PHOENIX—UCLA has abruptly fired Steve Alford after five and a half seasons.
You had to see this one coming. Alford, the former Indiana All American and Olympian, was 7-6 with four straight losses, including two to Belmont and Liberty. This year has been a disaster in the eyes of outraged entitled UCLA fans, who are still living in a time warp and think John Wooden, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Bill Walton are still in Westwood.
Alford is only the second coach other than Larry Brown, who was only there for two years and took the 1980 Bruins to a Final Four—to never win a conference title. None of his teams never advanced past the Sweet 16 and only one, the 2017 Bruins with Lonzo Ball, spent any time in the Top 10.
I know the Pac-12 is down.
But no one expected this proud UCLA program to hit rock bottom. It appears Alford lost his team and his support after the Bruins embarrassing 73-58 loss to Liberty, an ugly game that the Bruins committed 24 turnovers and made just 6 of 22 three-point shots. Influential donors put pressure on UCLA’s administration to make a change. The settlement was reached late Sunday night. Alford will apparently receive $2.6 million in buyout money if he was fired before May 1, 2019.
UCLA’s lineup is dotted with blue chip players, including 6-8 guard Kris Wilkes and 7-1 freshman center Moses Brown. But the Bruins have been a shadow of one of college basketball’s storied programs. In five plus seasons, Alford is 124-63 (.663) and has led UCLA to four NCAA tournaments and three Sweet 16s, but the Bruins never could get past that hump to become an elite program.
Murray Bartow will replace Alford for the regular season as an interim coach. Finding Alford’s replacement will not be easy. There are plenty of coaches of Dan Guerrero’s wish list, like Mike Brey of Notre Dame, Chris Holtmann of Ohio State and Tony Bennett of Virginia. But salary, cost of living, no charter flights and unrealistic expectations will likely scare candidates away.
Jeff Goodman from the Stadium came up with a good suggestion in Fred Hoiberg, who was a huge success at Iowa State and is on the market after being fired by the NBA Chicago Bulls. Eric Musselman of unbeaten Nevada and Earl Watson, who played for UCLA and was fired by the NBA Phoenix Suns at the start of the season, are also names to remember.
