Steve Alford to New Mexico?

[miami_fan]

http://sports.espn.go.com/ncb/news/story?id=2807516

Iowa's Steve Alford and New Mexico are working out the final details of a contract, and unless there is an unexpected impasse, he will be named the next head coach of the Lobos at a Friday news conference, multiple sources told ESPN.com Wednesday.

New Mexico zeroed in on Alford within the past two weeks while also waiting to talk to Winthrop's Gregg Marshall whose team was playing in the NCAA Tournament. But according to multiple sources, UNM told Marshall on Tuesday that they were going with another candidate.

The courtship of Alford started in large part because new UNM president, David Schmidly, was formerly at Texas Tech, home of Alford's college coach, Bob Knight.

According to sources, the Lobos see landing a Big Ten coach to replace the outgoing Ritchie McKay as a major coup. Alford won two Big Ten tournament titles and took the Hawkeyes to the NCAAs three times -- in 2001, 2005 and '06 -- while also winning the 1987 national title as a player at Indiana.

Alford has been at Iowa for eight seasons after leading Missouri State (then Southwest Missouri State) to the Sweet 16 in 1999.

Alford has a 152-106 record in eight seasons at Iowa, and is under contract through 2011.

Sources close to Alford said he was looking for a new challenge after going through some tense seasons in Iowa City. The Hawkeyes have had some issues off the court, notably Pierre Pierce's legal troubles during Alford's tenure. Once the Hawkeyes' leading scorer, Pierce was charged with assault in 2002 and then in 2005 sentenced to prison for a slew of charges involving an incident with a former girlfriend.

Sources said Alford was looking for a school that is passionate about basketball first and foremost after being at a football-first school. UNM athletic director Paul Krebs has pledged to make the Lobos a national program, bumping up the coach's salary more than $500,000 in an attempt to get it closer to Alford's nearly $1 million deal with Iowa.

Alford coached the Hawkeyes to a 17-14 record this season, and a 9-7 record in the Big Ten, tied with NCAA-bound teams Illinois and Purdue for fourth place. The Hawkeyes, though, weren't invited to the NIT.

The Lobos went to one NCAA Tournament under McKay, losing in the first round in 2005. The Lobos' NCAA history is brief as Dave Bliss took the Lobos to seven appearances from 1991-99. Prior to Bliss, the Lobos made only three other appearances in the Dance in their history. Krebs would be banking on Alford bringing the Lobos back into contention for a bid on a regular basis.

The Lobos are hoping, even though Alford had received negative attention when the Hawkeyes struggled, that Lobos fans will embrace a national name in the sport to lead the program.

Andy Katz is a senior writer at ESPN.com.


Didn't Steve Alford turn down the Hoosier job to stay with the Hawkeyes after Mike Davis was fired? Or did IU turn him down. Either way I am surprised he would jumped ship.

[st.cronin]

Well, the buzz down here is that he was about to be fired. I always thought he was a good coach, and the whole thing seems strange to me.

[rowech]

Iowa is not going to hire him back. His recruiting I guess they feel has been subpar. Not sure how you get city kids to come to Iowa but more power to 'em.

[Shkspr]

I would imagine another piece of the puzzle was that not only does UNM's AD have ties to Knight, but Knight had ties to UNM for many years. I don't know why, other than professional connections, but UNM almost landed Knight on a couple of occasions, and Knight has a positive opinion of the school.

The rest of the article makes a fair amount of sense. The Mountain West is not the Big Ten, Albuquerque has some nice things going for it, and most importantly, UNM is definitely a basketball-first school. With quality teams, the Pit offers a hell of a home-court vibe. It's a great place to watch a game.

[sooner333]

The article makes it sound like Schmidley was at TT just recently. He came directly from Oklahoma State where he was their president.

[John Galt]

Oh please let it be true.

[Young Drachma]

Wow.

[JeeberD]

Potentially nice hire for the Lowblows...

[Drake]

Didn't Steve Alford turn down the Hoosier job to stay with the Hawkeyes after Mike Davis was fired? Or did IU turn him down. Either way I am surprised he would jumped ship.

I'm pretty sure that we never offered him the job.

[st.cronin]

According to the radio down here, its a done deal. Official announcement tomorrow.

[Young Drachma]

Should be good for the conference. Other teams are going to have to keep pace somehow. Probably won't be possible. Not so much about quality, just in terms of 'name' recognition.

But I hope Wyoming just gets a recruiter, who can get the most out of the players we have. I'm reserving judgment.

[finketr]

With quality teams, the Pit offers a hell of a home-court vibe. It's a great place to watch a game.

except when those quality teams in the early 90s got beat by a little podunk division 2 school...

Go Greyhounds!

[revrew]

Oh please let it be true.

Ditto dat.

(Now how often do so adamantly agree with JG? :eek: )

Alford has proven himself to be a C- recruiter, an A- practice coach, and a D- in-game coach. Not good enough for Hawkeye nation. And if Alford thinks that Iowa is a "football first school," it only shows how far the program has fallen under his tenure.

[JeeberD]

Alford may be in trouble already... *snicker*

http://www.gazetteonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070327/SPORTS/70327049/1008/sports

Did Alford woo Iowa signee?
Prep says ex-Iowa coach made invitation
By Jim Ecker
[email protected]

Jake Kelly, who signed a national letter-of-intent with the Iowa men's basketball program in November, told The Gazette last night that Steve Alford has invited him to play for his new team at New Mexico.

If true, Alford may have violated an NCAA rule that forbids tampering with student-athletes who have signed with another school.

Kelly, a senior at Carmel (Ind.) High School, said he'll wait and see who Iowa hires as its next coach before deciding whether to honor his commitment to the Hawkeyes or join Alford at New Mexico.

``He said he'd like for me to come and that he thinks he's got a good future here,'' Kelly said. ``He said it's a big-time place and he's excited about it.''

Kelly confirmed two other times during the interview that Alford has invited him to New Mexico, raising the question of improper conduct by the coach.

``All I can say is that the NCAA rules and the national letter-of-intent rules are pretty clear,'' Fred Mims, a UI associate director of athletics, told The Gazette. ``By and large, once a person has committed himself to an institution, then that person should not be recruited by another entity - another institution, that is. With that in mind, I'm assuming this might not be a true story, and I hope it isn't.''

Mims declined comment on whether Alford may have violated NCAA rules.

``I don't want to speculate on any of that,'' he said. ``It's one of those things that if it comes to pass, we'll have to look at it and have some discussions.''

Kelly, Dairese Gary from Concord High School in Elkhart, Ind., and Jarryd Cole from Winnetonka High School in Kansas City, Mo., signed with Iowa in November. Gary's mother declined comment last night when reached by The Gazette, saying ''He's not doing any interviews right now.'' Cole could not be reached for comment.

Kelly said he has spoken with Gary and Cole since Alford left for New Mexico.

``They're the same way as I am,'' he said. ``They just don't know. I mean, they love Coach Alford and are thinking about going down there, but at the same time they signed with Iowa and that's kind of what they've been planning on doing. They don't know what they're doing, either.''

Kelly said he was ``very shocked'' by Alford's decision to leave Iowa last week.

At his press conference Friday at New Mexico, Alford said he would not tell current Hawkeyes or future Hawkeyes what to do, saying it was up to each player to decide whether to play for Iowa or possibly join him at New Mexico.

[Shkspr]

Ditto dat.

(Now how often do so adamantly agree with JG? :eek: )

Alford has proven himself to be a C- recruiter, an A- practice coach, and a D- in-game coach. Not good enough for Hawkeye nation. And if Alford thinks that Iowa is a "football first school," it only shows how far the program has fallen under his tenure.

::blink::

From what, the lofty heights of Acie Earl? You can't blame Alford for everything since Don Nelson.

It's Iowa. Hayden Fry, end of story. Hell, the Hawkeyes are lucky recruits aren't convinced it's a football only school.

[John Galt]

::blink::

From what, the lofty heights of Acie Earl? You can't blame Alford for everything since Don Nelson.

It's Iowa. Hayden Fry, end of story. Hell, the Hawkeyes are lucky recruits aren't convinced it's a football only school.

You need to do some learnin' about Hawkeye men's basketball. These are the Hawkeyes' results since 1975 (with their coach noted):

1975 Lute Olson 10‑16
1976 Lute Olson 19‑10
1977 Lute Olson 20‑7
1978 Lute Olson 12‑15
1979 Lute Olson 20‑8
1980 Lute Olson 23‑10
1981 Lute Olson 21‑7
1982 Lute Olson 21‑8
1983 Lute Olson 22‑9
1984 George Raveling 13‑15
1985 George Raveling 21‑11
1986 George Raveling 20‑12
1987 Tom Davis 30‑5
1988 Tom Davis 24‑10
1989 Tom Davis 23‑10
1990 Tom Davis 12‑ 16
1991 Tom Davis 21‑11
1992 Tom Davis 19‑11
1993 Tom Davis 23-9
1994 Tom Davis 11-16
1995 Tom Davis 21-12
1996 Tom Davis 23-9
1997 Tom Davis 22-10
1998 Tom Davis 20-11
1999 Tom Davis 20-10
2000 Steve Alford 14-16
2001 Steve Alford 23-12
2002 Steve Alford 19-16
2003 Steve Alford 17-14
2004 Steve Alford 16-13
2005 Steve Alford 21-12
2006 Steve Alford 25-9
2007 Steve Alford 17-14

Iowa has had 4 coaches during that time. Alford is the worst. Dr. Tom didn't produce many teams that advanced far in the tournament, but you could almost always count on making the tournament. The Hawkeyes may not have consistently been the cream of the Big Ten crop, but they were always a contender under prior coaches. With Alford, the Hawkeyes have assumed the role of an also-ran and recruiting has been poor (ironically, his best class would probably be the incoming one).

And Alford's handling of the Pierre Pierce situation drove away fans and the games stopped selling out. It was time to move on and you won't find more than a handful of Hawkeye fans who disagree.

I think Alford will do better in New Mexico than he did at Iowa. But he was a very poor fit for the Hawkeyes. And you are just wrong to think the Hawkeyes weren't much better before Alford - they were. Iowa is very patient with their coaches, but everyone's patience with Alford was finally worn thin. Even then, they probably would have given him another year. But thankfully, he left.