Steve Alford just made DI basketball coaching history with record-shattering feat

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It’s 8:30 a.m. Wednesday and Steve Alford has woken up as a 60-year-old man for the 11th straight day. He’s in his office at the University of Nevada joking that the monumental coaching record he recently set “just means I’m getting old.”

But there have been plenty of 60-year-old coaches before him in Division I basketball, hundreds before him, yet Alford is only the second in the history of DI college hoops to accomplish this feat: Winning at least 100 games at four different schools.

156 at Iowa. 155 at New Mexico. 124 at UCLA. And now 102 at Nevada.

That puts Alford alongside the late legendary Lefty Driesell, the coach known for starting Midnight Madness, but also the first coach in history to win his 100th game at his fourth school in 2002 with Georgia State. Driesell also accumulated at least 100 wins at Davidson (176), Maryland (348) and James Madison (159). He retired in January 2003, in the middle of his 41st season, with a career record of 786-394, which at the time made him the fourth winningest DI men’s basketball coach behind only Dean Smith, Adolph Rupp and Bob Knight.

Being talked about in the same breath as Driesell is an honor, Alford says, a coach he never played against but one he had followed through his career.

The Steve Alford story, Part 1: ‘Everything coach Knight promised me, it all came true’

Alford’s 100th win at Nevada came Nov. 16 at home with an 85-59 victory over Santa Clara. Since that game, the team has won two more, putting Alford at 102 wins with Nevada and a 6-2 record for the season.

With a 687-357 overall record, Alford is the 11th winningest active DI coach. Still, as he talked about his 100-wins feat to IndyStar on Wednesday, Alford gave much of the credit to his fellow coaches and players throughout his 34-year career.

“I’ve been with incredible staffs at all the stops and win, lose, or draw, those were the people I wanted to go through that, those challenges with, the celebrations with,” he said. “And then, obviously, the players that…

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/steve-alford-just-made-di-093203594.html

Author : Indianapolis Star

Publish date : 2024-12-05 09:32:00

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