So Steve Alford left UNM, get over it and get a winning team
THE FACT the Albuquerque Journal would devote a term-paper length, 500-word, lead editorial Jan. 3, at the start of a new year, to former Lobo men’s basketball coach Steve Alford and “schadenfreude” is a statement in and of itself regarding the newspaper.
As a former high school basketball player, and one who has been watching Lobo football and basketball for 50 years, I have observed the inevitable ups and downs of collegiate athletic programs. For now, regarding Alford and schadenfreude, the joke’s still on the Lobo men’s basketball program, a program mired in mediocrity (7-6.) The Lobo’s program went into clear decline with the departure of Alford. The Lobo program remains a secondtier program in a second-tier, one-bid conference. All the schadenfreude Lobo fans can muster won’t change that stubborn fact. Of course, Lobo fans were disappointed and bitter when Alford left for UCLA, but fans shouldn’t still be blaming Alford for leaving UNM and harboring schadenfreude for his being fired at UCLA (after) taking a head-coaching job at one of the nation’s best college basketball programs in the first place.
Schadenfreude in Loboland, regarding Alford’s firing at UCLA, reflects a smalltown, petty, frustrated fandom unworthy of the University of New Mexico community. It may be schadenfreude for the moment, but the joke’s still on Lobo basketball and its frustrated fans.
Lobo fans and the Journal: Get over Steve Alford, cut the pre-season hype, put a consistently winning program on the court, establish a sustained winning tradition, continue strong academic performances, develop a New Mexico high school player pipeline as in other states and restore the lost lustre to the legendary Pit.
Alford remains a first-rate basketball coach who made a rational and professional decision to jilt the University of New Mexico’s beloved men’s basketball program. Go Lobos. RICHARD FOX Albuquerque