page_title: Steve Alford
section_title: New Mexico Lobos
hierarchical_section_title: Steve Alford / Coaching career / New Mexico Lobos
caption_attribution_description: English: New Mexico Lobos head men's basketball coach Steve Alford at the game against the USD Toreros on December 10, 2008.
context_page_description: Stephen Todd Alford 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. Born and raised in Indiana, he was a two-time consensus first-team All-American as a college basketball player for the Indiana Hoosiers. He led them to a national championship in 1987. After playing professionally for four years in the National Basketball Association, 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 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.
context_section_description: Alford was named head coach at the University of New Mexico on March 23, 2007 replacing the fired Ritchie McKay. In his first year as the Lobos coach Alford posted a record of 24–9, 11–5 in league play. Twenty-four wins is the most for a New Mexico head coach in their first year. The Lobos were led by future 1st round Boston Celtics draft pick J. R. Giddens.  The Lobos were eliminated in the first round of the NIT by Cal.
  In his second season, led by seniors Daniel Faris, Tony Danridge and Chad Toppert, Alford guided the Lobos to their first conference championship in 15 years.  He earned the MWC Coach of the Year Award for his team's performance. Alford also set a record for most wins in the first two seasons for a UNM head coach.  Alford and his New Mexico squad fell just short of the NCAA tourney and ended up with their second consecutive NIT bid.  They won a first round home game against Nebraska and lost on a last second buzzer beater on the road to Notre Dame.
  His third year, coaching a mostly young, untested team, Alford's Lobos nevertheless won the regular season MWC title for the second year in a row, were ranked in the top 15 for the majority of the year, and earned a #3 seed in the NCAA Tournament, the team's first bid since 2005. In the first round, they survived a tough game against Montana 62–57, but despite Dairese Gary's 28 points, fell in the second round to an upstart Washington side.  At the end of the season Coach Alford received a ten-year contract extension through the 2019–2020 season.
  The 2010-2011 season started with Alford's group at 12-4 after non-conference play, but the team struggled to an 8-8 conference regular season record. Drew Gordon and Dairese Gary led a talented team that underachieved much throughout the year into the conference tournament. The team seemed poised to make a run in the MWC conference tournament, but a tragic ACL injury to Gary in the semi-finals against BYU proved to be too much to overcome for this young UNM squad. Alford also had a confrontation with a Brigham Young player in which Alford called him an "extremely vulgar" name, according to the Wall Street Journal. Their 2010-2011 season ended with an NIT loss to Alabama 74-67. However, with everyone coming back (with the exception of Gary), the following season seemed to hold promise.
  The 2011-2012 season began with a rough patch. UNM was picked to win the league for the first time in Alford's five years at the helm, but the team started a questionable 2-2 with losses to home state rival NMSU and a bottom feeder WCC team in Santa Clara. UNM then raced off to a twelve-game win streak and finished the non-conference season at 14-2. UNM then went on to have a 10-4 conference regular season record and a share of the conference title with arch-rival San Diego State. It was only fitting that the regular season co-champions would square off in the MWC tournament title game. With Drew Gordon and Demetrius Walker leading a battle tested UNM team in the championship, Alford and his Lobos prevailed to a 69-58 conference tournament title. UNM received a fifth seed in the NCAA West region, and they defeated Casper Ware and the Long Beach State 49ers in their first game of the NCAA Tournament. The Lobos lost to the Louisville Cardinals in their next game.
  In the 2012-2013 season, with a vicious defensive team, Alford led his Lobo squad to a 26-5 regular season record, winning the Mountain West Regular Season conference title. Alford won his third MWC coach of the year honor, and New Mexico garnered another Player of the Year award in Kendall Williams. New Mexico was primed to make a deep run in the NCAA tournament after winning the MWC conference tournament for the second straight year. At 29-5 entering the tournament, New Mexico was an early favorite as a Final Four participant by several analysts and publications, but Alford and his No. 3 seed Lobos were upset by an underdog 14th-seeded Harvard team, who won their first NCAA tournament game in school history.
caption: Alford with New Mexico in 2008
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