It has officially been announced that Steve Alford is no longer the head coach of the UCLA basketball program. Murry Bartow will take over as interim coach, effective immediately.
After five and a half season, the Steve Alford era with the UCLA basketball program is over. UCLA Athletic Director Dan Guererro had made the announcement on Monday morning.
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UCLA has relieved Steve Alford of his duties as head coach, effective immediately.
— UCLA Men’s Basketball (@UCLAMBB) December 31, 2018
Murry Bartow will serve as the Bruins’ interim head coach for the remainder of this season.
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"It is now clear to me that what is best for our current students and for the overall good of the program, is to make this change now. While Steve led us to three Sweet 16 appearances, we simply have not been performing at a consistent level and our struggles up to this point in the season do not bode well for the future."
This ends one of the more precarious tenures of the nine coaches since John Wooden ran the program. Ever since his hiring, Alford had been viewed as a bad fit for the most storied program in college hoops.
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From his controversial stint at Iowa to his perceived nepotism with his sons getting an undeserved amount of playing time to his inability to just plain coach, Alford failed to make UCLA successful.
The embattled coach finishes his career in Westwood with an overall record of 124-63 (.663). In that time he has only been able to capture hardware once which came in his first year in the Pac-12 Tournament.
In his place, assistant Murry Bartow will take over as interim head coach. Bartow has been with the program since last spring. He was brought in to replace the former assistant coach David Grace, mostly to focus on improving the defense.
With Alford gone, this could spark some life into the Bruins who had reportedly “hated” playing for the former coach. UCLA begins Pac-12 play in three days and if they make a run, there is a very good chance that they can win the regular season conference championship.
Stay with Go Joe Bruin as we will be bringing you the latest information in regards to the coaching search.