Well, it’s finally happening. You had to think it would come sooner or later for a lot of reasons.
Steve Alford will soon be out as the head coach at UCLA, according to numerous reports starting with Seth Davis at The Athletic. It’s the end of a long and drawn-out affair that we all knew had to be coming.
Alford seemed to be perpetually on the hot seat at the program with a record 11 national championships. He always seemed something of an odd choice for the job, as he had coached at a high-major (Iowa) but more recently was at New Mexico. (Idle thought: with the Lobos sliding toward irrelevancy, maybe Alford can go back there next season.) In his five seasons at the helm, the Bruins reached the Sweet 16 three times, but that isn’t what is expected in Westwood.
What’s more, the Bruins were not exactly leading the way in the Pac-12 during his tenure, even as the conference had a bad year last season and is even worse this season. They were 31-5 two years ago with Lonzo Ball and T.J. Leaf leading the way and son Bryce Alford being a key complementary player, but finished third, a game back of both Oregon and Arizona. They finished second in Alford’s first season at the helm and won the 2014 Pac-12 Tournament, but relatively speaking it’s been mostly downhill from there.
Maybe the biggest sign of this came in 2015-16, when the conference was loaded from top to bottom. The Pac-12 had 10 teams in the RPI top 100 and sent seven of them to the NCAA Tournament, including Oregon as a No. 1 seed and the only one to get to the second weekend. UCLA finished tenth that season with a 6-12 conference record and a 15-17 overall mark, one of just three teams in the conference with a losing record. Next season was a very different story, but Alford famously gave up a year on his contract because of that.
During Alford’s tenure, the Pac-12 landscape appeared to change. Oregon has now arguably become the signature program of the conference alongside Arizona, and neither is having a great year – but then, the Pac-12 is finishing an awful month of December that will see them go just a few games above .500. That kind of record might be okay in the Big West or Big Sky, but this is the Pac-12, where Alford probably isn’t the only person whose seat has been hot – given football’s struggles as well, as we have written and talked about, one has to think Larry Scott is on a hot seat as commissioner as well.
UCLA has not lacked talent. The Bruins have consistently landed recruiting classes ranked by most in the top ten nationally, and while they have had plenty of players leave school early for the NBA Draft – one thing Alford has done is churn out NBA players – lots of other schools have, too. This isn’t a problem only they have had to deal with.
This season, UCLA started out in a promising enough fashion, winning their first four games, although none of them NCAA Tournament resume builders. The slide began in Las Vegas, getting blown out by Michigan State and getting handled by North Carolina. After three straight wins, including one over Notre Dame that they almost let get away (as they had a double-digit lead), the Bruins have lost four in a row, with the last three coming by double digits. At that point, Dan Guerrero had seen enough and wasn’t going to wait until Alford’s buyout dropped in a few months.
Who they go with from here remains to be seen, and there will be plenty of speculation as to who will get the job beyond this season. You’ll hear names like Fred Hoiberg, Billy Donovan, Tony Bennett and Earl Watson mentioned, but how much it means before the season is over is unclear. For now, Alford is out, and will surely land elsewhere before long if he so desires; with the buyout, he surely won’t have to coach for financial reasons and can look for the right job.
Side Dishes
The results didn’t include any big surprises, with Michigan remaining undefeated by taking care of Binghamton 74-52. The closest to a big surprise might be Delaware going on the road and beating CAA preseason favorite Northeastern 82-80 in double overtime.
West Virginia beat Lehigh 78-68 in one of the better matchups of the day, and the Mountaineers have Big 12 play ahead. However, they will enter without a significant win in non-conference play, so they will have to build their resume in conference play.
Tonight’s Menu
It’s a light slate to close out 2018, with most games coming in the afternoon as well.
- Marshall is the latest team to try to knock off Virginia in Charlottesville (1 p.m.)
- NJIT will try again for a seventh road win of the season as they travel to Duquesne (2 p.m.)
- Providence hosts Creighton in the Big East opener for both (4 p.m.)
- A busy slate of Big Sky action includes Weber State going to Idaho (5 p.m.), Portland State hosting Northern Colorado (5:05 p.m.) and Southern Utah hosting Montana (8:30 p.m.)
- Gonzaga’s final challenge of 2018 is a visit from CSU Bakersfield (9 p.m.)
