College basketball seemed to be at its pinnacle when Steve Alford won the national title as a senior guard for Indiana in 1987.
Today the longtime head coach is concerned about the health of the sport at a time when players are free to transfer every year and receive large sums of money that have no real connection to their name, image and likeness.
Alford, who passed 700 career wins this week, is the head coach at Nevada. He spoke extensively Friday about the state of college basketball.
“I’ve never been one that said I don’t believe student-athletes shouldn’t be paid. But the way it is now is ridiculous. It’s utterly ridiculous,” Alford said. “It’s changed our game. And so you gotta adapt. We gotta adapt, but every coach. Every handshake I have now before games, that’s brought up. Every game. Me and the opposing coach are going to talk about portal issues.”
Watch Alford’s full comments below.
“I’ve never been one that said I don’t believe student-athletes shouldn’t be paid. But the way it is now is ridiculous. It’s utterly ridiculous”
Steve Alford was asked if there’s anything he & his staff need to do to help navigate this new landscape of college basketball & here… pic.twitter.com/SPvZl0EPts
— Shannon Kelly (@shannonkelly_tv) March 14, 2025
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