Update: Stadium's Jeff Goodman reports Indiana will not consider Steve Alford as a serious candidate for its head-coaching position. Additionally, a tweet from Jon Rothstein reports Alford will not pursue the Indiana job.
The Indiana coaching job opened Monday, and whenever that's been the case the last couple of decades, one name has typically popped up alongside it, that being Steve Alford.
The Wolf Pack coach is an Indiana legend, both at the high school ranks and the college level as he led Indiana to its last national championship, in 1987, under Hall of Fame coach Bobby Knight.
Indiana is considered one of the nation's premier jobs, although its only reached the Sweet 16 four times in the last 25 seasons (2002, 2012, 2013, 2016). It hasn't played in the NCAA Tournament since 2016.
Archie Miller, the Hoosiers' most recent coach, went 67-56 overall and 33-43 in the Big Ten. Miller's four teams never finished above .500 in conference play and didn't make the NCAA Tournament, although last year's team likely would have been selected if the event wasn't canceled. Indiana went 12-15 overall and 7-12 in Big Ten play this season.
Miller's buyout was reportedly $10.35 million, and it'd cost the Hoosiers a good chunk of money to hire Alford away from Nevada. The second-year coach signed a 10-year deal with the Wolf Pack in April 2019. He would owe Nevada $6 million if he left for another job before June 30, 2021. It falls to $4 million between then and June 30, 2022. The full contract details are here.
Alford has broken a 10-year contract before, doing so at New Mexico to take the job at UCLA. The Indiana job is considered a similar-caliber position and is lucrative enough some of the game's biggest names are already being attached as potential candidates. Hiring Alford could bring back some of the Indiana fan base nostalgic for the success the program had in the 1970s and 1980s. Alford also has experience coaching in the Big Ten, leading Iowa from 1999-2007. He went 152-106 overall and 61-67 in the Big Ten with three NCAA Tournament and three NIT berths.
When the Indiana job opened in 2017, Alford downplayed his interest in the position, although he was at UCLA at the time.
"I'm absolutely 100 percent not going to Indiana," Alford told ESPN in 2017. "I am happy here. I love it here. We have a great recruiting class coming in and a brand-new practice facility. Obviously, I love my alma mater. But I'm committed to UCLA. I am not going to talk to Indiana. I am staying a Bruin."
He further added: "Obviously, that was 30 years ago. I was a part of that. I stood on a stage with a great group of guys and won a national championship. It’s my home state. I played there. So obviously all that comes up, but I love UCLA. I love Los Angeles. You’re talking about arguably the greatest brand anywhere on that planet and we got things going at a very high level right now.”
Alford's tenure with the Bruins lasted less than 2 years after that before he signed a 10-year, $11.6 million deal with the Wolf Pack, which is more than double the guaranteed salary any other Nevada coach has signed. While his Wolf Pack buyout would be stiff, it's unlikely to preclude Indiana from hiring him if he's the ultimate choice.
In 2017, ESPN's Dick Vitale said Alford would be interested in a return to Indiana: “I spoke to Steve Alford last night. Take it to the bank. If Indiana offers its coaching job to Steve Alford, he’s going home. There’s no doubt in my mind. None. It’s just a matter if they will offer the job. There’s a big buyout involved. He was Mr. Basketball in high school. His father coached there for 30 years. His father, mom, brother and his wife’s parents still live there. He’s an Indiana kid who led Bobby Knight’s club to the national title in ’87.”
Speaking this season on The Field of 68 podcast, Alford said he's had interest in Indiana in the past but never got a call from the school when the job was open.
"When the job's been open, and it's been three or four times the job's been open, those things surface," Alford said. "It's home, it's where I grew up. I spent all my life other than post-college, now I've moved West, but prior to that it's all Indiana. I now have the longest withstanding private camp in the state. We've had that since 1986. I've got incredible ties back there and developed incredible relationships along the years. Did I have interest? I can't tell you I never had interest when it opened because it's Indiana and that's home. But I've never got a call. It's opened four times and I've never been called from Indiana. But there's no hard feelings. I've been truly blessed in every spot I've been, including the spot at UCLA where I got fired.
"I'm in a really cool spot here in Reno. I'm 25 minutes from Tahoe. If I have a bad day, I go over there to one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. There are beautiful people here."
Alford is 622–320 in his career and has reached four Sweet 16s but never advanced past that round as a coach. All three of his full-time assistant coaches have ties to Indiana and Alford has continued to recruit the state since moving on the West Coast.
Stadium's Jeff Goodman, who first reported Miller's firing, said two of the top candidates for the position could be Texas Tech's Chris Beard and Baylor's Scott Drew. Former Nevada coach Eric Musselman, currently at Arkansas, also has been linked in some media reports as a potential candidate. Early betting odds have listed Alford as a top-five candidate.
ESPN's Jeff Borzello indicated Indiana could have a clear upgrade replacement already in mind if not secured.
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March 16, 2021 at 01:42AM
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Update: Nevada's Steve Alford not in the running for the Indiana job - Nevada Sports Net
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