Coaches definitely worse than Paint: Steve Alford
- Thread starter DannyGranger
- Start date
Agreed, too bad this couldn’t have happened earlier and IU pick him up
Given his recruiting prowess he could have “cleaned up the state”, restarted “the movement”. It could have been dark days for us poor Boilermakers. Thank goodness we dodged that bullet!
To be fair he did go to three sweet sixteens in 5 years. That's more than painter has done. Let me be clear though I am not saying he is a better coach.
Most IU fans wanted no part of Alford. I would have been pissed if they hired him after firing Crean.
I agree. My comments were sarcasm. However, for those who think the only measure of a coach is his ability to recruit stars, and post season victories, he looks like a winner. It just goes to show how complex we must be when judging a coach’s performance.
Trojan, What kind of IU fan are You? All the IU people that I talked to wanted Alford bad. They were saying that they wanted someone in the IU family, not an outsider.
You must be talking to older IU fans. There is a very small clique that wanted Alford. These fans are the traditionalists. I'm from Alford's hometown, and my parents actually know him very well, but he isnt a good coach for a top program.
Every IU fan wanted Brad Stevens or Billy Donovan first and foremost. After that, there was a split amongst Alford, Miller, and Mack. The majority wanted either Miller or Mack, because Steve has a poor track record, and then the whole Iowa debacle.
All the IU fans I know really wanted Alford. Only Bailey is a bigger IU God. I do think he'd have come out of the gates on fire at IU had they picked him. Players around the state would have flocked to him and his image. He would have ended up no better than his body of work at UCLA IMO.
Falling up to UCLA is spot on. Can you imagine being basically decent at your previous job (Iowa) and being promoted to one of the 10 best jobs in your industry? One that has $4.5M parachute if you're fired for not being good enough at your core job responsibility? That's the American dream right there.
As an IU fan that spends a lot of time on both IU fan sites (Rivals/247), the vast majority didnt want him. I'm sure there were some fans that really dont understand basketball that really wanted him, but basketball minded people certainly didnt want him (hence the reason he never got an interview after expressing interest).
No doubt he would have locked down the state at first, but we have done that under Archie anyways who is imo a better basketball coach.
Most of the IU people I know are under 50 (most are barely early 40's) and only 1 of them was an avid supporter of having Alford for their coach. He did have some support though, but I'm guessing it's mostly concentrated in the older "long live Knight" crowd that are still pitch-forking around about his firing. Alford was a great player and guys like him, Bailey, and Mount are a significant part of why the state of Indiana has the incredible reputation and lore that it does. But he was just in over his head in a big way at UCLA.
I'm guessing Trojan has a Ball State, ND, and maybe an Earlham jacket. Most IU fans did want Steve. And he'll be fine either doing TV or getting another job. UCLA with Walton's constant drug-induced blathering against Steve didn't help.
Yes, they all wanted him. They also tossed the IU gear in the closed and bought every piece of Texas Tech gear they could find. They also had no problems with Knights behavior because he won. The zero tolerance, in all reality, was instituted because he stopped hanging "Banners".
We need more button ... like dbl-like, love, passionately love ....
I find it interesting how many high recruits from Indiana have been going to or interested in UCLA recently? Didn't that kid with the big hair go there was mentioned as a possible Purdue recruit?
That’s not true what so ever. If you looked at the message board the majority of people did not want him. Also, as liberal as IU has become he never had a chance to come back after what he did at Iowa. Even though I think people are stupid for placing blame on him for what his player did.
I mean 3 5* and 3 4* in state players in his first two recruiting classes pretty much points to locking down the state from a recruiting perspective haha. Could Alford have done better?
That kid last year reportedly interested in Purdue and Depaul went to UCLA. UCLA has popped up many times in contention for high recruits from Indiana. One of reasons Alford was fired was having alot of young high star recruits at UCLA and not producing wins. You recruit alot of 4 or 5 star recruits you better win. Alford's issue with continuing to refuse to accept more responsibility regarding the Iowa situation will always haunt him.
Fyi, @Fansince72 if you want an example of a delusional IU fan that falls into the minority of IU fans that wanted Alford, look no further than @TwinDegrees2 . Basically the only people that wanted Alford were those fans that would kill for an opportunity to lick Knight's sweaty jockstrap.
I don't know what Alford could have done. As far as Archie goes, I continue to hear this broken record...…..now we will see how it pans out.
Lol unlike you, I'm an IU grad. Alford will find a job coaching a low to mid P5 school. Maybe he can go back to Iowa after Fran gets fired this year
.The argument was that Alford would have come in and immediately got all the in state talent. Archie has already done that to this point. There is really no way to argue he hasnt. Will it lead to tournament success? That remains to be seen.
Correct. Romeo's recruitment was big for IU, whether below the table or not. It did open up a few doors.
I agree with those who say the majority of IU fans were aware of Alford's failings and did not want him as an IU coach. Further, I would say Li'l Archie has done well recruiting, and has a great class coming in. It remains to be seen if he can craft them into a winning team.
yes...pg with the fro and some gold highlights I seem to remember...Tyger Cambell out with a knee injury.
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Even with him I doubt that changes what happened at UCLA under Alford.
I hang with a little older crowd than you do. Obviously most of those that wanted Alford were Knight lovers. I seem to remember Whitman name mentioned.
Kind of surprised you feel this way about one of your own. Not easy to say about a legend from New Castle. Gotta give you credit for speaking your true feelings.
I'm have different feelings about Alford as a coach and as a person. I actually really enjoy being around him as a person. However, I think his results speak for themselves as a coach. I think he will be great at a mid tier P5 school.
As a NC bball player and IU player, he was obviously fantastic.
Wondered the same thing but let’s say he does, do you take a chance on him? I say no. He basically spurned us 3 times so no thanks.
just curious...… I saw it mentioned a couple of times. You say Alford made it to the Sweet 16 3 times in the last 5 years. he's constantly recruiting 4 and 5 * players. but yo u expect his next job to be some mid Division 1 school.
So I'll ask, what's a mid division 1 school? a school that hasn't been to the final 4 in over 40 years? A school that has signed 2 5 * recruits in the past 40 years? a team with 3 conference championships in the past 20 years? When we're talking about mid level schools, I want to know the definition of mediocrity.
the thing is, if he were to come back to the BIG 10, with his recruiting ability, that school would not be a mid level school very long. While UCLA wasn't impressed, if he were coaching OSU or northwestern, or IU, that loft y school purdue would probably be looking u p in the standings to where his school is.
I think some of you are allowing your Purdue/IU bias block your objectivity of how good or bad of a coach Alford actually is.
So I'll ask, what's a mid division 1 school? a school that hasn't been to the final 4 in over 40 years? A school that has signed 2 5 * recruits in the past 40 years? a team with 3 conference championships in the past 20 years? When we're talking about mid level schools, I want to know the definition of mediocrity.
the thing is, if he were to come back to the BIG 10, with his recruiting ability, that school would not be a mid level school very long. While UCLA wasn't impressed, if he were coaching OSU or northwestern, or IU, that loft y school purdue would probably be looking u p in the standings to where his school is.
I think some of you are allowing your Purdue/IU bias block your objectivity of how good or bad of a coach Alford actually is.
I doubt if he would have locked the state down.You believing that is just a theory.Kids in High School today dont remember as a player and at no point in his career was he real impressive as a coach.In Big Ten games at Iowa,he had a losing record and coached his various teams to 11 NCAA tournement berths in 23 seasons.Whoppee!
I see what you did there.
You've painted some folks into a corner and you'll likely be personally attacked for this. LOL
