LAS VEGAS — New Mexico assistant coach Wyking Jones has a good laugh when asked whether his boss, head coach Steve Alford, spends staff meetings and practices quoting the gospel according to the legendary Bob Knight.
While Alford’s playing career and the 1987 national championship at Indiana will always intertwine with Knight, he is his own man after three seasons in Albuquerque. The Lobos (29-4) go into the NCAA Tournament as a No. 3 seed.
“He has his own style after 20 years (away from Knight),” Jones said last week during the Mountain West Conference Tournament. “He respects Coach Knight, but Steve has his own style. The team is a lot like the staff. We have a good time, but it gets serious when it’s time to take care of business.”
Ask Lobos senior forward Roman Martinez, who is described as the heart and soul of the team, about Alford’s background and he has heard it all: “Oh, he talks about (Knight) all the time, about how we have it so much easier (in) practice than he did (under Knight).”
Sometimes, Martinez said, Alford will talk about Indiana being forced to practice at midnight. He was a four-year starter for the Hoosiers.
Despite the occasional run-in with an opposing player, Alford is college basketball’s anti-Knight. Unlike “The Big Sweater” worn by Knight, Alford looks like he stepped off a GQ magazine cover. He has deflected all questions about his Indiana playing days or eight-year Iowa coaching career to the Lobos’ success.
Like San Diego State’s Steve Fisher, who coached Michigan to the 1989 NCAA title, Alford doesn’t walk around waving a Big Ten banner.
A win Thursday against 14th-seeded Montana (22-9) would be the Lobos’ 30th this season. They were picked to finish fifth in the MWC.
“To play 33 games and win 29 with nobody over 6-8 is amazing,” Alford said last week.
His many predecessors have taken New Mexico to the NCAA Tournament and more often to the NIT. There have been first-round draft picks. But for demanding New Mexico fans, it’s always: “What have you done for us lately?”
Even when New Mexico teams dominated the MWC or the Western Athletic Conference, fans expressed contempt for the nonleague schedules. Alford solved that issue and in turn boosted the Lobos’ RPI with wins over California, Texas A&M and New Mexico State.
Alford has carried high expectations since he was Mr. Indiana basketball in 1983 playing for his father, a legendary Indiana high school coach. Alford averaged 37.7 points in high school but has preached distributing the ball since then.
What has separated Alford from his New Mexico predecessors was getting the most from the sometimes troubled stars.
Former Lobos coach Ritchie McKay used to say J.R. Giddens, a transfer from Kansas, would be an NBA lottery pick after a year. Instead he had numerous issues on and off the court and nearly was tossed off the team when Alford arrived.
Giddens stayed until his senior season and became an MWC co-player of the year and first-round draft pick. The Lobos’ current MWC player of the year, 6-foot-7 swingman Darington Hobson, developed a reputation in junior college as undisciplined. Alford mentioned Giddens in relation to Hobson’s development.
“It’s a maturity level, those type of things,” Alford said after the Lobos’ MWC Tournament semifinal loss to San Diego State. “J.R. Giddens was a little bit like that. When we arrived three years ago, he was a pretty immature kid. He grew up a lot in one year.”
Natalie Meisler can be reached at 303-954-1295 or nmeisler@denverpost.com
