I am still not exactly sure what goes on in college basketball recruiting. I think that people who do college basketball recruiting don't even know what goes on in college basketball recruiting. I suspect that it is very, very slimy. You know when you accidentally hold on to the release button on your fishing pole for too long and the hook goes slamming straight down into the edge of the river and you drag it out along with 17 pounds of seaweed? Pretty sure that's still big-time college basketball recruiting. Except with extra sludge and maybe a piranha on the hook that flies out and bites you on the eyeball.

I am referring, at least in part, to the case of Reggie Moore, the point guard from Seattle who notified the Fresno State coaching staff just before June 1 that he wanted out of his letter of intent to play for the Bulldogs. Moore was the supposed prize of a four-player freshmen recruiting class for Fresno State. He was rated the 34th-best point guard in the nation for the class of 2008 by someone who is probably never seen Reggie Moore in person. My column about the ordeal ran in Wednesday's paper, where I lamented about how this was the last thing Steve Cleveland's program needed right now. It's already dealing with unfair NCAA sanctions* and Dwight O'Neil's domestic disagreement** and Bryan Harvey's unsure status and the fact that if Harvey doesn't make next year's squad, that leaves exactly one senior (O'Neil) and one junior (Sylvester Seay) on scholarship. That could change if Cleveland signs a junior college transfer with one of his two remaining scholarships, but you get the point. It is not good to enter a season where your entire roster has exactly 60 starts*** at any level of college basketball. (Three asterisks in one paragraph could be a new world record. Let's get to them.)

*I could go on for many days about the stupidity of NCAA rules and penalties, but this example is perfect. Fresno State is losing four hours of practice time per week and one scholarship next season because it's APR (Academic Progress Rate) score wasn't high enough for the '06-'07 season. But the NCAA takes that scholarship away from the average number of scholarships a program has used over the last four seasons, as to equally penalize universities who don't fund the same number of scholarships. In other words, reducing a school's total number of available scholarships from 13 to 12, doesn't hurt much if it only funds 10 anyway. But since Fresno State had been penalized so much in the past for various other transgressions, it had only averaged 11 scholarships the last four seasons, so it's total number of scholarships for next season was reduced from 11 to 10, even though it had planned to finally have the full allotment of 13. You could of course argue that if it had stayed out of trouble in the first place, Fresno State wouldn't be in this situation. Sure. But you absolutely, positively, without a doubt, have to see that the Bulldogs were double-penalized for old violations. That's just wrong. So Fresno State appealed and lost. The NCAA couldn't see past a technicality, apparently. The excruciating part is that the team might not have gotten penalized at all had the APR score simply been an improvement on the year before. (The NCAA gives a reprieve for APR improvement, even if it's still a sub-standard score. Just ask the Fresno State softball team.) So if the '05-'06 Fresno State men's basketball APR score had simply been a little worse, Fresno State might have 13 scholarships. Instead, it has 10. Go figure that one out and try not to put your head through a double-pane window. On a bright note, though, the Bulldogs don't have to practice as much.

**It is a simple case of he-said, she-said. O'Neil said she's a stalker. She said she needs a restraining order. This blog does not take sides, but reminds everyone out there to date wisely. Because someday, you might find yourself with a broken universal remote, some dead goldfish and a matching brown microfiber couch and chair you didn't want in the first place because it wasn't even comfortable. The blog is just saying.

***A quick breakdown: O'Neil started 39 games, all at Fresno State, seven his freshman year ('04-'05), 20 his sophomore year ('05-'06) and 12 last year ('07-'08) when he was out a lot of the season with a broken wrist. Nedeljko Golubovic started nine games last season as a freshman for Fresno State. Seay started 12 games at Arizona State, 11 as a freshman ('05-'06) and one as a sophomore ('06-'07) before transferring to Fresno. So yeah, that's 39 ... plus 9 ... plus 12 ... carry the 1 ... yeah, that's 60 total starts for a roster. Even if you assume Harvey is going to be back (think academic and attitude issues), that still only adds the 12 games Harvey started last year before becoming ineligible. Harvey did play in 18 games as a freshman for Louisville, but never started. Again, Fresno State has two scholarships to give, but that's where the Bulldogs stand now.

Not to re-hash the entire column* but there are a few theories on what happened to Moore. No one backs out on a full ride scholarship this late without another plan of some sort. You hope there would be enough people involved in a young man's life to keep that from happening. Parents. High school coaches. AAU coaches. Guardians. Siblings. Someone. There is always a chance that Moore really doesn't have a plan and just decided one day in late May that he hates Fresno, or is too good for Fresno State, and is now hoping against hope that not only will Coach Steve Cleveland give him a release, but that some Pac-10 school has been saving him a scholarship all this time. Chances are much greater that some college coach has convinced Moore to go to a prep school next year, and will give him a scholarship for the '09-'10 season. Or the coach has told Moore's AAU coach to tell Moore that's what he should do. Either way, it's unethical. It would be --- yes, we can say it -- dirty dirty dirty shennanigans. Only nasty bottom-feeding pond scum would mess with another school's signee, but it happens. There is plenty of scum out there. We'll see if Cleveland ultimately does Moore an enormous favor and releases him, and we'll also see where Moore ends up and wonder to ourselves how the connection was truly made.

*I've been told that knowing a little information behind the column is interesting, so this blog is going to try to do an entry for nearly every column from now on. There really isn't too much inside information behind the Moore column, I just called a couple sources who also wished they knew the entire truth, but agreed that there seems to be more to Moore's decision than simply not being excited about Fresno State. It would be safe to say that the Bulldogs coaching staff is more than displeased with Moore's lack of loyalty and consideration for a program that offered him a scholarship back when not that many schools were doing so.

On one last side note of college basketball shadiness, we should note that Ray Lopes is back in college coaching. The former Fresno State head coach and former Oklahoma assistant was hired in June as an assistant at Idaho, which absolutely makes no sense since the Vandals are also in the Western Athletic Conference, the league where Lopes was fired for committing NCAA violations. So Idaho can't claim to have been unaware if it all goes bad later, which it easily could. You might recall Lopes did the same stuff at Oklahoma, as did Kelvin Sampson, who went on to Indiana and -- what do ya know? -- same thing, more cheating. If I were a sports reporter in Idaho, I would already be filling out that public information request for Idaho's men's basketball phone records.

A few months ago, I made a call to the Idaho Stampede, the Developmental League team where Lopes was an assistant. I just wanted to see what he was up to, or if he wanted to explain how he'd been wrong, or if he wanted to make any gut-wrenching apologies to college basketball fans everywhere. Hey, I figured it was worth a shot. He doesn't know me. We'd never spoken. He'd already been fired by the time I got to Fresno. I hadn't written anything overly critical. OK, it was a long shot, especially since I'd already left him messages a couple times. This time, though, I caught him in the office and the secretary said she would see if he was available. She came back with a far darker tone, said he wasn't available and then started to hang up before I could give her my number. After I stopped her and she took my number, I said something like, "So, you think he's really going to call?" Without pausing, she said, "I wouldn't count on it." Never heard a word.