‘That’s Mr. Indiana’: Steve Alford back in Indy for Final Four. His luster hasn’t worn off

INDIANAPOLIS — As Steve Alford walked among the masses in the state where he used to walk on water, the people came to walk along beside him. His Indiana luster, after all these years, still hasn’t worn off.

Some stopped and stood from afar, gathering their courage, before asking Alford for an autograph or a selfie. Every one of them had a story to tell about the time they saw him play, as if Alford wouldn’t remember what he did in that game.

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Alford nods, and he smiles as if it’s the first time he’s ever heard someone talk about that game quite that way. He’s done this so many times.

Back in Indy for the Final Four this weekend, not as coach of his Nevada team, which lost in the quarterfinals of the NIT, Alford was here for other reasons. Reasons which, in his estimation, in the entire scheme of life, were a whole lot more important than playing basketball.

He put them in this order: Faith. Family. Coaching. And, though he doesn’t mention it, a prestigious John Wooden award.

Alford has been a bit nervous about that last one, says his wife Tanya, who met her husband pre-basketball star in the fifth grade in New Castle, Ind., became his high school sweetheart and built a marriage that’s lasted 38 years and has given them two sons, a daughter and three grandsons, with a granddaughter on the way.

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He gets emotional at stuff like that. The Coach Wooden “Keys to Life” award is presented each year at the Final Four to a “player or coach who best exemplifies character, leadership and integrity in the home, on the court and throughout the community,” says Athletes in Action, which gives the award.

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Steve Alford back in Indiana again

Steve Alford talks with coaches and others after leading a clinic put on by the National Association of Basketball Coaches, Friday, April 3, 2026 at the Indiana Convention Center.

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Steve Alford back in Indiana again

Steve Alford talks with coaches and others after leading a clinic put on by the National Association of…

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Publish date : 2026-04-06 08:50:00

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