Friday, February 17, 2006
Is Alford in play?
Alford, of course, was an Indiana high school legend, who went on to lead IU to the 1987 National Championship (and was a freshman on the team that knocked Michael Jordan's last North Carolina team out of the 1984 tournament in a huge upset).
A similar frenzy occured back in 2001 when Knight left Indiana, and Alford was in his second season as coach of the Hawkeyes. At that particular moment, Alford was engineering an unlikely sweep of the Big Ten Tournement, and no one wanted him to leave. Several mediocre season later, however, the Hawkeye base is more ambivilent about whether Steve stays or goes. Of course he currently has the Hawkeyes in position to win their first Big Ten title since Lute Olsen did it in 1979 with Ronnie Lester playing pg for the Hawks, and Alford is winning back fans, so its a bit more complicated than it might otherwise be. If Davis had resigned last year, chances are there wouldn't have been be a lot of Alford speculation.
For more, check out Big Ten Wonk here and scroll down. All the important commentary and links on the Indiana-Alford story have been carefully compiled.
3 Comments:
By 
SportsProf, at
Fri Feb 17, 03:57:00 PM:
And don't forget Bob Hansen, Steve Krafcisin (a Carolina xfer), Kevin Boyle (a frosh from Chicago) and Steve Waite from that Final Four team, either.
Alford probably won't be the right choice. He hasn't torn it up at Indiana, and since Hoosier fans are starving for a "huge" name that will put them on the map instantly (think Thad Matta, who has done wonders at Ohio State), I somehow think that Alford won't be tapped.
I honestly have no clue, though, who will be tapped. There are some good coaches out there, including GW's Karl Hobbes (sp?).
Cincinnati, Indiana, Missouri. . . there will be others. It should be interesting to watch.
By Charlottesvillain, at
Fri Feb 17, 04:00:00 PM:
Forget? Moi? Right back at you SP, with Vince Brookins, Kenny Arnold, Mark Gannon. I'll even throw in Greg Boyle and Mike Heller, just to show off.
No, I don't forget much about the Hawkeyes, no sir.
By Charlottesvillain, at
Fri Feb 17, 04:23:00 PM:
Whoops! Actually, all the aforementioned players were on the Hawkeyes 1980 Final Four team. Gannon and Hansen were not on the 1979 Big Ten Championship team.
