Steve Alford Didn’t Choose UCLA Over Indiana

On Friday night, after UCLA lost to Kentucky, Bruins Coach Steve Alford told an ESPN reporter “I am absolutely 100 percent not going to Indiana. Staying at UCLA. I am happy. Love it here.”

Today, Indiana’s AD Fred Glass offered more insight into Alford’s statement, according to WMHR Sports Director Dave Calabro. Calabro tweeted:

In other words, Steve Alford probably made his announcement about staying at UCLA after learning he would not be offered the Indiana job, just as we had suspected.

That’s a pretty important piece of information.

It means that all the rumors and talk about Alford going to Indiana being a “done deal” were completely incorrect. It also means that UCLA is still stuck with Alford for the time being.

It means that, unless Alford decides to try to leave for another school with an opening like Georgetown, UCLA could be stuck with him for the duration of his contract.

So, it also rules out a scenario where Indiana made Alford an offer which UCLA agreed to match because the Hoosiers never made Alford an offer.

It doesn’t mean that Alford’s agent may not have been using the open Indiana job to try to extract an extension from Dan Guerrero. That’s certainly possible and we’ll know soon enough if Guerrero might have fallen for the oldest trick in the agent’s playbook.

Has Steve Alford earned back the contract extension he gave back last season? No way. UCLA isn’t Arizona. We don’t go adding Sweet 16 appearances to a wall inside Pauley Pavilion.

After all, Alford just squandered UCLA’s best chance to make the Final Four since the 2007-2008 season by losing to Kentucky on Friday.

If Dan Guerrero is going to reward that lack of achievement with a contract extension, we might as well start painting Sweet 16 appearances on the walls inside Pauley.


Go Bruins!