.

Darrell Copeland III: You can’t see me, but I’m shaking my head in disappointment. The words to describe this misstep (there’s the understatement of the century) haven’t come to my mind yet.

Jeff Christian: Yeah, I’m with you on that one DCIII. How does a player transform from a perennial scorer with NBA aspirations to a player who can’t consistently convert a field goal attempt or make it to practices? Was there too much pressure to perform or was the bar just set too high?

DCIII: That’s the problem. There are so many answers to be had, but nobody there to answer them.

A guy in his third year with the program, who has the chance to pave his own future, should be able to control the internal aspects of his life. For him, it just wasn’t that simple. You can trip, stumble and regain your balance, or you can fall head over heels to the ground. Ja’Vance just happened to be one of the few that went splat.

JC: And the team and fans are left either lying in the mess left behind or they can get out their mops and use a little elbow grease to clean it up. Coleman’s departure could be the defining moment in coach Cleveland’s tenure.

It could be the catalyst and defining moment that as Cleveland eloquently said, “protects the integrity of the program,” or it could be another black mark on a program that has struggled to maintain any integrity at all over the last decade.

DCIII: If halftime speeches were given to fans of Fresno State basketball, I would imagine it would go something like that, JC. The people at home can’t see me, but the first mop I see will be put to good use. Clean up on aisle nine you say, let’s just hope we don’t slip by the wet floor sign. The next time we do, it might result in a broken hip.

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