On Saturday, UCLA named former New Mexico coach Steve Alford as the new coach of the Bruin basketball program.
After announcing the firing of coach Ben Howland last Sunday, UCLA kicked off a six-day, nationwide coaching search that began with attempts to court Virginia Commonwealth’s Shaka Smart and Butler’s Brad Stevens, according to several news sources, and culminated in the hiring of Alford.
“In Steve Alford, we found exactly what we were seeking,” said UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guerrero in a teleconference on Saturday. “(He’s an) outstanding coach, great competitor … and maybe more importantly, an individual who really wanted to accept the challenge of being a head coach at UCLA.”
In six seasons with the Lobos, Alford compiled a 155-52 record and earned a share of at least four Mountain West Conference regular season titles. The 48 year-old was named Mountain West Coach of the Year three out of the past five seasons, and has 22 years of collegiate coaching experience under his belt.
New Mexico compiled a 29-5 regular season record this season, including a first-place finish in the Mountain West Conference Tournament. The Lobos earned a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament’s West region, but were surprisingly dropped in their first tournament game by No. 14-seed Harvard.
Alford said his decision to leave New Mexico for UCLA was a difficult one because of the team’s returning talent as well as the attachment he and his family had built with the university and its surrounding community. Alford said that he spoke with his former team this morning to inform his players of his decision.
“I love UNM, I love Albuquerque and New Mexico and my family has loved it,” Alford said. “This is truly a leap of faith, decisions like this.”
I think it becomes a little bit easier when it’s UCLA. You’re talking about the premier basketball program in the country.”
The coach’s new contract with UCLA, which was outlined in a term sheet this morning but has yet to be completely finalized, includes a seven-year deal worth $18.2 million, in addition to a $200,000 signing bonus, and other incentives like courtesy cars. The deal comes just 10 days after Alford inked a 10-year contract extension with New Mexico.
“Obviously the 10-year contract was done really prior to postseason,” Alford said. “We were working on this deal, because, to be honest with you, I thought this was long term.”
Alford will be required to pay a buyout to New Mexico, but Guerrero said UCLA would help him work it out with the university.
When asked about the nature of coaching at UCLA in his farewell press conference on Monday, Howland said, “It’s very complex. … There’s a lot that goes into it.”
“It’s a place that has such high expectations and that’s understandable,” said Howland before wishing his successor “the very best.”
Following his three consecutive Final Four appearances from 2006-2008, Howland’s teams struggled to maintain consistency on the court, failing to reach the NCAA Tournament in two of his past four seasons.
Roster management was also a cause for concern under Howland, as a handful of players, including Brendan Lane, Matt Carlino, Drew Gordon and Mike Moser, left in the years immediately following UCLA’s No. 1 recruiting class in 2008.
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This season alone, Howland was without star guard Shabazz Muhammad for the first three games of the season amidst an NCAA investigation and later saw the transfer of guard Tyler Lamb and center Joshua Smith, leaving the team with seven scholarship players for all of Pac-12 play.
The Bruins experienced letdowns this season in the form of a home loss to Cal Poly and a blowout loss at Washington State, marking the team’s first loss in Pullman, Wash. in 19 years. Though the team bounced back and played some of its best basketball in the opening rounds of the Pac-12 tournament, an injury to second-leading scorer Jordan Adams in the Pac-12 Tournament semifinal sealed the fate of the Bruins’ season and Howland’s job status with a 20-point loss to Minnesota in the opening round of the NCAA Tournament.
Alford said he understands the pressure that comes along with accepting the UCLA coaching position, and cited playing in front of tens of thousands of fans in high school, at Indiana under coach Bob Knight, in the Olympics and in the NBA, in addition to his long coaching career, as adequate preparation.
One of Alford’s most immediate concerns as UCLA’s coach will be restoring Los Angeles area recruiting relationships following Howland’s tenure, during which a number of in-state recruiting pipelines reportedly experienced a falling out with the UCLA basketball program.
“It’s critically important,” Guerrero said of in-area recruiting. “And I believe we sort of lost that connection to the L.A. market in a way that should not have happened. This was an opportunity for us to get it back. “
Alford said his next couple weeks will be spent retaining his current roster, including freshman center Tony Parker, who remains uncertain about his future with UCLA and wants to meet with Alford before making a decision, according to SNY.tv’s Adam Zagoria.
Freshman guard/forward Kyle Anderson’s father, Kyle Sr., indicated to CBS Sports that Kyle plans on returning to the team next season, while even Howland admitted just a few weeks ago that Shabazz Muhammad has likely played his last game in a UCLA uniform and will soon declare for the NBA Draft.
The new Bruins coach said he will hit the ground running with recruiting once he has evaluated his own roster and once the recruiting dead period ends on April 11.