Nevada Wolf Pack Basketball

The Nevada Wolf Pack officially hired former UCLA Bruins head coach Steve Alford Thursday on a 10-year contract.

247Sports' Evan Daniels first reported the news earlier on Thursday.

Alford replaces Eric Musselman, who left to take over the Arkansas Razorbacks. He spent the past five-and-a-half seasons at UCLA, compiling a 124-63 record.

The Bruins made four NCAA tournament appearances under Alford, reaching the Sweet 16 on three occasions.

Between his stops at UCLA, New Mexico, Iowa and Missouri State, Alford has a 509-269 overall record and helped guide his teams to the NCAA tournament on 11 occasions. The 54-year-old has the profile and the track record to fit with a Nevada program that became a tournament mainstay under Musselman.

Alford's time with the Lobos is particularly encouraging. New Mexico reached the Big Dance once in the previous eight years before he arrived. In his third year, the Lobos reached the second round of the tournament and won 30 games.

Despite Alford's arrival, a step backward is likely inevitable for the Wolf Pack. Of the 15 players on their 2018-19 roster, eight were seniors, including Caleb Martin, Cody Martin and Jordan Caroline.

Stadium's Jeff Goodman also reported freshman forward Jordan Brown plans to transfer. Brown was the No. 19 player and No. 5 power forward in the 2018 recruiting class, per 247Sports' composite rankings.

The Wolf Pack's 2019 class ranks just 120th nationally, with 3-star junior college small forward Eric Parrish and Pittsburgh transfer Shamiel Stevenson the only additions so far. Alford still has some time to strengthen his squad, but most top players have already signed their letter of intent.

Musselman certainly picked the right time to move on, leaving Alford to inherit a tough situation.

The Nevada Wolf Pack are reportedly turning to former UCLA head coach Steve Alford as their next men's basketball coach.

On Wednesday, Jeff Goodman of Stadium reported the Mountain West Conference school will hire him unless there is a "last-second breakdown in negotiations." 

Evan Daniels of 247Sports reported Alford was the "frontrunner" after the school discussed the position with a number of other candidates. UCLA fired Alford on Dec. 31 in the middle of his sixth season with the program.

The Nevada position was only open because the Arkansas Razorbacks hired Eric Musselman after he led the Wolf Pack to the NCAA tournament each of the last three years.

Tracy Pierson of 247Sports reported UCLA fired Alford in part because "influential donors" pressured the administration to do so following a four-game losing streak that dropped the team to 7-6 this season. NBC Sports' Rob Dauster cited a source who said Bruins players hated Alford and quit on him. 

Alford coached at Missouri State, Iowa and New Mexico prior to his time with UCLA and sports a 509-269 career record. He was 124-63 with the Bruins and reached the NCAA tournament in four of his first five years, but he never made it past the Sweet 16 and lost in 2018's First Four.

That ultimately didn't cut it at the school with the most national titles in men's college basketball history, but he will attempt to continue Musselman's success with Nevada.

The Wolf Pack hadn't been to the NCAA tournament since 2007 when Musselman took over prior to the 2015-16 campaign. However, he led them to Mountain West regular-season championships in each of the last three seasons and reached the Sweet 16 in 2018.

BR Video

Cooleemee, North Carolina, is a town of approximately 900 people that has long dealt with deep-seated prejudice.

For their entire childhood, Jenny Bennett, a white mother of biracial children, protected her three kids, including Nevada Wolf Pack stars Cody and Caleb Martin.

In a B/R exclusive with Master Tesfatsion, the Martin twins and Jenny describe the struggles of living under a cloud of aggressive discrimination. 

Special thank you to Ballislife for the high school footage of Caleb and Cody Martin.

Nevada forward Jordan Caroline appeared to break glass protecting a fire extinguisher near the locker room after Saturday's 81-76 loss to Utah State.

In video footage provided by Jake Edmonds of KUTV 2 News (warning: contains strong language), Caroline appeared to be yelling at someone after breaking the glass. Wolf Pack players and coaches reportedly took offense to Utah State fans allegedly touching and verbally abusing them after storming the court.

Edmonds added Nevada players shouldn't have been in the tunnel they went down, but his assumption is they went that way because "there were too many fans on the court to allow them easy access to their own tunnel."

Players and coaches for Nevada were not made available to the media after the game.

Saturday's game was a crucial showdown in the Mountain West. Utah State moved to the top of the conference standings thanks to the win with a 14-3 record, followed by the Wolf Pack at 13-3.