There was a great deal of chatter this weekend about the
hiring of former New Mexico Head Basketball Coach Steve Alford to take over the
same position at the prestigious UCLA basketball program. Eleven National Championships is nothing to
sneeze at, UCLA has more history in just their basketball program than most
school entire athletic programs combined.
But note the word “history”.
The reality is that in the ten seasons that Ben Howland was Head Coach
he led the school to the Final Four three consecutive seasons. There were those who disliked Howland’s
recruiting or felt he wasn’t a “UCLA man”.
Well congratulations, UCLA hired another guy who isn’t a former Bruin or
a California guy. John Wooden isn’t coming
back to coach anytime soon and Howland wasn’t the coach who delivered the
results wanted.
Hiring Steve Alford was one of the best options for UCLA for
many reasons, yet I want to start with why the other “popular candidates” would
not have been the right choice. In order
to have a successful basketball program at UCLA you need to be able to recruit
the fertile region of Southern California while presenting a positive image of
the school. Popular “Mid-major” coaches
such as Shaka Smart, Brad Stevens and Andy Enfield all are excellent coaches
but none of them have recruiting connections in California. This was the major problem with the hiring of
Howland over a decade ago, he had to learn on the job; recruiting California is
different than the northeast or Midwest.
Basketball to California is like Football to Texas: it’s the king of all
sports. And those kids and parents who
have a crazy passion about basketball looked at a guy like Ben Howland as an
outsider. Both Smart and Stevens are
great at maximizing the potential of their players and finding diamonds in the
rough, but neither guy is known for their recruiting ability. UCLA is about results, recognition, and
headlines. Enfield is the best recruiter
of the three “hot name” coaches but he doesn’t have the west coach recruiting
connections. Also, Enfield just began
head coaching a few years ago, he doesn’t have much of a resume except that he
is a “basketball lifer”.
This is where Alford comes in and shines about the
rest. During his tenure at New Mexico he
did recruiting in Southern California and has familiarized himself with the
area, schools and people. Alford also
has the ultimate weapon in recruiting: championships. Alford was a starting player in the 1980’s
winning a National Title under Bob Knight at Indiana and as a member of the
Gold Medal winning basketball team in the 1984 Olympics. When recruiting big time players, being able
to walk around with that kind of Cache means you got a hand up on many coaches.
Also important about Alford is his background as a
coach. While he hasn’t had great
postseason success at Iowa or New Mexico, he does have the ability to “resurrect”
dying basketball programs. Before he got
to those two schools neither one were known as “winning” programs. The truth hurts UCLA alumni and fans: your
basketball program needs some “resurrection”.
Somewhat apropos considering Christians celebrate the resurrection of
Jesus this past weekend, UCLA basketball for some people is a religion (i.e.
football in Texas). I am not saying
Steve Alford is a “messiah” of any sort but he has the coaching and recruiting
ability as well as the basketball acumen to take UCLA and make it great
again. Only time will tell if his
qualifications for the jobs add up to results.
But one thing is for sure, he is definitely a very qualified candidate.
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