Santoro: Could Pack’s success lead to Alford’s departure?

Sports Fodder:

Anything is possible. The Nevada Wolf Pack men’s basketball team only has to look back to last season’s San Diego State Aztecs to know that is true.

So far this season, the Wolf Pack has followed the Aztecs’ 2022-23 model perfectly. The Aztecs shocked the college basketball world last March, went to the Final Four, won 32-of-39 games and showed all Mountain West teams that dreams do come true.

The Wolf Pack, which beat those same Aztecs last Jan. 31, obviously took notice. The Pack this year has sailed through its non-conference schedule with a 13-1 record, with the 18-game Mountain West season about to start Saturday afternoon at Fresno State.

Can you say 26 or 27 wins, Pack fans? What’s that? Did you say 30 wins? Stop it. For now.

This Pack season ending in the Final Four this March in Phoenix is a silly notion, right? We’re letting a ton of wins against the likes of Fresno Pacific, Pacific, Sacramento State, Portland, UC Davis and Weber State cloud our judgment, right? Well, maybe.

But there have also been wins against TCU, Georgia Tech, Washington, Hawaii and Temple that showed not everything has been a mirage.

Keep in mind the Wolf Pack was invited to the NCAA Tournament last year with just 22 victories. They didn’t even win a game after Feb. 24 and still got a No. 11 seed.

This Pack team (fingers crossed, Pack fans) will likely fly past 25 wins and receive a single-digit seed to the NCAA Tournament. At that point anything is possible. The Aztecs proved that last year.

San Diego State was 26-7 and a No. 5 seed heading into the NCAA Tournament last year. That is certainly doable for this Pack team.

That lofty No. 5 seed gave the Aztecs manageable games in the first two rounds against Charleston (12 seed) and Furman (13). They only had to play two lower seeds in their entire six-game NCAA Tournament journey. They beat No. 1 seed Alabama in the Sweet 16 and lost to No. 4 seed Connecticut in the national title game.

That’s how a Mountain West team can get to the Final Four. The Pack could very well find itself on the same path this March.

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The more success the Wolf Pack enjoys, the more likely coach Steve Alford leaves the program. That’s at least the way it has worked at Nevada in recent decades (see Trent Johnson, Mark Fox and Eric Musselman).

Johnson, Fox and Musselman leaving was always expected. Nobody, of course, has ever been able to predict Alford’s next coaching move throughout his now 33-year career.

The guy started his career at Division III Manchester, for goodness’ sake. He then went to Southwest Missouri State. After coaching eight years at Iowa, he spent six years at New Mexico, of all places. After five-plus years at UCLA he ended up in Nevada. That move to Nevada is still a mystery nobody has ever been able to explain.

Indiana, the place where he became a college basketball legend, has looked for a head coach five times since Alford became a coach in 1991-92 and never picked Alford. Or maybe Alford never picked Indiana. Nobody knows for sure.

When Alford was hired at Nevada, replacing Musselman after the 2018-19 season, then-athletic director Doug Knuth said Alford told him he wanted Nevada to be his last coaching job.

Believe it if you want to. It was, after all, a coach who just got fired simply telling his new athletic director what he wanted to hear.

But don’t be shocked if Nevada is Alford’s last coaching job. And don’t be shocked if he gets two or three more jobs.

Nobody ever really knows with Alford.

Bobby Knight, Alford’s former head coach at Indiana, passed away in early November at 83. How that affected Alford’s coaching present, or future, well, he’s certainly not going to tell us. But it’s likely it affected him in some way.

Knight retired at the age of 67. He won three national titles (one with Alford). Alford is now 59. He’s never come close to winning a national title unless you count the runner-up Division III finish with Manchester in 1995. You can bet Alford does.

Alford’s Nevada contract runs through the 2028-29 season when he will be 64. It might be a good idea if the Pack offers him an extension after he gets to the Final Four this March.

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There is still a question of whether or not Alford has what it takes to win a national championship. In Alford’s defense, that question has been asked of every coach until they, of course, win a national championship.

So, it is a silly question. Winning a national championship is a random, luck-of-the-draw, winning-the-lottery type of accomplishment based on a thousand things. Coaching is just one of the thousand.

Alford has gotten to the Sweet 16 four times — Southwest Missouri State in 1999 and UCLA in 2014, 2015 and 2017. He also went to six NCAA Tournaments in 14 combined seasons at Iowa and New Mexico and won three games.

Alford, in case you are wondering, is a solid NCAA Tournament coach, winning 11 games in 12 appearances. That’s no easy feat, especially when you consider he’s won four NCAA Tournament games in five trips with a Missouri Valley Conference or Mountain West team.

Alford has done a remarkable job since he got to Nevada. He deserves an extension on his current 10-year deal right now.

He’s now 83-52 at Nevada and he’s had to do it in the unforgiving transfer portal and COVID-19 era, rebuilding the heart and soul of his roster seemingly every year.

Alford’s worst year as a Division I coach was the 2021-22 season at Nevada. That Pack team finished 13-18 with a talented roster that included Kenan Blackshear, Desmond Cambridge, Warren Washington, Tre Coleman, Grant Sherfield and Will Baker.

The 13-18 record made no sense with that coaching staff and roster. That team was just as talented as this year’s 13-1 team.

It raised doubts as to whether Alford still had the fire and focus to win meaningful games in March. Cambridge, Washington and Sherfield jumped ship after the season. It was a mess. It could have broken a weaker-minded coach.

Alford, though, has gone 35-12 since. He will likely go to two NCAA Tournaments in the last two years. Two more stars (Baker and Darrion Williams) jumped into the transfer portal after last season and all Alford has done is win 13-of-14 games.

We don’t know if Alford is extra motivated or focused since the passing of his former coach. Maybe Alford doesn’t even know it himself right now. It’s only been two months, after all.

But all we know is that Alford has what it takes to win a national championship. Why not make sure he does it at Nevada?

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The Nevada Wolf Pack football team received a bit of good news this week when Texas lost to Washington on Monday in the College Football Playoff semifinals.

No, we have nothing against Texas. It’s just that new Pack head coach Jeff Choate has been busy the last three weeks coaching the Texas linebackers and now will get back to the business of resurrecting a program that has won four games over the last two seasons.

So far about all Choate has done for Nevada is hire his friends as assistant coaches. That was to be expected. It’s what almost all new head coaches do.

But Choate also retained tight ends coach Virgil Green and administrator Jim Mastro.

Both Mastro and Green are smart hires by Choate. Green, a former Pack star player, will have the respect of everyone on the practice field simply because of his 10 seasons in the NFL as a player. He could be coaching in the NFL before too long.

Mastro, who helped Chris Ault invent the Pistol offense, probably should have been named the Pack head coach when Ault stepped down after the 2012 season. He’ll help Choate connect with Ault and everything else important from the Pack past as well as make sure everything is done in a professional manner off the field.

Green and Mastro might have been former coach Ken Wilson’s best hires. Give credit to Choate for recognizing that.

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A college football national championship game without a team from the SEC is a breath of fresh air. So, yes, thank you Michigan for beating Alabama on Monday.

The Michigan-Washington title game this Monday is the first championship game without a team from the southern United States (roughly east of Texas, south of Ohio) since Ohio State beat Oregon, 42-20, in 2015. An SEC or ACC team (or both) has been in the title game in 16 of the last 17 championship games.

It’s also nice to see Washington in the title game in the final year of the Pac-12 as we know it. But, make no mistake, the Pac-12 will only get to enjoy this moment until the final second clicks off the clock on Monday.

The Big Ten, which has Michigan and will get Washington next year, is going to win this championship on Monday. The Big Ten will be on top of the college football world no matter what happens on Monday. Don’t be surprised if the SEC joins the NFL the very next day.

It will also be interesting to see if former Fresno State (2021) and current Washington head coach Kalen DeBoer can join Urban Meyer as the only former Mountain West head coaches to later win a national title.

Meyer coached Utah in the Mountain West (2003, 2004) and later led Florida (2006, 2008) and Ohio State (2014) to national titles.

UNLV (1999-2004) coach John Robinson won a national title with USC in 1978 before his Mountain West career and before a college football playoff.

The Wolf Pack also has a six degrees of separation connection to Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh. It was Harbaugh, after all, who coached former Pack quarterback Colin Kaepernick to a Super Bowl appearance.

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Who will be the NFL coaches fired after the regular season ends this weekend?

The list might be headed by New England’s Bill Belichick. The 2000 marriage of Belichick and the Patriots seems to be headed to an unfortunate divorce soon. If Belichick wasn’t chasing Don Shula’s record for career wins, he probably would already be retired.

Belichick will break Shula’s record, no doubt about it. He only needs 27 more for the record. What else is he going to do? Watch and listen to Tom Brady on podcasts?

The only question that remains is whether Belichick is willing to coach the four or five more years it will likely require to attain the record at New England or the two or three it will take with a competitive team that has, you know, a competent quarterback and roster.

As things stand now, the Los Angeles Chargers, Las Vegas Raiders and Carolina Panthers will be looking for a permanent coach. The Chargers seem like the best for Belichick among those three.

Washington (Ron Rivera), the New York Jets (Robert Saleh), Tennessee (Mike Vrabel) and maybe even Dallas (if Mike McCarthy flames out in the playoffs) might also have openings in the coming weeks.

Could you imagine Belichick coaching Aaron Rodgers with the Jets?

Belichick in Dallas is also a distinct possibility next year. It wouldn’t be the first time Cowboys owner Jerry Jones hired a former Patriots head coach (Bill Parcells). Belichik, after all, learned most of everything he knows in coaching from Parcells.

But, then again, maybe Parcells also taught him to always stay away from Jerry Jones.