Posted on: Saturday, March 5, 2005

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

If the Fresno State men's basketball team is in town, can controversy be far behind?

Jerry Tarkanian is long gone but the legacy lives on at his star-crossed alma mater, which has blown into town for tonight's Western Athletic Conference regular season finale.

It has been quite a week at Fresno State, where questions about the eligibility of backup center Jack Marlow, who was not allowed to make the trip and is expected to sit out the conference tournament next week, have the Bulldogs scrambling to explain why they should not have to forfeit 12 victories that Marlow played in — including one over Hawai'i.

At most places that would be enough. But Fresno State isn't most places. It doesn't have a basketball program, it has a continuing soap opera.

The week started with an NCAA Academic Progress Rate report that listed the Bulldogs' men's basketball team as the worst in the country.

For the 2003-04 year surveyed for the report, eight players were either dismissed or high-tailed it out of Fresno.

Then, the next day, the school fired its women's basketball coach amid allegations of financial irregularities and falsely obtained pain medication.

The previous week was relatively uneventful: The embattled athletic director just resigned under pressure.

And things were looking up with 10 months having passed since any Fresno State basketball player had been accused of murder.

Since 1995, when Tarkanian began his seven-year stint at FSU, it has been one thing after another at the school UH fans like to call "Felony State University." It got so bad one year that a former prison guard was put on staff to help watch the players on the road. Another year a federal grand jury investigated allegations of point shaving in several games, but no charges were ever brought.

We're told the current coach, Ray Lopes, had gradually begun to turn things around. Reports have it that the current players had an overall "B" average last semester.

Now, comes the Marlow case, which makes you wonder if anything can really change at Fresno State.

If there is anybody that should not be having eligibility questions in March, it is the Bulldogs, who are already on NCAA probation for a laundry list of past sins including academic fraud. You'd think the FSU coaches and compliance office would be the most thorough in the land with the threat of an NCAA "Death Sentence" hanging over them.

Yet, here they are. It may turn out that Marlow lied or that the Big 12 and Oklahoma State didn't properly follow through processing paperwork. But if you're FSU and a double-transfer — instant red flag right there — shows up on your doorstep, there shouldn't remain a stone unturned in checking him out.

Yes, the Bulldogs are back in town and controversy is their companion, again.

Reach Ferd Lewis at flewis@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8044.