A Sheep in Wolf's Clothing

I chronicled the misfortunes of the New Mexico Lobos in my previous post here on IN PLAY LOSE, and today the Good Guys from Albuquerque have a new problem on their hands: namely, replacing coach Steve Alford, who signed a new 10-year contract a matter of weeks ago and then promptly bolted to UCLA.

Such is the nature of the Cult of the College Basketball Coach, which is one of the most toxic, noxious curiosities in American sports.

Alford said that he was extremely happy in Albuquerque, of course, but that this opportunity fell in his lap and was just too good to pass up. Which is rubbish, of course, because it was common knowledge that now ex-UCLA coach Ben Howland was in trouble this season, and it was going to take some real positive NCAA results to salvage his job (and 20-pt. losses in the first round to Minnesota do not count as "positive results" in Westwood). If you think someone who has a job you want is gonna get fired, you definitely keep your eye on that job. When you sign a new deal like that and then bolt immediately for 'greener' pastures, you just look like the selfish, self-absorbed fraud that you really are.

But this is pretty common, unfortunately, in a strange sport which makes no sense – a sport where players make nothing and turn over every few years while the small men with Napoleonic complexes and control issues become icons, become larger than life and larger than the institutes of higher learning whose principles they supposedly are there to uphold. Don't demand loyalty and commitment from players and A.D.'s and then flaunt the fact that the rules don't seem to apply to you. That's just lame and disingenuous.

I'm skeptical of this whole series of moves, as I believe that hiring a coach interested in themselves more than anything else leads to generally negative results. For all of his good work in the 505, Alford has shown himself to be an opportunist just like seemingly everyone else in his chosen field. Sure, it's a business, but don't pretend you're something that you're not. Being treated like a rock star ultimately means not needing to be accountable for your actions a whole lot of the time ... unless you start losing, of course, and UCLA's definition of 'losing' is a lot different than at most other places.

Where it goes from there is anyone's guess, of course – it all comes down to recruiting and procuring talent, of which there is an abundance in Southern California. UCLA has been rife with turnover and incohesion of late – several guys who Howland ran out of Westwood ended up at New Mexico, interestingly enough, and there is hope Alford can keep those kids home.

And I should point out that I'm not about to go "boohoo, poor New Mexico" here, since they should've known what they were getting into when they hired Alford in the first place – he had a sub-stellar run at Iowa (another school with notoriously unrealistic expectations) and then went about slipping out of Iowa City about the time the natives started getting restless. This is how this game is played. You poach someone from another school and then try to figure out some way to keep them if they're any good. Loyalty is a no-way street. If you hire an opportunist who looks out for #1, you shouldn't be surprised when they look out for #1 at your expense.

And I put the word 'greener' in quotes before because it's debatable whether or not UCLA, at the moment, is really a better job than New Mexico. The Bruins just fired a coach who went to the Final Four three straight years. With 11 national championships comes unrealistic expectations – particularly at a school notorious for being stingy with the purse strings when it comes to the athletic budget. For all the history of the place, Pauley Pavilion is a pretty average facility, and for all the success over the years, the L.A. populace views UCLA hoops with a surprising amount of indifference. (I'd rather have 18,000 hoops junkies piled high in The Pit any day.) New Mexico may have bombed out in the NCAAs but they essentially have their entire roster back next year, so a new coach will have the opportunities to win in a hurry. I'll be curious to see who they hire.