UCLA Men’s Basketball: It’s the Coaching, Stupid!

At his postgame press conference following tonight’s UCLA Bruins basketball game against Liberty, UCLA head coach Steve Alford rattled off a long list of things that UCLA was poor at in the game. But he left one thing out: Poor coaching.

He seemed to be struggling to figure out what’s wrong with his team.

He spoke about everything and the kitchen sink. He mentioned going back to “7th grade drills.” He blamed the loss on UCLA’s 24 turnovers and just about everything imaginable.

But, ultimately, he left out the one thing Bruin fans have known for a long time that UCLA needs to improve upon: coaching.

Unfortunately, if Alford isn’t willing to look in the mirror and realize that he’s not getting the job done, there is no hope that he would do the honorable thing and submit his resignation now. Not that Steve Alford would ever consider doing that. His ego is too big for that.

After all, he was Mr. Basketball. He won a national championship as a player at Indiana. He’s been coaching for 28 years. He’s Steve Alford, after all.

But, he would never walk away from coaching at UCLA on his own because it would cost him several million dollars.

And Alford isn’t willing to recognize that he is the problem.

Here’s his whole press conference, just so you can get as upset watching it as I did.

There were a few times during his opening statement that I thought he might actually announce his resignation, but as soon as I remembered that this is Steve Alford, a guy who, in six years, has done absolutely nothing to embrace the greater UCLA community and the same guy who walked out on New Mexico after agreeing to a ten-year contract extension, I knew he wasn’t about to actually submit his resignation.

UCLA’s next game is at home on Thursday against Stanford to begin Pac-12 Conference play. Will Alford make it to coach on Thursday night? Vote in our poll and explain your vote, or express your other thoughts, in the comments below. You can vote until noon on Thursday.

Go Bruins. Fire Alford!