{"id":399897,"date":"2026-07-15T22:15:18","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T22:15:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/399897\/"},"modified":"2026-07-15T22:15:18","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T22:15:18","slug":"basketball-alumnus-authors-new-book-as-his-love-letter-to-fresno-state-fresno-state-today","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/399897\/","title":{"rendered":"Basketball alumnus authors new book as his \u2018love letter to Fresno State\u2019 \u2013 Fresno State Today"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brandon Bakke\u2019s \u201c20 seconds of opportunity\u201d as a senior at Fresno State in 1996 changed his perspective as a college athlete and helped shape his career as an educator.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, he\u2019s sharing his life experiences in his new book, \u201cLessons from the Bench: Unlocking the Impact of Bench Players on Teams and in Organizations<\/a>\u201d to inspire others to help their team win whatever their role may be. The book draws on lessons Bakke learned during his basketball career at Fresno State.<\/p>\n

Bakke, who has worked more than 20 years as a principal and educator, was recruited in 1991 out of Puyallup, Washington, to play basketball at Fresno State under coach Gary Colson. Colson led the Bulldogs to a National Invitation Tournament (NIT) appearance in 1993-94 with Bakke as his sixth man, but by his senior season Bakke saw his playing time dwindle. Even under Colson, Bakke was at times unhappy with his playing time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was inflicted with a disease I call me-ism \u2013 inherent selfishness that often plagues all of us in some ways. I was really struggling coming to grips with my role on the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0After a big win over Washington early in that 1993-94 season, Bakke recalls his frustration over playing just a few minutes. \u201cWe just won a huge game against a [then] Pac-10 opponent, but I\u2019m sucking the energy out of the team,\u201d Bakke said. The next day, the team\u2019s trainer Ed Ferreira, confronted Bakke: \u201cI thought you were more about the team. I didn\u2019t think you were that selfish,\u201d Bakke recalls Ferreira saying.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe next couple weeks, I had a real transformation. A real shift came to where I became all about the team.\u201d<\/p>\n

But just as Bakke settled into his role, a coaching change created a new challenge.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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In 1995-96, Jerry Tarkanian \u2013 then the NCAA\u2019s all-time winningest basketball coach \u2013 returned to his alma mater as Fresno State\u2019s new head coach. An immediate influx of talent followed the announcement of Tarkanian\u2019s hire, but Bakke was given the opportunity to remain on the team. \u201cI had gone from sixth man to being buried at the end of the bench,\u201d Bakke said.<\/p>\n

Fresno State was on its way to a winning season in which it eventually finished 21-11 and 13-5 in the Western Athletic Conference, good for second place, and another NIT bid.<\/p>\n

As the season wound down, Bakke felt he could do more to help the team win and decided to approach Tarkanian to ask for more playing time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Nervous, he rehearsed everything he was going to say to the legendary coach, and he tried to anticipate what the responses might be. Bakke went to Tarkanian and stated his case that he could help the team win.<\/p>\n

To his surprise, Tarkanian said, \u201cyou\u2019re right, you\u2019ll play more.\u201d<\/p>\n

By halftime in the next game, with Wyoming in town at Selland Arena, Bakke hadn\u2019t entered the\u00a0 game. More than 19 minutes passed in the second half and, still, Bakke hadn\u2019t played.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But with 20 seconds to go and Fresno State leading by 2 points, Tarkanian called timeout and drew up an inbounds play to get Bakke the ball so he would be fouled with an opportunity to ice the game at the free throw line. Bakke made both free throws and Fresno State won 74-70.<\/p>\n

\u201cCoach yells and says \u2018you\u2019ve got the biggest [guts] of anyone I\u2019ve ever coached. I told you you\u2019d play more!\u201d Bakke recalls.<\/p>\n

\u201cTwenty seconds of opportunity,\u201d Bakke said.<\/p>\n

Bakke held the official launch party for his book at The Well Community Church in Clovis on April 24, where his children\u2019s godfather, Brad Bell, serves as pastor. While Bakke was a student at Fresno State, Bell was a standout on the football team and the two became close friends.<\/p>\n

The room was filled with Fresno State alumni and friends, including current basketball coach Vance Walberg and assistant coach John Welch, who was on Tarkanian\u2019s staff at Fresno State during Bakke\u2019s senior season.<\/p>\n

\u201cFresno means an awful lot to me,\u201d Bakke said. \u201cWhenever I\u2019m feeling down, I go to Fresno. People were so good to me.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis book is my love letter to Fresno State.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bakke went on to teach and coach basketball at Clovis High School right after graduating at 22 years old, becoming the youngest head coach in Clovis Unified history.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m really appreciative of the education and history departments at Fresno State. I was really well prepared,\u201d Bakke said. \u201cI have always felt indebted to the Bulldog Foundation and the people who made my education possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

He eventually moved back to Puyallup, Washington (where he still lives) working as a school administrator and, later, for Puyallup-based education company Character Strong, helping schools support student behavior, life skills and school culture. In 2025, he returned to the school setting as the assistant principal at Gig Harbor High near Tacoma.<\/p>\n

A few years ago, as a school administrator, Bakke recalls meeting with a family who was unhappy about their son\u2019s playing time on the basketball team and the father called it \u201cthe biggest waste of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bakke shared his story as a student-athlete at Fresno State. \u201cAfter this meeting, I was thinking this is my contribution, to remind people of the power of supporting those important people on your team.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople struggle not being a starter. We\u2019re all on teams in so many different contexts in our lives.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brandon Bakke\u2019s \u201c20 seconds of opportunity\u201d as a senior at Fresno State in 1996 changed his perspective as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399898,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-399897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399897"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399897\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399898"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}