From ESPN.com

[PG]

Read the part about SMU...so true.

Thursday, January 15, 2004


By Ed Graney
Special to ESPN.com

Ray Lopes glances into the future now and imagines less turmoil and fewer growing pains, the clouds above his Fresno State basketball program having been replaced with blue skies.


It is a good feeling and one Lopes has desired for months.


"We have been fractured for such a long time," Lopes said. "Finally, it seems as though we have all the right pieces together. Our chemistry on the floor is getting better. Hopefully, all of our problems are behind us."


Say this for Lopes -- no matter what off-court chaos has defined the program since he took over last year, the on-court results remain consistent.


The WAC Tournament this season will be played in the sparkling new Save Mart Center at Fresno State, appropriate considering the Bulldogs' hold on the top spot in the league standings. Fresno State has not ventured out of first place for one day since Lopes became coach and enter the week 8-5 overall, 4-0 in conference and winners of six straight.



Shantay Legans and the Bulldogs haven't been out of first place since 2002.


Only NCAA sanctions kept the Bulldogs from competing in the postseason last year, but little to this point suggests Lopes doesn't again feature one of if not the WAC's best team. Others will dispute such claims -- stand up and be recognized, Nevada, Rice and Hawaii fans -- and few disagree the race could be closer than even last season, when two games separated five teams.


But in Fresno, Lopes can finally prepare for opponents knowing he will offer a full compliment of players. Finally, he can devise a gameplan that includes the likes of seniors Renaldo Major and Jonathan Woods and sophomore Terry Pettis, three key names that combined to serve 17 games worth of suspensions this season.


"I'm still in the mode of figuring out my substitution pattern and our rotation to some degree," said Lopes, whose team faces the Boise State-UTEP road swing this week. "We still have a chance to be much better."


So too does the WAC's other top teams. Rice enters the week 11-3 overall and 3-0 in conference, a solid team that perhaps does the little things better than the rest. The Owls also offer a healthy Michael Harris, the junior forward who averaged 24.3 points and 12 rebounds in three conference wins last week and who finally appears stable from an ankle injury endured last May.


"We have six upper classmen who have seen the other side of things, who know what both sides of (winning and losing) are like," said Rice coach Willis Wilson. "We're just going to continue pushing forward."


Nevada is the preseason favorite which has begun conference 3-1 and owns a non-league win against Kansas. Trent Johnson's team also has arguably the league's best player in junior wing Kirk Snyder, averaging 18 points; Hawaii is another credible contender at 10-3 overall and 2-1 entering the week, the only glitch being Riley Wallace's team has already dropped a home conference game.


Surprises near the top have been few to this point.


Not elsewhere.


No longer are teams such as Boise State and UTEP gimme victories home and away, the result of how quickly second-year coaches Greg Graham and Billy Gillispie have made their respective teams reputable.


"We just have to continue getting better players," said Gillispie, whose UTEP side enters the week 10-3 overall and 1-2 in league. "We inherited a tough situation. I think we will recruit well and eventually get to a level where we are even with the top teams. It will take a couple more years."


Said Graham, his 9-4 up-tempo team averaging 79.2 points: "Our kids are more comfortable in the system now. Hopefully, we'll continue to get better each year we run it."


These are hardly typical days at Tulsa, where the Golden Hurricane lost five of its top seven scorers from last season and sits at 5-8 overall and 1-3 in conference. It's foreign territory for the program that has won more conference games than any league member since 2000-01, that last season won 23 and advanced to the second round of NCAA play.


"It seems like we're starting to trust one another a little more on the court," said Tulsa coach John Phillips. "I'm hoping from this point forward we'll be a team that is more balanced and can get scoring from a lot of different people."


Others involved in the WAC race: SMU is 7-6 overall, 1-2 in conference, but needs to begin stringing together sound play for 40 minutes instead of 20-30; Louisiana Tech is suffering from poor guard play; and San Jose State appears out-matched at 5-8 overall and 0-3 in league.


"Everybody is pretty good at home and the road is always tough," said Lopes. "But we're happy where we are at right now."


Never being out of first place can do that for a guy.