April 4, 2008
Albuquerque Journal
And Now Act II What Does UNM's Alford Have in Mind for Encore?
By Mark Smith, Journal Staff WriterOn March 23, 2007, Steve Alford was officially given the task of rebuilding the University of New Mexico men's basketball program. Attendance had been in free fall for years, the Lobos were a bickering bunch and showed little respect for previous coach Ritchie McKay, team academics were a joke and even the program's biggest jock-sniffers were thumbing their noses at Lobo basketball.
Alford did have a solid group returning, including the league's best player in J.R. Giddens. Still, Alford exceeded expectations in Year One. The Lobos went 24-9 and finished third in the Mountain West Conference at 11-5. They were 15-17 and 4-12 a year earlier.
But the Lobos did lose three of their last five this season, all in heart-breaking fashion and by a total of just five points, and failed to make the NCAA Tournament. Despite the success, they didn't even get a home game in the National Invitation Tournament and lost their first game of that event at Cal— a team that was 6-12 in the Pac-10.
Is Alford worth the six-year, nearly $1 million-a-year deal he signed last summer? UNM administrators apparently think so, this week getting him to agree to an extension that takes him through the 2015-16 season— and with no buyout.
This week, the Journal sat down with Alford to talk about the state of the program.
Mark Smith: What was the main part, the main reason for agreeing to the extension?
Steve Alford: Longevity of the program. I want to be here for the long haul. I want to build this thing the right way. It's going to take time to get everything in line that we need to do, not just players but the right type of student-athlete. It's been written a lot, we inherited an academic mess. It's as bad as I've seen. That takes time to get out of that.
... The fan base is incredible. The Pit is everything that was advertised, if not more so. The way it grew through the course of the year, it grew with our team.
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.. I think with the Pit renovations that are coming, the commitment to the Pit, the Pit's going to be even more fan friendly. ... I think when you look at Southwest basketball, we've got a chance to be the premier program.
... The timing was right. I've been able to be here a year and experience an administration that has supported me— that's just not Paul (Krebs) and Dr. (David) Schmidly, this had been the entire Dr. Schmidly support staff, Paul Krebs' support staff.
Smith: There were a lot of rumors out there about you and the Indiana job. The Chicago Tribune, story ...
Alford: I literally don't pay attention to it. People are going to write and do and say what they want.
Smith: Do you know anyone who was supposedly on that plane (the Tribune reported you traveled from Bloomington to Albuquerque last Saturday)?
Alford: No (laugh). Nor do I care.
Smith: How frustrating is it nowadays with the Internet ... and all the false information that gets posted out there?
Alford: I think that's what we have to deal with now as coaches, and it's unfortunate, because it does have a negative impact, because there will be people who believe it. There will be recruits that believe it. There's so much out there every day, and the majority of it is just false. It's stuff you didn't have to deal with 15 years ago.
Smith: A big part of your contract is how you deal with the community. What type of things have you done so far?
Alford: One of the first things we did, was get involved with Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central New Mexico. ... The entire coaching staff went down to the Albuquerque Rescue Mission and helped serve food during Thanksgiving. We also took our team out to Laguna-Acoma Middle School for a practice during the season.
... During February, we took the team over to the Children's Hospital for a visit. ... I have always been involved with Special Olympics, and this year we were fortunate enough to have them come out and attend the UNLV game. They were greeters at the doors and we recognized Special Olympians and staff on center court during pregame. ... I will also be involved with the Special Olympics of New Mexico Golf Tournament this summer.
This year, we are also getting more involved with Coaches vs. Cancer.
Smith: When you see a team like Davidson make a run, does that get you even more motivated? Is that something UNM is capable of doing?
Alford: I don't know what the final product's going to look like. To be quite honest with you, it still bites at me, a little bit, that you win 24 games, you break all kinds of school records, but total wins, road wins, and what you get out of it is an NIT road game. That still crawls at me a little bit, because you're not going to be able to win 24 games every year.
Those are things that we've got to address as a league ... but I want to be a program where we're on the cusp of 20 wins every year, that we're on the top of the league. I hope it's not a league where you have to finish first every year to have a chance to play postseason. Maybe you do.
Smith: UNLV made the Sweet Sixteen last year, Utah made it one year. They are the only ones so far in the Mountain West. If somebody makes a deep run, will that, maybe, give some pub and respect to the conference?
Alford: I don't know. UNLV made it to the Sweet Sixteen last year and won 30 games. The following year, we have three teams win 24 or more, and we're still a two-bid league.
... And (it's) not just that. I look at it as we had two teams from our league make the NIT that had 20-plus wins. One has to travel cross country to play as a seventh seed (San Diego State at Florida) an the other one has to go to a team that was one game above .500 and finished ninth in their league (UNM at Cal).
Smith: I think a lot of people underestimate where this fits in among top jobs in the country. I wrote (a column earlier this year) about Indiana, "how could they not lure you away if they really wanted to?" But do people really understand how good the whole package is out here?
Alford: I've often said, there are many times in my career, and I've had great stops everywhere, but I've wondered if Manchester (College) should have been the final stop. Just because it was wholesome, the stress wasn't there, we had great players, we had it going. And that's a $35(000)-40,000 job ... I've had a lot of fun, I'm glad I did what I've done, but I've never been driven— with the season we've had it would have been easy trying to market the schools that you're talking about— there are some BCS jobs available, and those are all ranging from $1.3 (million) to $2 million. So it's not about that.
It's about where you think you fit. Coach (Bob) Knight always talks about it in recruiting, it's not what a player's ranked in a particular service, it's about how to fit your puzzle best. And when I look at a job, I think the same thing, 'Where do you fit? How do you fit in that puzzle?'
Smith: Recruiting for this year, what's the plan right now? You've got 13 scholarships. When Tony (Danridge, who was out with an injury all season) comes back, you'll have 14 guys coming back.
Alford: Tony's situation, we're trying to figure that out, if it's a hardship case. I don't know how that works. That's the biggest piece that we've got to get done in the next month or so. What happens with Tony from a hardship standpoint? The five guys that we've already got signed are doing very, very well. And hopefully the majority of them are going to be here this summer.
Smith: Are you guys planning to sign anyone else in the spring?
Alford: We don't know (laugh). Recruiting's all about, you've got to continue to— if you stop recruiting, something happens— and we have to continue to recruit. We have to continue to try and better the program and get the right pieces in here.
Smith: Have there been any thoughts about putting anybody, not to mention anyone specific, on an academic scholarship and make them a walk-on to clear a scholarship?
Alford I don't how you could do that. You're only allowed 13 scholarships.
Smith: Like Ryan Ashcraft did under (former coach Ritchie) McKay. He gave his athletic scholarship up and just had an academic one.
Alford: Our hope, is that Tony gets a hardship. I don't know what the NCAA is going to do. But Tony's situation is a hardship. He didn't play because of injury for a whole year. So that's not his fault. I've never had a player who's done that, gone through the hardship waiver. But I know all the paperwork's in. We're trying to figure that out.
Smith: There's always attrition every year. Do you see the possibility of anyone leaving to play Division II ball or anywhere?
Alford: We hope not. We haven't had our individual meetings, they've had some time off, but we hope not. If that happens, we'll deal with it from that standpoint. But I think everybody's on board, everybody's intact. We start our workouts again the 9th of April. Maybe we'll know more at that time, but nothing's come to my attention yet.
Smith: (Indiana athletics director Rick) Greenspan— what's your relationship with him? There are all kind of stories floating around about that. Is that something you can comment about?
Alford: Stories about?
Smith: That you and Greenspan don't get along too well.
Alford: I've never worked for him. So I wouldn't know anything about working for him. So I don't have any comment in regards to Rick, or how he runs a program or what he does. I just know of who I work for now.
Smith: Will the extension include the assistants?
Alford: Eventually. (right now) the principle is just on me, but that will affect the staff as well.
Smith: What do you see for those guys?
Alford: Nothing really happens with staff, as far as longevity and stuff. The staff just benefits from the head coach having longevity. None of this is monetary. I didn't want to the change anything, other than the typical raise that the typical employee gets. This was all about longevity.
Smith: The fact that you got Craig (Neal, associate head coach) a four-year contract, originally, is that part of the commitment that they're showing?
Alford: Yeah, that's what we're working, we haven't finalized that yet.
Smith: That's not that common is it? For a multi-year contract for assistants?
Alford: No. No. But in the hiring process, that was important to me, that my associate head coach had that kind of security.
Smith: The general state of the program, how do you feel?
Alford: I couldn't be more excited. Our guys did a tremendous job this year, they won a lot of basketball games where they played the game the way I want it played. When you look at that first year, trying to build a foundation and build an identity of who you want to be, the most amazing thing this team did, is they did that, and really were just doing it on the fly.
Smith: You going to retire here?
Alford: I hope so (laugh). I hope so. I know eight years gets me to 53. That's 25 years in business, so ...
Smith: That sounds old, even to me.
Alford: That's what I'm saying (laugh).
On the Web
For a complete transcript of the Journal's interview with Lobo men's basketball coach Steve Alford, go to ABQjournal.com/sports