NCAA Basketball: Alford Tabbed as New Head Men's Basketball Coach at New Mexico

Alford, 42, has a 308-183 (63%) career record in 16 seasons as a collegiate head coach.

Steve Alford was named Head Men's Basketball Coach at New Mexico on Friday. Photo courtesy: Univeristy of New Mexico Athletics

ALBUQUERQUE, NM - University of New Mexico Athletics Director Paul Krebs announced Friday that Steve Alford has been named the school’s 19th head men’s basketball coach.

Alford spent the past eight seasons as the head coach at the University of Iowa.

UNM and Alford have agreed on a six-year contract with total annual compensation of $975,000.

Complete details of the contract will be available at a later date.

Alford, 42, has a 308-183 (63%) career record in 16 seasons as a collegiate head coach.

His teams qualified for postseason play 11 times, produced 13 winning seasons and reached 20 wins on eight occasions.

“We are thrilled to have Steve and his family join our Lobo family,” said Krebs. “He is an outstanding coach and he possesses a proven track record in arguably the toughest men’s basketball conference in the country. In addition to his great basketball pedigree and national name, Steve is an outstanding teacher and recruiter who cares deeply about the student-athlete. Steve’s arrival at the University of New Mexico signals a commitment to re-establishing UNM as a national player in men’s basketball.”

The University of New Mexico finished the 2006-07 season with a 15-17 mark, only the Lobos’ second losing record in the past 24 years, since 1984.

“This is a tremendous opportunity,” said Alford. “I appreciate the opportunity that the University of New Mexico has given to me. We’re looking forward to getting started and excited to meet the team and building the program.

The Pit and Lobo basketball has a great tradition with NCAA Tournaments.

We want the home court advantage to be even better. The fans will have a big part in making that possible.”

In eight seasons at Iowa, Alford compiled a 152-106 record with a school-record seven consecutive winning seasons, and six postseason appearances.

The Hawkeyes won two Big Ten Conference tournament titles (2001 and ‘06).

Iowa was 17-14 in 2006-07. It was 9-7 in the Big Ten, tied with NCAA teams Illinois and Purdue for fourth place.

Alford led Iowa to a 25-9 record in 2005-06, winning the Big Ten Conference tournament for the second time.

The 25 wins ranks as the second highest victory total ever at Iowa.

The NCAA Tournament bid was Iowa’s third under Alford. The Hawkeyes also competed in the NCAA Tournament in 2001 and 2005.

Iowa went 17-0 at home in 2006, setting a school record, while posting the first undefeated home season in Carver-Hawkeye Arena, which opened in 1983.

Iowa’s 18-game home win streak, dating back to the final home game of the 2005 season, is also an arena record.

The Hawkeyes established another first in Iowa basketball in 2006 with 10 wins over top 25 opponents. Iowa was 10-4 against top 25 teams, with seven of those wins coming at home.

In 2004-05, the Hawkeyes spent nine consecutive weeks in the national rankings, moving as high as No. 14 in January.

Iowa was the only team in the nation to face all four participants in that year’s Final Four.

The Hawkeyes defeated Louisville, split two games with Michigan State, lost once to North Carolina and lost twice to Illinois, including an overtime loss in Champaign.

Wins over Louisville, Texas Tech and Michigan State gave the Hawkeyes three wins over Sweet 16 teams for the first time since 1991.

Alford led his 2001-02 Iowa squad to 19 wins and a top-10 national ranking through the first half of the season.

The Hawkeyes made a second straight run through the Big Ten Tournament.

Ninth-seeded Iowa opened the tourney with an 87-72 win over Purdue before defeating Wisconsin 58-56 in the quarterfinals and Indiana 62-60 in the semifinals, defeating two of the co-Big Ten champions on back-to-back days.

Ohio State took control over the final 10 minutes of the championship game to keep Iowa from winning its second straight tournament title.

With a young and inexperienced team that was forced to adjust to the loss of two key players, Alford guided his 2000-01 Iowa team to the Big Ten Tournament title.

Playing as a six seed, Iowa won four games in four days to earn the conference’s automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament.

Once in the tournament, the Hawkeyes advanced to the second round before falling to second-seeded Kentucky.

Iowa concluded the 2001 season with a 23-12 overall record.

The Hawkeyes played well with a team that included nine new players, including six freshmen.

In winning 23 games Iowa was ranked as high as 14th during the regular season while appearing in the top-25 rankings for 10 consecutive weeks.

Iowa was 17-4 after 21 games and in first place in the Big Ten (6-2) at the midway point in the conference season before guards Luke Recker and Ryan Hogan were lost for the season to injuries.

The Alford era at the University of Iowa began in impressive fashion in 1999-2000, as the Hawkeyes scored a 70-68 win over Connecticut in the season opener.

The win over the top-ranked Huskies, the defending NCAA champion, came in New York City’s Madison Square Garden.

Alford was named men’s basketball coach at the University of Iowa on March 22, 1999, and he immediately made a solid impact on the program.

Every home game was sold out in 2000-01 and 2001-02, marking just the fourth and fifth seasons since Carver-Hawkeye Arena opened in 1983 that all tickets were sold for all games.

Prior to Iowa, Alford posted a 78-29 record in four seasons (1992-95) at NCAA Division III Manchester (Ind.) College and a four-year (1996-99) record of 78-48 at Southwest Missouri State (now Missouri State).

The Bears defeated Wisconsin and Tennessee to advance to the Sweet 16 of the 1999 NCAA Tournament before losing to top-ranked Duke in the regional semifinals.

In 1997 Alford led the Bears to a 24-9 record (second in the Missouri Valley Conference) and a trip to the National Invitation Tournament.

Adding comments to these stories has been disabled. View the current sports stories Salem-News Sports