From the Indy Star:
The deafening noise about IU and Alford...up to a point, ...makes sense. Alford is one of the last connections to Bob Knight and the good old days: high school IndyStar Mr. Basketball winner, college All-American, Olympic gold medalist on a U.S. team coached by Knight. To a certain part of the IU fan base, an older part, he’s Moby Dick.
To another part of the fan base, he’s, um, well. Put it this way: Alford isn’t just old news. He’s bad news. To them, the only thing on Alford’s coaching resume that even whispers “IU candidate” is his playing career. Which isn’t on his coaching resume at all.
More than that, the Pierre Pierce scandal when Alford was at Iowa — Alford’s defense of Pierce, his best player in 2002, went beyond loyalty and crossed into victim intimidation — is a horrible look. It was 15 years ago, and UCLA was willing to look past it, but there are IU fans urging Glass and the board of trustees not to do the same.
For every text or email I have from an IU grad in favor of Alford — one IU manager for Knight told me “the 20-plus former players/managers that I stay in touch with really want Alford!!!” — I can show you another one like this from an IU Law grad now working as a district attorney out west:
To the Board of Trustees of Indiana University:
I write to you today as an alumnus urging you all to exert your enormous influence at Indiana University to discourage and prevent the potential hiring of Steve Alford. … I base this plea not on Mr. Alford’s lackluster coaching record, but rather on his off-the-court record. …His transgressions at the University of Iowa are not fitting with our values and priorities as a university.
Since Glass fired Crean on Thursday, Alford has emerged as the hottest IU candidate. Glass fueled that by listing three candidate criteria, criteria that fit Alford and very few others, and saying all three factors deserve a “double check plus”: Being from Indiana. Being from IU. Being a head coach.
The Alford-to-IU noise is so loud, coaches around the country are telling me what they’re hearing: They expect Adidas — IU has a $54 million contract with Adidas through 2024 — to pay Alford’s $7.8 million buyout at UCLA. It too was an Adidas school when UCLA hired Alford in 2013, but the Bruins recently left Adidas for a 15-year, $280 million deal with Under Armour. Adidas would love to return the favor and help Alford leave UCLA. That’s what other coaches are hearing, and telling me.
How hot is Alford’s IU candidacy? So hot that WFNI's Dan Dakich told me in a text message Saturday — with Alford’s third-seeded Bruins preparing to play No. 6 Cincinnati on Sunday — that “the deal (with) Alford is done.”
The whole story: http://www.indystar.com/story/sport...lford-noise-deafening-and-kind-dumb/99361610/
The deafening noise about IU and Alford...up to a point, ...makes sense. Alford is one of the last connections to Bob Knight and the good old days: high school IndyStar Mr. Basketball winner, college All-American, Olympic gold medalist on a U.S. team coached by Knight. To a certain part of the IU fan base, an older part, he’s Moby Dick.
To another part of the fan base, he’s, um, well. Put it this way: Alford isn’t just old news. He’s bad news. To them, the only thing on Alford’s coaching resume that even whispers “IU candidate” is his playing career. Which isn’t on his coaching resume at all.
More than that, the Pierre Pierce scandal when Alford was at Iowa — Alford’s defense of Pierce, his best player in 2002, went beyond loyalty and crossed into victim intimidation — is a horrible look. It was 15 years ago, and UCLA was willing to look past it, but there are IU fans urging Glass and the board of trustees not to do the same.
For every text or email I have from an IU grad in favor of Alford — one IU manager for Knight told me “the 20-plus former players/managers that I stay in touch with really want Alford!!!” — I can show you another one like this from an IU Law grad now working as a district attorney out west:
To the Board of Trustees of Indiana University:
I write to you today as an alumnus urging you all to exert your enormous influence at Indiana University to discourage and prevent the potential hiring of Steve Alford. … I base this plea not on Mr. Alford’s lackluster coaching record, but rather on his off-the-court record. …His transgressions at the University of Iowa are not fitting with our values and priorities as a university.
Since Glass fired Crean on Thursday, Alford has emerged as the hottest IU candidate. Glass fueled that by listing three candidate criteria, criteria that fit Alford and very few others, and saying all three factors deserve a “double check plus”: Being from Indiana. Being from IU. Being a head coach.
The Alford-to-IU noise is so loud, coaches around the country are telling me what they’re hearing: They expect Adidas — IU has a $54 million contract with Adidas through 2024 — to pay Alford’s $7.8 million buyout at UCLA. It too was an Adidas school when UCLA hired Alford in 2013, but the Bruins recently left Adidas for a 15-year, $280 million deal with Under Armour. Adidas would love to return the favor and help Alford leave UCLA. That’s what other coaches are hearing, and telling me.
How hot is Alford’s IU candidacy? So hot that WFNI's Dan Dakich told me in a text message Saturday — with Alford’s third-seeded Bruins preparing to play No. 6 Cincinnati on Sunday — that “the deal (with) Alford is done.”
The whole story: http://www.indystar.com/story/sport...lford-noise-deafening-and-kind-dumb/99361610/
