Pac-12 Basketball: Top 10 head coaches of the century (2000-20)

By Joey Loose | Jun 24, 2020

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - MARCH 16: Pac-12 Commissioner Larry Scott presents Payton Pritchard #3 of the Oregon Ducks with the Most Outstanding Player award after the Ducks' 68-48 victory over the Washington Huskies to win the championship game of the Pac-12 basketball tournament at T-Mobile Arena on March 16, 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) /

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CHICAGO, ILLINOIS – DECEMBER 22: Head coach Steve Alford of the UCLA Bruins (Photo by Dylan Buell/Getty Images) /

6. Steve Alford – UCLA (2013-2018)

After winning a national championship playing with Indiana and embarking on a brief NBA career, Alford has spent nearly the last three decades as a college head coach. We really got things started in leading Missouri State to the Sweet Sixteen in 1999 before spending time at Iowa and New Mexico. UCLA hired him in 2013 with high expectations after his immense success with the Lobos, but perhaps expectations were too high.

Alford spent five and a half seasons with the Bruins and actually fared pretty well all things considered. There was one really bad season, but he led UCLA to three Sweet Sixteens. He won nearly a third of his games and had UCLA competing near the top of the Pac-12, though he perhaps underperformed with the talent on some of these rosters.

Alford was fired after a 7-6 start in 2018 and has since bounced back by taking over at Nevada. While he didn’t exactly lead UCLA back to national prominence, most of the coaches in this conference would be more than satisfied by making three Sweet Sixteens in succession. While it wasn’t enough to keep his job, Alford still showed he’s a solid head coach; he just wasn’t the right man for UCLA at that time, regardless of the postseason runs.

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