As one of many legends of faculty basketball within the Eighties, Steve Alford nonetheless holds nostalgia for the best way the game was.
And whereas he is adjusted as the sport has advanced within the 4 many years since then to win greater than 700 contests since changing into a school head coach in 1991, he is afraid of the place the sport he loves is headed.
One of his greatest issues is the unending participant motion that was as soon as unlawful however now commonplace with limitless transfers through the portal. After Nevada’s NIT quarterfinal loss at Auburn on Wednesday, Alford mentioned the game is on a “slippery slope” unless the transfer portal is extra closely regulated.
“I’m old school,” mentioned Alford, who simply wrapped up his seventh season at Nevada. “I’ve been doing this 35 years, and it’s changed. Five years ago, you wanted to put your name in the draft. Most of them put their name and came back. But they put their name in because it was cool. Now it’s the portal. So, everybody thinks that’s cool. The difference is when you put your name in a portal, it’s not always a guarantee you’re coming back. So, it’s a catch-22 with all that kind of stuff. I do hope the transfer portal gets under control because it’s not good for our game. The current transfer portal, especially the transfer piece, has got to be fixed. Our game’s going down, in my opinion, a very slippery slope. Hopefully, that can get fixed.”
Around this time final season, Alford offered viral comments on NIL, saying the present pay-for-play state of affairs is “utterly ridiculous.” Those NIL funds tied with limitless transfers have led to mass exoduses throughout the nation each offseason. Nevada skilled that this season, returning zero starters whereas including six transfers, three true freshmen and a walk-on earlier than successful 24 video games.
“We had 10 new guys,” Alford mentioned. “So, to put 10 new players together in the summer, I credit my staff. They did a phenomenal job all summer, spending a lot of time with them. And then I give a lot credit to the players because they loved on each other, they cared for each other and you saw that as the year just continued to unfold. That’s why I’m super proud of them because it’s not an era that’s easy to do that when 10, 15 years ago, you’re replacing three guys. Now you’re seeing a lot of teams replacing nine to 12 guys, so that a lot different.”
While there’s been congressional dialogue on limiting participant motion, nothing has handed so far whereas there’s been no dialogue on teaching motion, which additionally has drawn criticism lately.
Nevada will lose 5 seniors this offseason, together with three starters. The Wolf Pack might return starters Elijah Price, a second-team All-Mountain West honoree, and Vaughn Weems. But each might pursue different alternatives and doubtlessly extra profitable NIL offers in the event that they enter the portal. Price averaged 12.8 factors and eight.5 rebounds this season, with a powerful effort at Auburn the place he tallied 22 factors, 11 rebounds and 4 blocks whereas making 6-of-7 pictures.
Nevada was Price’s third faculty in three seasons after stops at Drake and Fresno State. Retaining him can be one among Nevada’s high offseason targets.
“He started his career as a walk-on at Drake and then got in our league at Fresno,” Alford mentioned. “We had to play him three times last year, so we got a good look at him. When he went in the portal last year, he was a main target for us. He’s somebody who can play the four and the five. You can see his quickness. His offense is coming. That’s only going to get better. He gets to the line a lot. He’s hard to guard. The thing I’ve been impressed with by Elijah is his motor. His motor’s getting better.
“As I advised him early on, he type of had a spurty motor. And to play at this stage and past, you gotta have a motor for the entire time. Early on, he was getting 25 minutes. If you have a look at non-conference, he most likely performed 25 minutes and now late within the season he is taking part in 35. That’s not due to his manufacturing as a lot because it is his motor. It simply received higher. And when your motor will get higher, it is exhausting for coaches to take you out. I’ve been very impressed with how his motor improved over the yr.”
Given the nature of college basketball, Alford knows he’ll have a lot of new faces next season. The Wolf Pack has at least seven scholarship spots available, and that’s before the inevitable transfer-portal losses. Nevada’s 2025-26 roster was quickly thrown together, but Alford oftentimes spoke this season about how much he enjoyed coaching this group, which bonded a tight brotherhood during their nine months together.
“Even greater than the wins and losses, we discuss concerning the journey, and I’m simply very pleased with our guys,” Alford said. “High-character guys. They play it the appropriate means, they compete. You do not hear something out of them. You do not hear something out the employees. I’ve received an important employees, and it is simply been a whole pleasure these final six months and actually longer now since we received them in June and had our overseas journey. I can not thank the staff sufficient. I can not thank my employees sufficient.
“As I told them in the locker room, there are only going to be two happy teams when this thing’s all over with. The winner of the NIT and the winner of NCAA Tournament. Everybody else is going to fall a little short. If I’m gonna fall short, I love falling short with the men in my locker room. They were first class from start to finish of the season.”