Under Steve Alford the UCLA Bruins are turning into a power house once again
The UCLA Bruins are a season into beginning a new era under head coach Steve Alford. Under Ben Howland, the Bruins were turning into a powerhouse, but things quickly turned years later.
Under Howland, the Bruins had the best 3-year stretch in their history since John Wooden in the 60’s and 70’s. Under Wooden the Bruins won 10 national titles – being easily the most dominant team in college basketball for decades. Wooden coached some of the best players in Bruins history. Lew Alcindor (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar), Bill Walton, Gail Goodrich, and Marques Johnson were some of the greats Wooden had the pleasure of coaching.
Howland led the Bruins to three straight final fours, including one championship game. While Howland fell short of winning a national championship, he led the Bruins to four straight seasons of at least 26 wins from 2005-09. Just to give you an idea of how monumental that is, the Bruins had not won 26 games since 1995 when they won the national championship. The last time they had back to back seasons of at least 26 wins was when they won 26 plus games from 1966-76.
After ’09 the Bruins never made it past the second round under Howland. While Howland certainly did his job going 233-107 in his Bruins career, giving him a winning percentage of 69% it was time for a new coach. Howland failed to make the NCAA Tournament in two of his last four years.
This year Alford took over as the Bruins coach and exceeded expectations. Many fans questioned the hiring of the New Mexico coach, who never made it to the Sweet 16 at New Mexico (2007-13) despite having many talented teams. Alford took over a Bruins team that was suppose to be a low tournament seed and were expected to have a season worse than last year. Instead the Bruins went 28-9 and had their most consistent season since the 2009 season, when they had a very similar record at 26-9. Alford led the Bruins to the Sweet 16 where they lost to Florida, who was the number one overall seed in the tournament.
The future looks incredibly bright for the Alford led Bruins, despite losing Zach LaVine, Kyle Anderson, David and Travis Wear. Leading scorer Jordan Adams announced that he is returning to UCLA for his junior season. The Bruins also have a top ten recruiting class that is led by Kevon Looney, Thomas Welsh, and Jonah Bolden. The Bruins will also have Norman Powell, Bryce Alford, Tony Parker, and big time transfer Isaac Hamilton.
With the return of Adams and a superb freshman class, expect the Bruins to not only contend this season but for the next few years as Alford is attracting recruits with his run and gun offense.
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