Steve Alford
Profile
Steve Alford was a former All-American player at Indiana University before heading to the NBA for 4 years. Steve played on the Men's Basketball team in the Olympics in 1984 winning the gold medal. After his playing was over, he became a coach for a number of basketball teams**, notable the Iowa Hawkeyes (why else are we here) and currently at Nevada.
* Jon Koncak (Cedar Rapids) was also on the team
** Missouri St, Iowa, New Mexico, UCLA and Nevada
Personal Notes
There are many "sport sins" that sports fans take judgement on. Here in Ohio, Jim Tressel had the sin of punting too much (minor) and John Cooper had the sin of not beating Michigan (major). You see it in Iowa as well, with ISU fans demanding only 1 win a year, against Iowa of course.
Steve Alford coached 8 seasons with the Iowa Hawkeyes, but no longer coaches them so he must have committed a sports sin as most coaches do. Most coaches fail some sort of expectation, whether it's the integrity of the program or performance of the team.
Steve committed a number of sports sins, but what's notable, and depressingly sad is the weight the program and its fans (yes, even Iowa fans can be wrong) placed on those. A simple Google search of Alford reveals the story of Pierre Pierce. Pierce was a promising player who was accused of sexual assault while on the team. Alford stood behind, and may have even pressed (indirectly) the victim to drop it. Alford brought him back and he had a great season, only to commit assault once more. (Convicted and sentenced) Pretty egregious act here. Yet..
If one had to be honest about why Alford was forced out, was it the Pierce sin, or the sin of one NCAA victory, no regular season titles, missing the NCAA tournament, losing as a 3 seed in the first round, or missing the NIT completely that sank his Iowa career?
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