Steve Alford takes blame for poor 2021-22 season, addresses what fixes are in motion

[ad_1]

Nevada head coach Steve Alford was not proud of his team’s 2021-22 season. He’s gone to work this offseason trying to fix the issues that plagued the Pack. On Thursday, Alford had his first media availability since the end of last season, a rare losing campaign for Alford (just his third in 27 years as a Division I head coach). Nevada went 13-18 overall, a career-worst 41.9 percent winning mark for Alford. Picked to finish third in the Mountain West preseason poll, the Wolf Pack placed eighth at 6-12 in league play. Alford joined NSN Daily on Thursday to discuss last season’s issues and this year’s aimed improvements, which include the additions of transfers Hunter McIntosh (Elon), Jared Lucas (Oregon State) and Tyler Powell (Seton Hall) as well as prep signees Darrion Williams and Trey Pettigrew along with the transfer departures of Grant Sherfield, Desmond Cambridge Jr., Warren Washington, DeAndre Henry and Alem Huseinovic.

On how the 2021-22 season played out

“It was not a year that we expected. It’s not a year that’s acceptable by me. Our players know that. There’s obviously going to be a lot of changes on our roster that we’re very excited about moving forward. I did a poor job of getting these guys to understand as adversity climbs and rises, you have to handle that as a player. There were a lot of things that were thrown at us from injuries to four COVID shutouts to a schedule that didn’t look like it was going to be difficult that was a difficult non-league schedule. There was a lot of adversity that hit our team, and I did a poor job as a coach of teaching them that. When we talk about handling adversity and growing through adversity, it doesn’t mean we’re specific on what those adversities are. We had a lot of adversity this year that was thrown at us, and we didn’t handle it well, and I didn’t teach that well enough. We’ve got to get back to our DNA, which is about winning, because losing has not been something that I’m accustomed t y. We’ve had 31 years of doing this and only three losing seasons. The last two times it happened, we responded. I expect this team now to respond. It’s not just about the players responding. We, as coaches, have to respond. We take the responsibility first and foremost. Players make plays. I was a player, so I understand that. Players are the ones that have to make the plays, but as coaches, we’ve got to do a better job of, ‘Yes, adversity’s hit. Oh, it hits again. Oh, it hits again.’ And now we’ve got to keep maturing. We’ve got to keep growing. And we just didn’t have a team that did that last year, and we’ve got to get that blueprint back this year.”

On bouncing back from losing seasons (each of Alford’s two teams to finish sub.-500 made the NCAA Tournament the next season)

“We’re in a different era. We’re in an NIL area. We’re in a transfer-and-play-right-away era that we didn’t have when I was coming off a losing season my first season at Iowa or third year at UCLA. So transfers didn’t have a lot to do with that. Transfers now will have a lot to do with it. Not just our returning players taking responsibility, but also the freshmen coming in, our transfer kids coming in this summer. The June, July and early August work before they get a break to go home before the school season starts is going to be paramount on just establishing that kind of mind over matter. We’ve got to get back to being tougher mentally. I never thought we were in great competitive shape because of the COVID shutdowns, and I mentioned that midseason, but I thought even more so we weren’t to the point mentally that we needed to be. We’ve got to get back to that point where mindset supersedes everything else. And so that’s what’s going to be taught this summer, and we’re going to do t hat from the day they get back from this break they’re on now.”

On what Nevada was looking for with its transfers this offseason

“It’s a whole different deal. It’s almost like you’re a junior-college coach how their rosters are changing yearly, every two years. It’s happening to us now at this level. I think the average across the country is, like, five transfers per year, maybe six with over 1,800 kids in the portal. So those kids aren’t going to find spots. There’s just not enough spots in Division I basketball. Our mindset was just where our weaknesses were. This was by far my worst shooting team that I think I’ve coached, and then we didn’t respond defensively like we need to, and that’s kind of that mind-over-matter deal. We’ve just got to be tougher and harder to play against. When we went to the portal, we wanted to get some guys that had some experience, which I think we’ve done that, but guys that have really been proven winners and guys that understand the role at this level of what you’ve got to do at playing on both sides of the ball and being tough minded. You got a Jared Lucas, who I think is a sup er talent and can really score the basketball. He’s been a part of an Elite 8 team and a part of the team that won three (NCAA Tournament) games. So he’s used to it. He understands what that dynamic is. And so getting guys that really understand that and can really fight through the adversity when there’s an injury or there’s a shutdown or you’ve had a two-game losing streak, whatever it might be, how that looks in practice, and I didn’ don’t think this past season (we had that), and that’s where it falls on me. I just didn’t think we practiced at the level that we normally practice. And that’s a toughness. People today like to use the word ‘grit.’ We just didn’t have that mental toughness in practice. It was almost like, ‘Hey, we’ll just get ourselves ready for games.’ And that falls on me. With all the shutdowns, I didn’t really know how to handle how hard to go, how long to go and I did a poor job with that, and we’ll get back to really cranking it out and doing the things that we have to do to teach that toughness.”

On who the team’s point guard will be

“I think we’ll be able to do a lot by committee. I look at my teams at UCLA, we had one year we had Lonzo Ball, we had Aaron Holiday, we had Bryce Alford. We could put three guys out there and you’d say, ‘All three of those are point guards. So I don’t really get into the positions as much, and I think the same thing’s going to be with this team. We’ve obviously got Hunter McIntosh who’s coming in and can play that. Jared Lucas can play that. Daniel Foster can play that. Keenan Blackshear can play that. So I think you’ll see a lot of different guys that will be at that position. We want to continue to play up-tempo. We just want the ball movement. Way too much ball screening (last year). Way too much ball holding, ball sticking. I want the ball moving. I want it touching all five guys. I want the flow of our our offense to move better. I hope defensively that we get more hungry on the defensive end with switching and keeping people in front of us and being a much better help defensive team that I didn’t think we were last year. But I think the point guard position will take care of itself because we got really good guards that can Grant was out last year and we put Kenan (Blackshear) back there and he was tremendou s in the games that he had to play when Grant was out. So we’ve got a lot of guys I think can bring the basketball up.”

On signing Oregon State’s Jarod Lucas

“I think Lucas is an elite shooter and an elite scorer that’s proven. I think we’ve added that, which we didn’t have. I think that’s a big positive. We’ve got McIntosh, and Powell, coming from Seton Hall , is somebody I recruited (out of high school). He’s from the LA area. Tyler can shoot it. So we’ve added shooting there. And then I think the two freshmen we got coming in with Pettigrew and Darrion Williams can both shoot the basketball. And then it’s about these other guys developing. I think that’s going to happen. I think the chemistry is going to be very good with this team, and I think they will be encouraged. We’re already seeing that. Our April workouts were really good. Kenan, Tre (Coleman), Daniel all have the ability to shoot the basketball. Nick Davidson’s now going to be eligible after a redshirt. He can really shoot the basketball. KJ (Hymes) and Will (Baker) have proven that they can shoot the basketball. We’ve got all the makings of a much, much better shooting team. I think that chemistry is going to be very good. If we can just get the ball moving now instead of sticking, I think we’ll get better shot selection, and better shot selection helps the ball go in more.”

On signing the Gatorade Nevada state player of the year Darrion Williams

“I think it’s great. Freshmen who come out after being seniors in high school, it’s a whole different recruiting game for them now because of the transfer portal. The portal’s probably affected seniors and high school more than anybody else. And so for us to go in in the fall and get a guy like Pettigrew out of the Chicago system, very athletic, can play a lot of guard positions, can shoot the basketball, score the basketball, facilitate the ball, and then get Darrion, who is a 6 -5, almost 6-6 big physical guard, big hands, can really shoot it, pass it, has a tremendous basketball IQ, those are two really good freshmen that we’re excited about. And as you mentioned, getting the best player out of Nevada, when we can do that, that’s something that’s going to really help our program moving forward.”

On Nevada basketball’s youth camps (more info here)

“Obviously I wanted to plug our camps, and you can contact our office and talk to (director of operations) Aubrey (Warkentien) or any of our coaches about that. The dates are in July (from 12-15 and 24-28) . Both of our sessions will be in July, and we’ve just got limited space because of courts. We’ve always had good support with that. And I think the neat thing about that is very few camps across the country have the people that work our camps being our players. So you get to come in contact with all of our players. You get to come in contact with all of our coaching staff who’s here for both sessions. And then it’s just about the community projects. We’ ve been so involved in the community, the Make-A-Wish that we’re able to do this year. The Children’s Hospital. Boys & Girls Club. Our guys just did something with the Ronald McDonald House. Those types of things we haven ‘t been able to do for two years (because of COVID), and that’s a vital piece of our program of getting our players in the community and showing them how to serve and give back. That’s a pillar within our program of learning how to serve. To some degree, I think it affected us this year because we haven’t been able to do those things with the shutdown. Those are things we’re going to start doing now that things are opening up. We’ve already started doing that of getting our guys back in the community. When they get back here the 1st of June, I think you’ll start seeing that.”

You can watch Steve Alford’s full NSN Daily interview below.

[ad_2]