Busting Brackets
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Mountain West Basketball: Top 10 head coaches of the century (2000-20)

By Joey Loose

SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 01: San Diego State Alumni Kawhi Leonard participates in his jersey retirement ceremony with former college coach Steve Fisher during half time of the game against the San Diego State Aztecs and the Utah State Aggies at Viejas Arena on February 01, 2020 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Kent Horner/Getty Images)
SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA - FEBRUARY 01: San Diego State Alumni Kawhi Leonard participates in his jersey retirement ceremony with former college coach Steve Fisher during half time of the game against the San Diego State Aztecs and the Utah State Aggies at Viejas Arena on February 01, 2020 in San Diego, California. (Photo by Kent Horner/Getty Images) /
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LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – FEBRUARY 12: Head coach Steve Alford of the Nevada Wolf Pack (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – FEBRUARY 12: Head coach Steve Alford of the Nevada Wolf Pack (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) /

4. Steve Alford – New Mexico (2007-2013), Nevada (2019-2020)

By the time he became a Mountain West head coach, Alford had already put together quite a background. He had won a national title playing at Indiana before a brief NBA career. As a coach, he was successful at Missouri State before fizzling out and being fired from Iowa in 2007. He immediately bounced back, taking over the Lobos a few weeks later.

New Mexico was mediocre before Alford’s arrival, but the program really stepped up under his watch. The Lobos won four Mountain West regular-season titles and made three NCAA Tournaments. The Lobos won a pair of Tournament games and won 155 total in his six seasons. When you consider how the program struggled after Alford’s departure in 2013, it makes his success look even better.

That departure took Alford to UCLA, though he returned to the Mountain West with Nevada in 2019. He’s just one year into his tenure with the Wolf Pack, but winning 19 games with that team seems to be a sign of things to come. His success in the Mountain West set him up for the UCLA job and clearly, the New Mexico program hasn’t been the same since his departure. It wouldn’t be a surprise to see similar success with Nevada in the coming years, though of course nothing is guaranteed.