Steve Alford said Thursday that his coaching run is winding down, announcing he will retire after the 2026-27 season.
The former Indiana standout is in his eighth season at Nevada, and the upcoming year will be the final chapter of a head coaching career that has stretched across 36 seasons and six NCAA programs. He owns a 724-386 career record and, according to the release, will finish with 724 wins that place him 10th among active Division I coaches.
“After 36 years, I feel like this is the right time to step away from the bench,” Alford said in a release. “Tanya and I have loved our time in Reno, and have embraced this amazing community and built lifelong friendships. I want to thank the University of Nevada for the opportunity to lead this program, and I am looking forward to finishing this season the right way, with a team I believe in.”
Alford’s résumé is built on a long list of stops and tournament runs. He is one of only two coaches in NCAA history, alongside Rick Pitino, to take six different programs to the NCAA Tournament: Manchester College, Southwest Missouri State, Iowa, New Mexico, UCLA and Nevada.
His career includes 16 NCAA Tournament appearances overall, with 13 coming at the Division I level and three at Division III. At UCLA, he guided the Bruins to three Sweet 16s in five full seasons. His six-year run there produced a 124-63 record, four NCAA Tournament bids in five years and 11 NBA Draft picks, including seven first-rounders.
At New Mexico, Alford won four Mountain West regular-season titles, two conference tournament championships and three Mountain West Coach of the Year honors. Earlier, he led Southwest Missouri State to the Sweet 16 and won two Big 10 Tournament titles at Iowa.
His first head-coaching job came at Manchester College, where he earned conference coach of the year three times and took the Spartans to the 1995 NCAA Division III championship game.
Before his coaching career took off, Alford was already a giant at Indiana. Playing for Bob Knight, he became a two-time consensus All-American, the 1983 Indiana Mr.
Basketball, a three-time All-Big Ten first-team pick and the 1987 Big Ten MVP. He led the Hoosiers to the 1987 NCAA Championship and left Bloomington as the school’s all-time leading scorer with 2,438 points.
Alford’s name has long been tied to Indiana’s coaching vacancy, with his candidacy resurfacing virtually every time the job opened after Knight was fired in 2000.
His playing honors at IU include induction into the Indiana University Athletics Hall of Fame in 1997, a spot on Indiana’s All-Century Team in 2001 and induction into the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame in 2009. He also won Olympic gold in 1984 as part of the U.S. men’s team that played for Knight, the last American men’s squad to win gold as amateurs. The Dallas Mavericks picked him 26th overall in the 1987 NBA Draft, and he played four NBA seasons with Dallas and Golden State.
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