In Reply to: With Pitino leaving UNM, I wonder if they will try to hire Alford posted by traprh on March 26, 2025 at 20:06:15
you would think his name would come up, but he left here very late to jump at UCLA's offer. Wonder how they would feel about him now.
It's a typical fan base. When they were winning two games a season in football, they convinced former UNM star QB Rocky Long to come back and take over to save their FB program. Probably cost my alma mater a NC but he came back.
He soon built a program that had UNM winning 6, 7 games a season, playing in small bowl games and winning the respect of others around the Mountain West. They didn't win all their games but they left bruises on all the opponents they played. But be real - this is the third largest state in the union geographically but with a population of around 2 million, one that doesn't produce a whole lot of big time athletes. But fans are what they are and they started making a lot of noise - they should find a HC who could take them to "the next step."
They recruit Texas and California - along with just about everybody. That next step they demanded turned out to be backward after Rocky had had enough and moved on - to San Diego.
They cannot compete with the top programs financially, The money just isn't here. And Alford was popular and seemed quite happy here. It would be a good move for the Lobos. Or they could go with a young HC who would probably do well here - it is a basketball crazy population after all - and then he would get snapped up by a bigger program.