[img]1807|left|Mr. Steve Alford||no_popup[/img]When it comes to UCLA basketball, winning games and winning championships and going deep into the NCAA tournament are three different situations.
Two days ago athletic director Dan Guerrero announced that 48-year-old Steve Alford of New Mexico, 155-52 in six years, would be the new coach a week after Ben Howland was fired.
After Bulter’s Brad Stevens and Virginia Commonwealth’s Shaka Smart turned down UCLA, they chose a coach for whom stardom long has been predicted.
At UCLA, no coach ever will live up to John Wooden who won 10 national championships. The late Gene Bartow, who followed Wooden, went 52-7 in two years. He quit under the pressure of the fans and alumni that wanted another national championship.
At UCLA, you have to be close to perfect. You have to recruit the right players, coach them the right way so they will stay around long enough to reach their full college potential.
Too many college players get the wrong advice. They leave early and get stuck overseas or in the Development League. They may need the money. But the coaching staff plays a big part in convincing players to stay. Consider the early departure of Malcolm Lee and Tyler Honeycutt a few years ago. Neither was ready for the NBA. But because of the dysfunctional nature of the UCLA team at the time, both players decided to turn pro. This year, 6-9 freshmen guard Kyle Anderson is thinking about making himself available to the NBA. He is not ready. A good coaching staff would keep him one more year.
Howland was a very good coach, as many publicly and privately attest.
He sent many young men to the NBA.
However, those players will tell you they did not have fun playing under his controlling, calling-a-time-out-for-no-reason system. If you can’t have fun in college as a student-athlete, it is a problem. Just ask former Bill Walton.
Another problem Howland had is recruiting. Wooden used to start at home. If the players did not have the grades he would send them to community college. Arron Afflalo, Russell Westbrook, Darren Collinson and Jordan Farmar were all local players. The best combination of guards in the Pac-12 this season was Alan Crabbe and Justin Cobbs from the University of California. Both players are from Los Angeles. They had the grades to get into UCLA.
When they enroll at UCLA it is the job of the coach and his staff to get the players in shape, and to coach them to be better players. Josh Smith and Tony Parker are examples of what went wrong under Howland.
Smith never was in shape during his three years at UCLA. Each year the situation worsened. This season Smith transferred.
Parker, a freshman, was part of the second best recruiting class in the nation. He received little playing time in Howland’s system. Injuries were part of the reason.
When he did play, he looked like someone who had potential, but needed playing time to get better.
The Bruins needed help in the rebounding department. Parker was 6-9 and 275 pounds. In high school he led his team to four consecutive state titles. He played in the 2012 McDonald’s All-American game.
Back to the Old Coach
Howland had a record of 233-107 in his 10 years at UCLA, including three straight Final Fours. Those were in the early part of his Westwood tenure. The last five years have been marred with transfers, empty seats at Pauley Pavilion, questionable recruiting, bad media coverage.
Alford must be able correct the problems Howland had and win basketball games in an entertaining manner and have his teams go deep into the NCAA tournament.
In other words, almost perfect, like John Wooden.
