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UCLA fires Steve Alford

Not sure what you gain by canning a coach at this point in the season. It allows you to start looking immediately with a clear conscience, but most candidates are likely employed and not making a final decision on a move until the end of their season. I could only see doing this if there was a specific negative incident concerning Alford that required immediate action.
 
Agree w. "Wow". Of course, I'm not surprised he got fired, but I am surprised he got let go mid-season.

I think it's quite rare for a college coach to be fired mid-year based on wins and losses. I'm sure it's happened before. The only time I can recall it is when St. John's canned Mike Jarvis just before Christmas in 2003. Part of the reason for that firing, however, was because a few Red Storm players were involved in a strip club incident following an away game at Pitt. At the time Jarvis was fired, he was the only coach in the then 25-Yr history of the league to be let go mid-season.

Anyone else recall mid-season college hoop firings based pretty much solely on the team's performance?
 
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Didn’t they just lose to Liberty at home?

I imagine the firing was done before the situation got even more toxic and causing and long term harm.
 
They still could've won the Pac-12... that conference is a total disaster this year. I assume they made this move now so that if they DID win it they wouldn't feel obligated to bring him back.
 
Nice to see a program acting the way it should. He was making a ton of money and wasn’t doing a good job and got sh*tcanned. Just like in the real world.
 
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You don't lose to Liberty and Belmont at home and expect to stay. Darrick Martin, twice team captain in the early 90s, described this year's team as stagnant on offense with "the most antiquated offense" and "no clue how to stop anybody" on defense.
The consensus is that players are only marginally better when they leave that when they enter, under Alford.
Better to dump him now.
 
Wow.....didn't see them making a move like this before conference play. The Lamelo Ball and other player incident in China really torpedoed Alford.
I live in SoCal and Alford has been on the hot seat now this whole season. When they lost by 15 to Liberty at home, the writing was on the wall. I think Alford is a very good coach, and will land at another big time program by next season if he wants to coach right away.
 
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