Best in College Sports: Why and how Steve Alford’s kept UCLA relevant – CBSSports.com

Full rankings: 2014-15 Best in College Sports

Steve Alford’s 16-month start at UCLA has been an inarguable success. Perhaps debatable with some on-court outcomes, but still: He’s won more and done more in two seasons than many expected him to, especially given his postseason track record. After all, Alford’s two consecutive trips to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament in 2014/15 double the amount of Sweet 16 bids he had in his previous 15 years of coaching.

And before UCLA, his most recent Sweet 16 showing came in 1999 — at Southwest Missouri State.

So this start in Westwood has definitely been a charmed one for Alford and a surprising one for many who thought he wasn’t the right choice for this program after it fired longtime coach and perennial NCAA Tournament-maker Ben Howland.

The Bruins made the Sweet 16 in Alford’s first year when he took Howland’s roster to a 28-9 record. That team had first-rounders Zach LaVine, Jordan Adams and Kyle Anderson. Last season, UCLA went 22-14, made the NCAA Tournament when a lot of people believed it didn’t have the resume to warrant doing so, and still cracked through to another Sweet 16. This by way of a goaltending call against SMU that became one of the most controversial endings in NCAA tourney history and a Round of 32 matchup against No. 14 UAB.

Through two years, Alford has averaged 25 wins. This kind of success is what helped UCLA take second in CBS Sports’ Best in College Sports standings. The school on the whole performed very well in so many sports, and its flagship team, men’s basketball, has maintained relevance in what’s become a Pac-12 that’s Sean Miller’s to lose at Arizona. Had UCLA missed the NCAAs the last two years and put up 18 wins per season, it’s fair to say a lot of college basketball fans wouldn’t be surprised. It was a hard job coming in, based on recruiting challenges and the roster inherited.

Yet Alford’s kept UCLA as a top-25 program. Despite the history and shine of the name, nothing is guaranteed in contemporary college hoops to blue bloods not named Kentucky or Duke. More than three months removed from that wild ending against SMU, Alford’s self-aware and understanding of how some could see his program as “lucky” to have made it as far as it did last year. But he’s also now a 50-year-old coach who’s been doing this half his life, and so he’s seen plenty.

He’s been on the wrong side of that situation as well.

“After 25 years, I understand that (criticism),” Alford told CBSSports.com last week. “I’ve been on the other side. My Southwest Missouri State team lost to Bradley in (1997) when this kid throws the ball over his shoulder and hit his first 3 of his career. If it doesn’t go in, we go to the NCAA Tournament. …

“I think when you’ve been in it long enough, you get breaks, you don’t get breaks. To play as well as we did, and then get down against a young team, for us to come back and make the plays to win in the end, that’s on our guys. We can’t help that UAB outplays and beats Iowa State. That’s what happens through the tournament. I remember that as a player. If we don’t win our last home game against Ohio State, we don’t get the No. 1 seed. And if we’re not the No. 1 seed in ’87, we’re not in Indianapolis and Cincinnati. That’s a huge break for our team to play within an hour of our (Indiana) fans in 1987. You’re right, though. We inherited some pretty good players year one, but only seven of them.”

Alford took the job in the spring of 2013, lost a bevy of players and had to build up from a roster with seven guys on scholarship. Among others, Alford credits a guy like Norman Powell, who was drafted into the NBA a week and a half ago, for staying when Alford got there. Powell’s presence was critical the past two seasons, and he just as easily could have left the program.

With some stability last season, UCLA was able to recruit successfully and reach out as far as Australia and Hungary. This in addition to a talent pool out of Los Angeles that has remained potent in recent years and should continue to provide four- and five-star talent for Alford to chase going forward.

“We’re a lot more organized and do have our culture in place with what we’d like to do in our program,” Alford said in regard to heading into year No. 3. “As far as predicting the future, that gets too hard. I like where we’re at. We’ve got a good nucleus coming back. We’ve got guys who are going to be together for at least two years here, as Tony Parker’s our only senior.”

And he’s already doing well for himself into the end of this decade, really. UCLA recently nabbed verbal commitments from 2016 five-star point guard Lonzo Ball, 2016 three-star shooting Kobe Paras and 2016 three-star big man Ike Anigbogu. Beyond that, two 2017 players — power forward Jalen Hill (certainly a good get) and shooting guard Li Angelo Ball — are also on board. Few programs have on 2017 commitment by this time, let alone two.

The obvious and interesting aspect for the Bruins now, the dynamic that’s going to define the program’s success next season and probably in 2017: Bryce Alford running the point. Can Steve’s son maintain playing at a level that’s going to make his father look good, and who’s feeling more pressure right now?

“I was a coach’s kid at the high school level, he’s a coach’s kid at UCLA — it’s a lot different,” Alford said. “I’ve been impressed with how he’s handled every situation. From bad games, personally, to good games as a team. It’s not so much his team, but there’s a lot more validity that he’s the leader. In year one he was a reserve. People didn’t even feel like he could play at this level. Last year he put up really good numbers and we didn’t have depth in the backcourt, so he had to use a lot of minutes.”

Almost 90 percent of his team’s minutes, in fact. Yet Bryce Alford shot 39 percent from 3 and wasn’t foul-prone. A good sign going forward. And perhaps he’s adjusted his father’s scope a little, too.

Steve Alford’s reputation is one that has him as an intense, perhaps sometimes rough-around-the-edges. Hey, he was coached by Bob Knight, so no surprise. But in our conversation on where he’s taking UCLA, and how some still doubt the legitimacy of what the Bruins have done through two years, he found himself reflecting on his first job — back at Manchester University, in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

He gave up his playing career at 26 and decided to go right into coaching.

“It was probably important for my career, when you make that change, going from a player to whatever profession it is, to have fun,” Alford said. “That first group of Manchester players allowed me to enjoy coaching at a very young age that motivated me to do it. If it wasn’t good, I might have made a career change. But we went from worst to first. We won 31 straight games. That was a special group of guys that were only five or six years younger than I was.”

Alford now might be tapping back into that mode of thinking, rediscovering the enjoyment of coaching by way of being around his son and succeeding right off the bat at one of the 10 best jobs in the country. UCLA will be relatively young next season — center Tony Parker is the only senior on the team — and Alford is going to essentially have to prove again he can win and compete with Miller’s Wildcats.

Seeing what UCLA’s done on the court through two seasons and the commitments it’s earned for 2015, 2016 and 2017, this has been a triumph so far for Alford. Now that his players are in the fold, though, he knows the true evaluation of his program begins with the season ahead and the ensuing two or three that follow it.