Steve Alford

Stephen Todd Alford (born November 23, 1964) is an American men's college basketball coach and former professional player who is the head coach for the Nevada Wolf Pack of the Mountain West Conference (MWC).

Born and raised in Indiana, he was a two-time consensus first-team All-American playing in college for the Indiana Hoosiers.

When The Sporting News named its top ten NCAA basketball players of the 1980s in December 1989, Alford was listed at number ten.

As a freshman, Alford quickly earned the favor of Coach Knight.

Dan Dakich, Alford's former teammate and later an interim Indiana coach, said "Steve was incredibly mature as a freshman. He was getting thrown out of practice then. If Coach respects you and knows you can handle it, he'll do that. When I was a freshman, only Randy Wittman and Ted Kitchel, the seniors, were thrown out."

By his senior year in 1983, before the three-point line was even implemented, Alford averaged 37.2 points per game and earned the Indiana "Mr. Basketball" award.

His team advanced to the state quarterfinal but lost to Connersville in the 1983 state tournament.

Later, shortly after Alford won a gold medal as a member of Bob Knight's U.S. Olympic team, he gave the medal to his dad in a tearful ceremony at the high school in tribute to the loss.

Alford decided to play basketball for Bob Knight and the Indiana Hoosiers.

At Indiana University Bloomington, he became the university's all-time leading scorer with 2,438 points (a record later eclipsed by Calbert Cheaney, who went on to become the Big Ten's all-time leading scorer).

Alford was the first player to be named the team's MVP four times.

During his final three seasons, Alford earned first team all-Big Ten honors.

In the Legends of College Basketball by The Sporting News Alford was No. 35 on the list of the 100 greatest Division-I college basketball players.

That year Alford helped lead Indiana to an upset of the Michael Jordan-led North Carolina Tar Heels in the 1984 NCAA tournament.

For the 1984 Summer Olympics Alford, just 19 years old and a sophomore, was selected to play on the U.S. basketball team, coached by Bob Knight.

Alford averaged 10.3 points per game, was second in assists, and shot .644 from the field.

He and his teammates went on to win the gold medal at the 1984 games.

In this game Alford played alongside Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing, Sam Perkins, Chris Mullin and Wayman Tisdale.

Alford has recounted that during the Olympic training camp, Jordan bet him $100 that he would not last four years on Knight's Indiana team.

As a sophomore Alford was named to the 1985 NIT tournament All-Tournament team after the Hoosiers finished second behind UCLA.

As a junior, he and the 1985–86 Hoosiers were profiled in a best-selling book A Season on the Brink.

Author John Feinstein was granted unprecedented access to the Indiana basketball program and insights into Knight's coaching style.

The book recounts how Knight once criticized Alford's work habits and leadership ability, telling him he couldn't "lead a whore into bed."

He led them to a national championship in 1987.

After playing professionally for four years in the National Basketball Association (NBA), he has been a college head coach for almost 30 years.

Alford was named Indiana Mr. Basketball in high school before playing at Indiana University Bloomington under coach Bobby Knight.

He helped the Hoosiers claim their fifth national championship, and finished his career as Indiana's all-time leading scorer.

Alford was selected in the second round of the 1987 NBA draft by the Dallas Mavericks, and played four years in the league with Dallas and the Golden State Warriors.

Alford then became a college head coach.

He has coached at Manchester University, Southwest Missouri State University, the University of Iowa and the University of New Mexico.

He spent 5 1⁄2 seasons with the UCLA Bruins before being fired midseason in 2018–19.

By leading Nevada to the NCAA Tournament in 2023, he became the fourth head coach to lead five teams to the NCAA Division I Tournament.

Alford was born in Franklin, Indiana and grew up in New Castle.

He learned to count as a three-year-old by watching the numbers tick off the scoreboard in Monroe City, where his father, Sam Alford, coached the high school team.

Sam often moved for various coaching jobs.

Steve missed only two of his father's games, once when he had chicken pox and once when he made the regionals of the Elks Club free-throw shooting contest.

When Alford was nine years old, he attended a basketball camp put on by Coach Bob Knight.

Eventually the Alfords settled in New Castle, Indiana, where Steve played on the New Castle Chrysler High School basketball team with his dad as coach.

Alford was known to practice shooting so much that he would wear out six or seven nets a summer and frequently forgo social activities.

As a high school freshman Alford barely averaged a point a game, but then averaged 18.7 the next season.