News about Steve Alford from Phoenix, AZ

[Paterfamilias]

i can tell you there are A TON of people who think lavin was a terrible coach. and i don't know what you all think of crean as a coach but i do hear hoosier fans complaining about crean's inability to keep local talent. if that complaint is loud, then my point is proven - you can't refute my point and be ok with crean.

you are off on two things 1...lavin WAS a bad coach and that's why he failed,,,and 2 did crean bring in adequate talent. i dunno - you tell me. did he do what was expected of the talent he accrued? if he did what was expected of the talent he recruited, if he rode indiana as far as it could go, then he didn't have enough talent, else you wouldn't have fired him. he wasn't getting the talent - quod erat demonstratum.

if there are any hoosier fans who are upset about losing wilkes or any of the talent on indiana's teams for the past 9 years, then crean has not fulfilled his job as recruiter. i mean, i suspect crean is an okay coach, so recruit better win more. i just looked at hoosier recruiting over the past decade. two or three 5* and few 4* and a preponderance of the other. i don't know....would you say the Indiana's record was in lock step with it's recruiting talent? seems like it to me

I can't speak for everybody else, but for me his inability to recruit the state well is a secondary issue. I am firmly of the belief that Tom Crean's philosophy of how the game should be played will not work with any consistency whatsoever regardless of talent level. It can look beautiful sporadically as long as the opposition is unable to impose their will on the game, but that is the limit of it's effectiveness. In other words, David Grace would be of little help to Tom Crean.

Also, Indiana's play is far from being in lock step with it's talent level this year, but that happens to everyone here and there. Bad basketball though, has kept IU from having those teams where the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts often enough... if ever.

 

[outside shooter]

...would you say the Indiana's record was in lock step with it's recruiting talent? seems like it to me

Indiana's recruiting classes have consistently been ranked in the top 3 in the B1G. Judging by top 100 recruits, McD AA's, star rankings, whatever. Crean has regularly done less with more. There are a few unheralded recruits who blossomed, like Oladipo and Anunoby, but more common are the blue-chippers who regressed. His inability / lack of desire to get high BB IQ guys, or to develop high BB IQ in talented athletes, has also been a factor.

 

[TheVegasHoosier]

Indiana's recruiting classes have consistently been ranked in the top 3 in the B1G. Judging by top 100 recruits, McD AA's, star rankings, whatever. Crean has regularly done less with more. There are a few unheralded recruits who blossomed, like Oladipo and Anunoby, but more common are the blue-chippers who regressed. His inability / lack of desire to get high BB IQ guys, or to develop high BB IQ in talented athletes, has also been a factor.

He did an interview with Kravitz out today and he blamed not being able to recruit Indiana players better is the other schools cheated to get them.

(rolleyes)

Also, Peegs put out his new hot board today and Donovan dropped WAY down the list because all they are hearing is he is NOT interested.

 

[ClayCoGuy]

Also, Peegs put out his new hot board today and Donovan dropped WAY down the list because all they are hearing is he is NOT interested.[/QUOTE]

Then why is BD not making a direct public statement saying he is not interested in the Indiana University Coaching position, such as Brad Stevens did? And I mean one since the opening occurred.

As far as I can find out, he's not done that, and any statements he has made have left the door wide open in my opinion.

 

[miltk]

many many here in bruinland are assuming alford is gone. the obvious answer being,,,"why not", for all the reasons already stated. i'm just throwing this out there that i've been hearing adidas/iu is all set and this is a done deal, but funny thing is i don't hear any search rumors on the ucla side - like NONE.

btw, as for the ball kids, that's a close knit family. they're staying.

 

[Paterfamilias]

many many here in bruinland are assuming alford is gone. the obvious answer being,,,"why not", for all the reasons already stated. i'm just throwing this out there that i've been hearing adidas/iu is all set and this is a done deal, but funny thing is i don't hear any search rumors on the ucla side - like NONE.

btw, as for the ball kids, that's a close knit family. they're staying.

I've seen some on the various boards disappointed about him leaving and blaming the fanbase. It seems that UCLA fans definitely think he's gone, but don't want to detract from the upcoming game.

Even though I'm a fan of Alford myself, I'm hoping that he stays at UCLA and wins the fans over out there. He's got a perfect set-up with the recruiting base and Grace. Do you think he's leaving no matter what, as was said back in the summer, or is he good as long as Indiana goes another direction?

 

[TheOriginalHappyGoat]

guess i'm not aware of this rule.

That's because it's not a real rule. In fact, the rules specifically state that a change in coaching does not confer a release from an NLI.

However, some schools (as IU appears to be doing this year) will voluntarily agree to a release for commits who want one due to a coaching change, simply because it's the right thing to do.

 

[Sope Creek]

Indiana's recruiting classes have consistently been ranked in the top 3 in the B1G. Judging by top 100 recruits, McD AA's, star rankings, whatever. Crean has regularly done less with more. There are a few unheralded recruits who blossomed, like Oladipo and Anunoby, but more common are the blue-chippers who regressed. His inability / lack of desire to get high BB IQ guys, or to develop high BB IQ in talented athletes, has also been a factor.

The talent Crean recruited was generally pretty high in rankings, but the roster lacked balance. We've seen too many teams without a legitimate point guard - from what I've seen we've only had 2 in 9 years, Verdell Jones III and Yogi - and without that true point guard Crean's teams have suffered mightily for leadership. Plus Crean's rosters have been very heavy on wings who've been pressed into big or PG duty, or big AND PG duty in the cases of Troy and Morgan (with limited success at best). Consequently, the talent that is there, while pretty good to very good generally, hasn't been fully utilized . . . hence the perception of under-performance and Crean's involuntary departure.

 

[miltk]

I've seen some on the various boards disappointed about him leaving and blaming the fanbase. It seems that UCLA fans definitely think he's gone, but don't want to detract from the upcoming game.

Even though I'm a fan of Alford myself, I'm hoping that he stays at UCLA and wins the fans over out there. He's got a perfect set-up with the recruiting base and Grace. Do you think he's leaving no matter what, as was said back in the summer, or is he good as long as Indiana goes another direction?

I think he will accept if he's offered and on this i think the hoosier fans are closer to this than ucla fans. i personally am torn because i was one who was not impressed with alford's resume when he coached iowa. but i like how he gets along with players(after ben that's a huge plus) i like how he handles egos and pt. i like how he convinced 4 bigs to all come in at 2017. but he's an average coach (like most) and has to rely on talent. to me, this year is totally lonzo's - like any transcendent talent he has made everyone around him rethink the game, so for steve this may be a serendipitous series of good fortunes,,,i don't know. if i had my druthers it's keep grace hire watson. watson totally understands ucla/los angeles/westwood. watson would stay there unless he fired - he wouldn't leave for something better(as steve might). watson feels ucla saved his life.

alford would probably clean up in indiana. he almost got blueitt. mj walker had us on his radar until fsu got hot. he's gone out of state successfully(looney, ali, bolden), and that's hard for ucla(a lot of it has to do with grace though). there's been no conversation about whether alford can "seal the deal" - it's too early i think, but you figure it takes a while to correct all the problems and howland left our recruiting in ruins, like bleak and miserable ruins.

 

[miltk]

The talent Crean recruited was generally pretty high in rankings, but the roster lacked balance. We've seen too many teams without a legitimate point guard - from what I've seen we've only had 2 in 9 years, Verdell Jones III and Yogi - and without that true point guard Crean's teams have suffered mightily for leadership. Plus Crean's rosters have been very heavy on wings who've been pressed into big or PG duty, or big AND PG duty in the cases of Troy and Morgan (with limited success at best). Consequently, the talent that is there, while pretty good to very good generally, hasn't been fully utilized . . . hence the perception of under-performance and Crean's involuntary departure.

interesting thing about balancing recruiting. we are heavy in bigs for 2017. IF alford stays he has to pick up guards because right now it's 6-8, 6-9, 6-9, 6-9, 6-6, 6-3 one legit guard who might be 1done. i don't like this. for a former guard-coach we're awfully shallow at guard recruiting

 

[hoosier_est_1984]

btw, as for the ball kids, that's a close knit family. they're staying

So glad to hear that.
And so sorry to hear that for you...
That family is a space case, I thought it was just their father,but the more time goes by. Their whole family is part of this new age millennial snowflake attitude. Gl on your next coach If Alford does leave. Some of us don't prefer Alford either.Myself included

 

[Sope Creek]

interesting thing about balancing recruiting. we are heavy in bigs for 2017. IF alford stays he has to pick up guards because right now it's 6-8, 6-9, 6-9, 6-9, 6-6, 6-3 one legit guard who might be 1done. i don't like this. for a former guard-coach we're awfully shallow at guard recruiting

You gotta look at it from Alford's perspective; he was a 6' 1" shooter who had, um, some challenges on the defensive end. In his shoes there's no such thing as too many big men . . . .

Crean has had teams that had only 1 guy over 6' 7" who played reasonably competitively . . . and on some teams that description's a stretch. Crean has had problems getting bigs to work well in his system.

 

[hoosier_est_1984]

Crean has had problems getting bigs to work well in his system.

The story of Crean's life

 

[T.M.P.]

He did an interview with Kravitz out today and he blamed not being able to recruit Indiana players better is the other schools cheated to get them.

(rolleyes)

Also, Peegs put out his new hot board today and Donovan dropped WAY down the list because all they are hearing is he is NOT interested.

Peegs and company don't know crap.

 

[JonesIndiana]

I can't speak for everybody else, but for me his inability to recruit the state well is a secondary issue. I am firmly of the belief that Tom Crean's philosophy of how the game should be played will not work with any consistency whatsoever regardless of talent level. It can look beautiful sporadically as long as the opposition is unable to impose their will on the game, but that is the limit of it's effectiveness. In other words, David Grace would be of little help to Tom Crean.

Also, Indiana's play is far from being in lock step with it's talent level this year, but that happens to everyone here and there. Bad basketball though, has kept IU from having those teams where the whole is greater than the sum of it's parts often enough... if ever.

IU was ranked 13th this year when OG got hurt. Injuries had a lot to do with how this year turned out. To pretend this didn't happen is amazing.

 

[miltk]

So glad to hear that.
And so sorry to hear that for you...
That family is a space case, I thought it was just their father,but the more time goes by. Their whole family is part of this new age millennial snowflake attitude. Gl on your next coach If Alford does leave. Some of us don't prefer Alford either.Myself included

contrary to what people are assuming, lavar has not been exerting muscle on the program. you hear from him now because it's all lonzo. as a matter of fact(and this is where alford's smarts comes into play) alford had a sit down with lavar around the time of our preseason australia trip to try to figure out the best way to maximize lonzo. that was a brilliant idea because it got lavar involved. "gelo" is not all that so we won't be hearing from lavar. now,,,STAN LOVE - that dude was a pain in ben's arse.

coaching at a blue blood school has it's own problems, so whenever i hear about a possible coach the first thing that comes to mind is, can he do here what he did there, and i don't mean X's and O's. you may all like the butler/dayton/xavier coaches, but you don't know how they will react at IU. if they're used to 4* players who stay 3 or 4 years and do what the coach says, can they handle 5* players with all their baggage. howland couldn't.

about howland. great guy, honorable guy. ucla was his absolute dream school - he grew up in santa barbara. he was so excited coaching at ucla he developed a hubris that a recruit should be honored that ucla even recruits him. so he alienated everyone. he was all excited about the possibility of coaching 5*s. LOL - he couldn't deal with them and everything slid downhill from there, like a slow moving train without brakes. the positive thing about alford is he's now been though all this. IU would KNOW he can handle big time recruits and big time problems.

 

[hoosier_est_1984]

contrary to what people are assuming, lavar has not been exerting muscle on the program. you hear from him now because it's all lonzo.

If you really believe any of that you may have the worst intuition ever. And I would furthermore suggest you stay in doors after the sun goes down.
You can clearly see what kind of a individual/personality Lamar has anytime you see him on camera. People NOT like him cant suddenly act like him...

 

[hoosier_est_1984]

coaching at a blue blood school has it's own problems, so whenever i hear about a possible coach the first thing that comes to mind is, can he do here what he did there, and i don't mean X's and O's. you may all like the butler/dayton/xavier coaches, but you don't know how they will react at IU. if they're used to 4* players who stay 3 or 4 years and do what the coach says, can they handle 5* players with all their baggage. howland couldn't.

 

[TheVegasHoosier]

IU was ranked 13th this year when OG got hurt. Injuries had a lot to do with how this year turned out. To pretend this didn't happen is amazing.

Xavier lost one of their best players yet made the Sweet 16.

Crean and his groupies ALWAYS have an excuse for his sucking.

 

[miltk]

I've seen some on the various boards disappointed about him leaving and blaming the fanbase. It seems that UCLA fans definitely think he's gone, but don't want to detract from the upcoming game.

Even though I'm a fan of Alford myself, I'm hoping that he stays at UCLA and wins the fans over out there. He's got a perfect set-up with the recruiting base and Grace. Do you think he's leaving no matter what, as was said back in the summer, or is he good as long as Indiana goes another direction?

If alford goes, grace won't but schilling will. i totally forgot about ed cuz i'm focused on west coast. but ed schilling is your guy. he's from lebanon, he recruited wilkes and bluiett(who we had then he decommitted),,,and he's the first guy steve goes to in time outs.