Cleveland succeeding as Fresno's fixer

FRESNO � Steve Cleveland never foresaw his role as a basketball coach as The Fixer.

But that's what he's become after jumpstarting BYU's program a decade ago and now reviving Fresno State basketball on and off the court.

Cleveland's Bulldogs host BYU Saturday in Fresno and will reunite Cleveland with his former BYU chief assistant, current Cougars' head coach Dave Rose.

Back in 1997, President Merrill Bateman hired Cleveland from Fresno City Community College to bring BYU back from a disastrous one-win season. In little time, he won two conference titles.

Five years ago, Fresno State was fresh off a run of several head coaches, including Jerry Tarkanian, who placed Fresno State in hoops hell. It became a tumultuous program where players got involved in off-court criminal behavior, everything from drug abuse and alcoholism to robberies, assault, suspensions, academic issues and recruiting violations.

Fresno State's administration called Cleveland five years ago. He had coached the local community college and at Clovis West High before going to BYU. The pitch: If Cleveland returned to Fresno, he could regain his tenure as a California educator and his retirement could be based on his future salary of more than half a million dollars.

All Cleveland had to do is just fix basketball hell.

The two jobs (BYU and FSU) couldn't have more opposite issues. They were set in different cultures and universes. But Cleveland found a way to get the Bulldogs through NCAA probation, a reduction of scholarships, a multi-year ban to postseason play, reduction of practice time and a wreck of a program. After one season, FSU won 22 games — despite NCAA probation.

"It was pretty dysfunctional," Cleveland said of a program which was once the pride of the city under Boyd "Tiny" Grant 20 years ago, when Selland Arena became "Grant's Tomb" to visitors.

Shortly after leaving Provo, the NCAA summoned Cleveland to San Antonio for a formal investigation of Fresno State's program. There he had to answer for former coaches and give testimony on how he'd sweep clean the porch of Dante's pit.

"I walked into the room and I'd never seen so many lawyers and NCAA people. I felt like I was in Washington, D.C., before a congressional hearing. It was then, I wondered what I'd got myself into," said Cleveland.

Since that time, his team's Academic Progress Rate went from a paltry 600, where nobody graduated and players were transferring, to a level which was 104 points higher in one year. Fresno State's APR is now over 925 and, for the first time, he has 13 scholarships to recruit with and has graduated 10 players.