Steve Alford: Lobos Belong to All of New Mexico

POJOAQUE — University of New Mexico men’s basketball coach Steve Alford wanted to make sure fans of the cherry and silver know that the Lobos aren’t simply Albuquerque’s team — Lobo nation encompasses all of the Land of Enchantment.

Alford delivered his message during a special appearance at the Buffalo Thunder Resort & Casino on Wednesday, before fielding questions from the estimated crowd of 150.

Entering his sixth season at the helm at UNM, Alford addressed topics ranging from why his squad doesn’t hold exhibitions in northern New Mexico, to his thoughts on associate head coach Craig Neal’s near departure to Colorado State.

And, of course, the one question on every UNM fan’s mind, asked by one attendee to rousing applause: “You staying around for a while?” Alford — the consummate diplomat — replied with a smile, “so far,” before moving on to the next topic.

As for a possible Lobo sighting at any of the area gymnasiums north of Albuquerque, the UNM coach said it’s highly unlikely.

“We’d love to, but NCAA rules prohibit us from doing that,” he said. “… We would love to hold cherry-silver games elsewhere, but that could be seen as a recruiting advantage — like we’re selecting the high school of the best player in the state. So in the past 10 or 15 years, the NCAA said you can’t do that anymore.”

And when the subject shifted to Neal, Alford expressed his support of his longtime assistant.

“I really would have liked to see him get the job because he deserves to be a head coach and he would like to be a head coach … so that part is upsetting,” Alford said. “… But the good thing for us is that he stays here.”

Neal, 48, has been at UNM for five seasons, all under Alford. He also was an assistant under Alford for three seasons at Iowa.

During his roughly hour-long meet-and-greet, Alford stressed the importance of keeping New Mexico talent in-state, such as Los Alamos graduate Alex Kirk, who attended the session.

“There’s not going to be three, four and five kids coming out of New Mexico, but when you got a player like Alex, you want to make sure you take care of your own — and we’ve done that,” Alford said.

The Lobos coach then went through a list of in-state talent that stayed home, including Albuquerque Academy’s Chad Toppert and Eldorado’s Daniel Faris.

The 47-year-old Alford, though five seasons with the Lobos, has compiled a 126–46 (.733) record, while guiding UNM to its third Mountain West Conference title this past season. The Lobos concluded the year at 28-7 before falling to Louisville in the third round of the NCAA tournament.

Alford’s appearance also coincided with the announcement from Hutton Broadcasting that the Lobo Sports Network will begin airing live radio broadcasts of all UNM football and men’s basketball games, beginning this fall. Games will be carried on 1400-AM KVSF.