One thing not to be messed with in life and work, Steve Alford said on a teleconference last month, “is happy.”

The comment was made in response to a question about Alford’s coaching future. Was he content to remain the men’s head basketball coach at the University of New Mexico, or were there greener pastures out there?

Wednesday, Alford’s current pasture got greener and his life/career got happier. It was announced that UNM’s highly successful coach had agreed to a new, 10-year contract, with a major hike in pay, that would keep him on the South Campus through the 2022-23 season.

	Alford’s new deal Steve Alford’s file n 2012-13: MWC coach of the year

It’s not as if Alford is actually re-upping for a decade; he was already contractually committed to UNM through 2020, with a hefty buyout clause involved should he opt out to coach elsewhere.

Still, as statements go, this was big. From all sources – base salary, shoe and TV contracts, incentives, etc., etc. – it’s possible Alford’s total take could reach $2 million per year.

If anyone’s happier about this development than Alford, it’s UNM athletic director Paul Krebs.

As his program’s cash cow, men’s basketball wasn’t supplying much milk when Krebs arrived at UNM in July 2006. After a Danny Granger-fueled trip to the NCAA Tournament in 2005, the program veered out of control and attendance sagged under coach Ritchie McKay.

Alford, looking for a more stable environment and a better competitive situation than he had at Iowa, turned out to be available in the spring of 2007. And, surprising to some – myself included – he took to the job like green chile to an enchilada.

As I write this, the Lobos are preparing for their third NCAA Tournament appearance in four years. They enter the Big Enchilada ranked among the nation’s Top 10 teams for the second time during that span. During his six campaigns, the Lobos have averaged better than 25 wins and have never missed the postseason.

Under Alford, academic deficiencies he inherited have also been addressed. Player behavior problems, while not eradicated – that’s virtually impossible – have not been a major embarrassment.

Thus, I’m being realistic, nothing more, in saying UNM men’s basketball has never had it so good.

So, is anyone not happy?

If you’re a UNM faculty member making an minuscule fraction of what the basketball coach is pulling down, you might be wearing a frown. If you’re a critic of North American college athletics, a bizarre system that awards academic scholarships for athletic prowess and exists nowhere else in the world, you’re probably rolling your eyes.

Roll this, Krebs says: None of the funds needed to pay his basketball coach will come from student fees or the state. Essentially, he says, Alford will be drinking milk from the cash cow he restored to health.

From the start, Alford said he loved it here and never saw the UNM job as a steppingstone. Yet, his initial contract contained no buyout clause, creating concerns he’d be gone the moment an attractive job in a power conference became available.

After the 2009-10 season, he agreed to a contract extension that contained a buyout clause.

Now, under the terms of the new contract, Alford would owe UNM $1 million were he to leave before the end of the 2014-15 season. The amount shrinks to $500,000 in 2017, $300,000 thereafter.

Those amounts, while not exactly pocket change, would not necessarily discourage a major program that might covet Alford. Nor, if he truly wanted to leave, would the buyout clause stop him from doing so.

With each passing season, though, it becomes more evident that Alford is determined to build something truly special in the high desert. Just as clearly, he’s relishing the prospect of coaching both his sons, current redshirt freshman Kory and incoming freshman Bryce, as Lobos.

Recently, Alford’s name has been bandied – with no confirmation or attribution – as a potential candidate for the vacant job at Southern California. Other jobs are open or will be. The timing of UNM’s announcement could be a response to such rumors, though Krebs hasn’t said that.

Regardless, in terms of not messing with happy, lining the cherry and silver pasture with long green never hurts.
— This article appeared on page D1 of the Albuquerque Journal