Steve Alford Talks About the state of UCLA Basketball to Jon Rothstein

UCLA basketball Head Coach Steve Alford joined Jon Rothstein to talk about the state of Bruin hoops.

CBS Sports college basketball analysts Jon Rothstein had UCLA Basketball Head Coach Steve Alford as a guest on his half hour-long podcast, College Hoops Today with Jon Rothstein earlier this week to talk about the current state of the Bruins after a 15-17 season.

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Rothstein had opened the show by giving a brief history of UCLA Basketball over the last decade and talked about the awkward transition from firing Ben Howland to hiring Alford. Rothstein then casually started the conversation with Alford by asking him his thoughts about the NCAA Tournament, which led right into the discussion about the Bruins missing the tourney all together.

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Alford made it known that he diid a poor job of preparing the Bruins for the season and establishing any defensive presence. “It falls on me”. After evaluating the season and discussing it with his players, Alford believes that he has gotten the team’s attention.

Alford was also asked about returning his one-year extension which he received after his first season.

“It was only appropriate in a year where I felt like I did a very poor job in handling this team, but giving that extension back and getting just to my original contact was the right thing and the right message to send of just how we are in this thing. We are in this thing with both feet and we understand what UCLA is about and what that standard is and what that bar is and when you do not accomplish that bar, then there will be consequences.”

Rothstein also delved in the incoming Top 5 recruiting class that will be led by Lonzo Ball.

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“The thing Lonzo brings, just in speaking with Lonzo he brings an incredible winning mindset and a fierce competitor that really understands winning and really has a good grip of making pople around him better.”

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When asked what he is most excited about, Alford replied, “I really like what we got coming back… there is an awful lot of experience that’s coming back from this team and we haven’t had that. We have not gone into a year where we had experience and now we’ve got great experience combining with a really good athletic, talented freshmen class. So we got depth, now we just have to stay healthy and have to have a good summer.”