"Fans will come if you have a good product." - Steve Alford
A few years back, sports journalists and fans around in the basketball-crazy state of Indiana, created an unofficial list of the five greatest products from the state’s prep ranks.
It was a list that went beyond normal all-state or all-America honors or college or even professional heroics. It’s not clear if the list was written down in too many places, but there’s lots of folks who, if asked, would roll their eyes around and always came up with the same five names:
Larry Bird, Springs Valley High, French Lick, 1976
Damon Bailey, North Lawrence High, Bedford, 1990
Rick Mount, Lebanon High, Lebanon, 1967
Oscar Robertson, Crispus Attucks High, Indianapolis, 1957
Steve Alford, Chrysler High, New Castle, 1983
During the four years Steve Alford coached the SMS Bears (1995-99), any number of Indiana sports journalists found their way to Springfield to talk to the Bears’ young mentor, barely into his 30’s at the time, and one of the youngest Division I head coaches in the nation.
The topic of “the list” came up often, and the five names were always the same. No discussion. No argument. No fisticuffs. That’s just the way it was. Those were the top five from Indiana prep basketball. Period.
Alford had four years as a starting guard for the Indiana University Hoosiers of Coach Bob Knight, capping the collegiate run with a championship in the 1987 NCAA finals in the New Orleans Superdome. He was a four-time Indiana Most Valuable Player and set the IU career scoring record at 2,438 points. Alford was a member of the gold medal USA basketball team in the 1984 Olympic Summer Games in Los Angeles, and he played four seasons in the National Basketball Association with the Dallas Mavericks and Golden State Warriors.
After playing for his dad, Sam Alford, at Chrysler High, Steve knew what he wanted for his career path and became head coach at Manchester College, a Division III school in North Manchester, Ind. In his fourth year guiding the Manchester program, he got his team to the NCAA championship game in 1995 before suffering its first loss in a 31-1 season. Alford’s four Manchester teams were 78-29.
That’s when athletics director Bill Rowe of Southwest Missouri State came calling, needing to fill a head coaching position.“One of the refs who worked our league and several other conferences in the Midwest told me he knew of a young guy he thought might make us a good head coach the next time we were looking,” recalls Rowe. “He didn’t even tell me the guy’s name. The next time our job opened up, I called this fellow and he told me about Coach Alford.”
The terms were worked out and 31-year old Steve Alford came to Springfield and Hammons Student Center.
In his second year with the Bears, Alford’s team raced out to a 10-0 start and quick national recognition, before finishing 24-9 and falling to North Carolina State in the National Invitation Tournament.
The Bears struggled the next year and finished 16-16 in a season which included a loss to Coach Knight and Indiana in an early-season tournament in Indianapolis.
Alford put the pieces back together the following season and got SMS into the 20-win circle again. The Bears were again Missouri Valley Conference tournament runners-up, drew an at large NCAA bid and upset Wisconsin and Tennessee in the first two rounds of the tourney before losing to Duke in the regional semifinals.
With his name back on the front burner in national coaching circles after a 78-48 record in four seasons with the Bears, Alford moved in 1999 for an eight-year run at the University of Iowa. His teams played in the NCAA tournament in 2001, 2005 and 2006, reached the NIT three times, and finished 152-106.
From Iowa City, Alford moved to Albuquerque where he guided the New Mexico Lobos six seasons. He took the Lobos into NCAA play in 2010, 2012 and 2013 with three more NIT appearances, and wound up 155-52 at UNM.
And, in the spring of 2013, he was named head coach of one of the nation’s most storied programs, the UCLA Bruins. His first UCLA team was 28-9 and became Alford’s first squad since Southwest Missouri State in 1999 to get to the NCAA Sweet 16, as Alford added his name to the short list of coaches who have taken at least four different Division I programs into NCAA tournament play.
As the 2014-15 season approaches, Alford is about to reach the double milestones of age 50 and 500 career wins and is looking for more heights to conquer. But his four seasons at SMS and Springfield, Missouri, will always remain a special experience for legions of Bears’ fans, as well as to Alford himself.
Steve Alford
By Mark Stillwell