PROVO — Steve Cleveland has again been called on a mission: Eight years after Brigham Young University recruited him from California's Fresno City College to redesign its sagging basketball program, Fresno State University wants Cleveland to clean up its image in a basketball program rife with cheating, fraud and, as a result, NCAA probation.
Cleveland is expected to formally accept the Fresno State job today after meeting Friday with FSU president John D. Welty and acting athletic director Paul Oliaro.
Fresno State will hold a press conference at noon in the Save-Mart Center on campus, where spokesman Shirley Armbruster said the university will name its new basketball coach hire. She would not confirm it is Cleveland.
The Fresno Bee once dubbed Cleveland "the last of the Boy Scouts." Now the city looks for him to deliver a bushel of good deeds.
But not without recompense: Sources say Cleveland and FSU reached an agreement that will double his BYU salary.
Meanwhile, Cleveland flew back to Provo Friday and met with his staff and players in the afternoon in the Marriott Center.
If all goes as expected, BYU will be looking for a new coach for a major sport for the second time in four months, following the departure of football coach Gary Crowton. One of the leading candidates is expected to be assistant head coach Dave Rose. (See related story link above.)
According to close friends, the FSU offer is a deal Cleveland cannot refuse.
A nationally recognized athletic expert familiar with Fresno State's athletic program, who did not want to be quoted by name, said Friday, "If somebody had come up to me and told me Steve Cleveland would be the next head basketball coach at Fresno State, I'd say it was a home run."
Cleveland told his players he was taking a new job at 4 p.m. in the Cougar Room of the Marriott Center, where all his returning players but Austin Ainge were present. Ainge is out of town for the weekend. The meeting lasted about 20 minutes.
You could call this situation Fresno State's "Vanessa Williams-to-Sharlene Wells as Miss America" move.
In 1984, when the Miss America Pageant had its image sullied when nude photos surfaced of crowned pageant queen Williams, they then crowned squeaky-clean Mormon Sharlene Wells in 1985.
Alabama did a similar cleanup in the early 1990s when they hired retired BYU athletic director Glen Tuckett to help shuffle the Crimson Tide out of probation and avoid the "death penalty" by the NCAA for infractions in Tuscaloosa.
Fresno wants Cleveland for a similar job — they need a Mr. Clean to mop up a program that is the disgrace of the Western Athletic Conference and notorious around college circles for cutting corners.
Right now FSU has no athletic director — and no men's and women's basketball coaches. The athletic department is $850,000 in deficit.
"It's a no-brainer for Steve to take this job at this time," said former BYU athletic director Val Hale, who worked with Cleveland. "He fits what they need perfectly."
In September 2003, the NCAA slapped FSU with three years' probation for infractions including academic fraud, recruiting and eligibility violations and improper financial aid and lack of institutional control. In short, the Bulldogs came within a whisker of having the plug pulled on its basketball program.
Men's coach Ray Lopes resigned March 17 after FSU learned he had violated NCAA rules in making telephone calls to recruits. Lopes was hired in 2002 to replace Jerry Tarkanian, whose seven-year stint left the Bulldogs on NCAA probation for violations including academic fraud.
This is the second time FSU has come after Cleveland with an offer.
Two years ago, Welty offered Cleveland the head basketball coaching job, which Cleveland declined, after BYU president Merrill Bateman reworked Cleveland's contract. Cleveland said the timing wasn't right for a job change. Bateman hired Cleveland in 1997 following the dismissal of then-coach Roger Reid on Dec. 17, 1996.
BYU officials implemented a deferred payment program in Cleveland's contract that stipulates if he leaves of his own volition earlier than the contract stipulates, he forfeits a significant chuck of money — enough to make him think hard about leaving.
Apparently it matters little that Cleveland's BYU's squad won only nine games this past season, a year that started off with a blowout loss to eventual national champion North Carolina in Maui.
But sources close to the negotiations between FSU and Cleveland say an offer on the table is nearly double what the BYU coach currently makes with his base salary and TV and radio contracts as a Cougar coach.
With a salary in the $500,000 range in Fresno, plus a mandate from the school and community, Cleveland could be set for the rest of his life after a few seasons as the head Bulldog coach.
"I have all the confidence in President Welty," WAC commissioner Karl Benson said. "He's made every effort to direct his athletic program to adhere to NCAA rules. That's the kind of administrator he is. Fresno State has the equal if not the best resources and facilities of any school in the WAC to be successful. We need Fresno State to be successful in the WAC. Fresno State remains one of the top programs in the WAC and it is a job considered very desirable around the country."
Although Cleveland has been absent from the Fresno scene, he has remained a popular figure in the community due to past winning programs at the local community college and top high school.
According to sources, one aspect of the Fresno State deal worked on Friday was approval by the California State Board of Education and Fresno State Board of Regents to reinstate Cleveland's credited years as an employee at Fresno Community College and Clovis West High School in Fresno.
If credited with 17 years' service, the additional salary as FSU's coach would give the 52-year-old Cleveland a significant retirement package he could tap into before age 60.
In the meantime, Cleveland's remaining staff is hosting its second junior college recruit in the past two weeks. He is 6-foot-10 power forward Fernando Malaman from Arizona Western Community College. Malaman is from Limeira, Brazil.
A week ago, a point guard from Western Nebraska, Rashawn Broadus committed to sign with the Cougars after visiting Provo. The earliest Broadus can sign is next Wednesday, the first day of the NCAA signing period.
While Cleveland and his family have rooted in Utah with a new Provo home in Edgemont, they have equal connections in Fresno, where Cleveland spent all his professional years and schooling at Fresno Pacific. His contact to BYU's head coaching job came from the late Lynn Archibald, a native of Fresno and former BYU assistant and head coach at the University of Utah.
E-mail: dharmon@desnews.com