Steve Alford Takes a Swipe at the Valley

[tornado]

There...I didn't call him a crybaby in the headline, but that's what it looks like to me, complaining about not getting the respect he thinks he deserves...
of course that's what I love about America, he has a right to his opinion...
But since Alford specifically takes aim at the Valley and of all times he picks the Valley when we got ONLY ONE NCAA BID this year!!
Soooo.....I think his comments are also fair game for us to discuss.

" I look at it as we had two teams from our league make the NIT that had 20-plus wins. One has to travel cross country to play as a seventh seed (San Diego State at Florida) an the other one has to go to a team that was one game above .500 and finished ninth in their league (UNM at Cal). That's a concern to where you look at a league like the Missouri Valley. The Missouri Valley had three teams make the NIT (Southern Illinois, Illinois State and Creighton), and all three got to play a home game. None of the three, if you really look at their resume, were as good as our resume. So those are concerns... it's not fair to the student-athletes....it becomes very hard from a coaching standpoint."

http://www.abqjournal.com/sports/03183133alford04-04-08.htm

Also, note his response a bit lower to the question about Indiana and AD Rick Greenspan...
"Question: There are all kind of stories floating around ...
Alford: Stories about?
Question: That you and Greenspan don't get along too well.
Alford: I've never worked for him. So I wouldn't know anything about working for him. So I don't have any comment in regards to Rick, or how he runs a program or what he does. I just know of who I work for now."


Here for comparison are the respective "resumes" that Alford is whining about.
You decide if his resume is really any better than the three teams he cites.
New Mexico...24-8, 3rd place in #9 conference, RPI 59, SOS 155, non-con SOS 269
ISU..............23-9, 2nd place in #8 conference, RPI 33, SOS 71, non-con SOS 117
SIU..............17-14, 3rd place in #8 conference, RPI 62, SOS 16, non-con SOS 6
Creighton......20-10, 4th place in #8 conference, RPI 46, SOS 166, non-con SOS 93

Oh, and by the way..Creighton's home attendance was 1000 MORE per game than New Mexico's...

[Braves4Life]

Good numbers for comparison at the bottom T. It appears that the person Alford should place blame with is the NM Athletic Director that put together their complete joke of a non-con schedule. Had they chosen to play real teams instead of cream-puffs (and won) they may have even had a chance for the NCAAT.

[Chico]

Tornado, I understand your shot at me, but in this case you are just responding to his comments, not initiating it.

[Scouter]

Tornado, I understand your shot at me, but in this case you are just responding to his comments, not initiating it.

Don't take the blame, Chico. It was directed at me.

[Bravesfan]

I don't think Alford has too much room to complain. Two of the three Valley teams had much better RPI's while the other team whose RPI was worse still blew UNM out of the sky with their number 6 SOS. I think the NIT committee did a fairly decent job of seeding, though you could make a case of a bit higher seeding for the Valley teams if anything else.

[tornado]

don't be so darned defensive guys, this is a shot only at Steve Alford, but he initiated it by identifying the MVC as getting supposedly lousier teams in the tourney and still getting home games.
He's doing what a lot of coaches do, he's going "to bat" for his team, but I think it is a little bit of being a crybaby.
I am not saying he shouldn't do it, but I am thus defending the Valley.

[Chico]

That's my point Tornado. You are responding to his comments and this time I agree, as I do most of the time.

[MacabreMob]

I think we all need a group hug.

LOL!

[JesseTU]

For what it's worth, a high school classmate of mine manages/used to manage Carver Hawkeye and says Alford is a real jerk. A little too much Bobby Knight with a little too little winning. Iowa athletics are a strange deal, they always think they are really good and always act like they are... but rarely ever actually are.

And that's coming from someone who is a quasi Iowa fan by birth.

[tornado]

I like Alford, and I am willing to cut him a little slack on his comments, even though it looks like he is dissing a bit on the Valley and questioning their credentials in comparison to his own.
I can see he is only going to bat for his team, and is trying to boost their accomplishments. As someone else said, he needs to seriously upgrade their non-conference schedule if he wants to be taken more seriously. (stop bringing in RPI busters like Presbyterian, Marymount, Sacramento State, Abilene Christian, Longwood, Charleston Southern...etc.)
Steve was good for the valley and has been a pretty good coach and a clean guy, regardless of whether someone thought he was a jerk.
Most college coaches have their moments and can be viewed as jerks, but I think Alford should do OK in New Mexico.
His only problem will be getting the best talent to consider living in the middle of a desert!

[Murph]

Nobody ever said Alford was the sharpest marble in the bag.

[tornado]

but who would ever want a sharp marble?

[tornado]

One final thought on New Mexico....
we've talked a lot about New Mexico ever since they tampered with and lured Danny Granger, and you can call it what you want.......
karma, or the "chickens have come home to roost"...but two of their long held practices at New Mexico have been their downfall......

--even since before Ritchie Mckay, they established a habit of going after top players on other schools' rosters.
McKay's predecessor (Fran Fraschilla) tried to build his team with disgruntled transfers. His best player, Ruben Douglas was lured from Arizona, but several other players turned out to be thugs, got Franschilla repeatedly in trouble and he got fired.
But Ritchie McKay continued the trend, DeVries, Granger, Big Ten transfer Aaron Johnson, JR Giddens, Holt, Jenkins... none brought lasting improvement to the Lobos, and most were either flops or troublemakers.
Hopefully Alford can change the trend, although much of Alford's initial succes this past year was because Giddens finally matured into a fairly decent player and stayed out of trouble.

--New Mexico has always lived by the philosophy that any win is a good win, so they have lured into their arena the biggest batch of no-name schools, year in and year out, terrible non-conference opponents, and horribly weak non-con RPI just to rack up as many wins as possible. Their non-conference RPI the last five years (269, 221, 184, 313, 262) is atrocious for a program trying to claim to be a Major and expecting postseason consideration.
In one season that helped lead to Ritchie McKay's demise, they had the following home opponents all in the same season:
NC A&T, Santa Clara, Duquesne, Western New Mexico, Northern Arizona, Northern Colorado, Arkansas, Mississippi Valley State, Troy, Texas Arlington, and NMSU when their RPI was 300! That constituted 10 home opponents with RPI's at or near 300!! All the while their attendances, once in the 16,000 to 17,000 range dwindled to less than half that at some recent home games.
The fans gave up season tickets and nobody cared how much New Mexico was going to beat Longwood by!
Let's see if Alford actually changes this and brings in some decent opponents.