I'll admit, my opinion on this was shaped considerably by listening to Dakich and Seth Greenberg early this morning. Dakich is convinced it's happening and that it shows Indiana is finally willing to listen to its fans and boosters. They want a lot in their new coach but mostly they want an Indiana man back in town so they don't keep losing all their top recruits, Alford checks all the boxes for them.
They also mentioned it lets Alford get away from the father although I think that's a minor factor. The fact he felt he had to give away a year of his contract so they wouldn't fire him is supposedly an additional motivator for him to abandon UCLA.
I suspect, if he goes, it will also be to avoid paying the price of having committed to the little Balls just to lock up Lonzo.
Dakich and Alford are friends, Steve is on his show all the time so it doesn't surprise me Dan is hyping Steve for the job.
I don't think Lavar Ball is a huge issue, it comes up all the time on BRO for example, I can't think of a single person who doesn't think if it becomes an issue you simply tell Lavar take the other kids somewhere else then.
The year of the contract thing is misunderstood, UCLA gave him a choice, he could agree to make changes to his staff, or he could give back the extension, he chose to keep his staff intact and gave back the extension. UCLA just presented it as he chose to give it back to appease the fans. Tracy Pierson on BRO had reported the whole thing over a week before it happened, said there had been a meeting and that was discussed, either change the staff, or give back the extension. It wasn't to save HIS job, it was to save assistants. My guess is UCLA wanted Broussard out since he's basically an administrator, I think Schilling and Grace are generally accepted but nobody has any idea what Broussard even does. Most of us want Edney as that 3rd assistant.
I'm not a huge alford fan, i think he was done dirty the last year the banner stuff was ridiculous. I also think if Alford leaves on his own it's going to be very eye opening for those banner flying fans when the coaches they think will want the job aren't interested. If you go from flying banners to 29-4 and then the coach leaves on his own, it's hard to convince the guys you're targeting that they won't have similar issues with the fanbase. I get blasted on BRO regularly for that take but that is my opinion. I don't think UCLA fans are horrible, but I think they treated Alford horribly and are going to be surprised of the impact of their behavior if we have to replace him because he left on his own.
They're already talking about elite guys to replace Alford, some of them are realistic but the vast majority don't seem to believe at all that what they did last offseason will impact the coaching search this offseason if Alford leaves.
I actually hope I'm wrong because if I'm right we're getting someone like Earl Watson as the next coach.
