Basketball as Life
Think for a moment about something that you excel at. Something that you might have spent the last 26 years of your life involved in. Think about that one thing defining so much who you are that without it, no one would know you. Now think about Steve Alford.
Alford turned 40 years old on Tuesday night, the night that his Iowa Hawkeyes were set to play Texas in the semi-finals of the Maui Invitational. For the past 26 years, and most likely longer, basketball has defined Steve Alford's life. As a high school student, he played on a team coached by his father Sam. He was named Mr. Basketball in the state of Indiana his senior season and recognized by two publications as the top prep player in America. At college at Indiana, Alford started for Bobby Knight all four years. He played on the 1984 Olympic team with Michael Jordan and Patrick Ewing, capturing the Gold Medal. In 1987, as captain of the Hoosiers, he led the team to a National Title. Alford was MVP of the team all four years and left as the all time leading scorer for Indiana.
After 4 years in the NBA, Alford went on to a coaching career, beginning in Division III and working that into a spot at Southwest Missouri State. Along with his father, who coached alongside him, Alford impressed at SMS and was given the job at Iowa. Entering his sixth season as coach, Alford has had basketball at the center of his life. This season, it may be in jeopardy of being taken away from him if his team doesn't produce something it has only done once under him. Iowa hasn't been to the NCAA tournament since an amazing run in the 2001 Big Ten tournament winning 4 games in 4 days gave Iowa the automatic bid. NIT appearances aren't enough to satisfy the Hawkeye fans who were promised big things when Alford took over as head coach. Suddenly, a team picked 5th or 6th in the Big Ten is being asked to produce miracles.
Hopefully for Alford, those miracles began to happen the last three days in Maui. Hawaii is a mystical place, home to islands shrouded in myth and mystery. It has also been home to some of the more miraculous basketball games in history. A #1 Virginia team led by Ralph Sampson walked into a tiny gym in 1982 and was beaten by host school Chaminade in what has been called the Greatest Upset in History. More recently, Ball State made an amazing run in 2001, beating #4 Kansas and #3 UCLA before losing to #1 Duke in the finals of the tournament. Ball State was able to translate that run into a 19-11 regular season and a place in the NIT. They managed to make it to the final 8 teams in that tournament, one win away from a trip to Madison Square Garden.
Iowa isn't Ball State. They play in the Big Ten and attract a talent level above anything that Ball State could hope. Yet, Iowa does have one thing in common with Ball State. They weren't expected to make a run to the finals of the Maui Invitational. Going into Wednesday night, they had done just that.
Iowa began their run with a back and forth game against Louisville. Louisville coach Rick Pitino had tried everything to give his team the edge. He flew out to the islands early and let his team warm up against BYU-Hawaii. He restricted taping of the game, one that his team ended up winning after a late scare, so that Iowa couldn't scout his team. It didn't make much difference. Before the game, Pitino commented that he felt that Iowa may be better than his team at this point in the season. This is Louisville, a team picked to finish in the top 4 by many publications and even to win it all in some. Yet, Monday night, Pitino was right and his Cardinals were taken down by the Hawkeyes.
The win placed Iowa into a game against Texas, another team ranked in the top 15. Texas defeated Chaminade in the opener, in a game where they easily cruised to victory. Their game against Iowa proved to be anything but easy. The game was close throughout. Up by nine midway through the second half, Texas just wasn't able to put it away. Iowa fought back from that deficit and then overcame a five point lead with only a minute left to play. When the buzzer sounded, Iowa had given their coach his 40th birthday present, a win.
Iowa won the Maui Invitational in 1987 and standing in their way of repeating that feat was North Carolina. Going into tonight's game, much had been made of UNC's season opening loss to Santa Clara. Whatever the Broncos did to North Carolina in that game, it inspired the Tar Heels to play like the Top 5 team they are predicted to be. Raymond Felton and Rashad McCants led their team in a game where the opponent looked more like Santa Clara than Iowa. Iowa never led and after being behind by 1 four minutes into the game, they were systematically put away by the strength of North Carolina. Pierre Pierce, who had carried his team to victories in the first two games, was again impressive but played the entire night in the shadow of what Felton was able to do. Playing with a sore wrist, Felton scored 13 points almost effortlessly. He added 9 assists and his tiring defense generated 4 steals. He cut through Iowa's defense again and again, in leading his team to the 14 point victory and a tournament MVP title for his shelf. The result left Iowa looking much like Ball State did at the conclusion of the tournament in 2001, on the short end of a win by a much better opponent.
However, for Iowa, an NIT appearance like Ball State's is not going to be enough. The play of his team in the three games of the tournament should give Steve Alford some hope though for the rest of his season. Despite the loss on Wednesday, his team still scored 92 points and shot over 52% from the field. They will have to improve on their defense, especially when they get to the hard nosed Big Ten season, but all signs point toward an improvement over last year's 16-13 record.
If Alford hopes to keep basketball at the center of his life, those signs had best be correct.
