Bryce Alford

Bryce Alford

Alford with UCLA in 2014
No. 20 – UCLA Bruins
Position Point guard
League Pac-12 Conference
Personal information
Born (1995-01-18) January 18, 1995
Nationality American
Listed height 6 ft 3 in (1.91 m)
Listed weight 180 lb (82 kg)
Career information
High school La Cueva (Albuquerque, New Mexico)
College UCLA (2013–present)
Career highlights and awards

Bryce Alford (born January 18, 1995) is an American college basketball player for the UCLA Bruins. As a senior in high school in New Mexico, he set a state single-season scoring record, and was named the state's top high school player. Alford was named one of the top freshman in the Pac-12 Conference in his first season with UCLA. As a sophomore in 2014–15, he set a UCLA single-season record for most three-point field goals. He is the son of former basketball player Steve Alford, who is also the coach at UCLA.

Early life

Alford was born to Tanya and Steve Alford, a college basketball coach and former professional player.[1] By the time Alford was 5, he would sit in on his father's locker room talks, and stood beside him during news conferences.[2]

Alford attended La Cueva High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico.[3] He averaged 25.3 points and 4.6 assists in his junior year, when he also led the Bears to the Class 5A title game. In March 2012, he verbally committed to attend the University of New Mexico, where he would play college basketball under his father, who was coaching the Lobos.[4] He signed a National Letter of Intent to accept New Mexico's athletic scholarship offer in December.[2][3]

As a senior, Alford broke a 50-year-old New Mexico high school single-season scoring record with 1,050 points.[1][5][6] He averaged 37.7 points, 8.5 rebounds, 6.4 assists, and 2.6 steals while leading his team to a 22–6 record and the Class 5A quarterfinals.[6] For the season, he was named New Mexico's Gatorade Player of the Year.[6] While he earned first-team Parade All-American honors,[7] recruiting services did not rank him among the top 100 overall players nationally.[8][9] He was ranked No. 44 at shooting guard, but he considered himself a point guard.[8] Steve believed his son's commitment to play for him negatively impacted his ranking.[10] Alford participated in USA Basketball's training camp for the 2013 FIBA Under-19 World Championship,[5][11] where he was eager to gain national attention.[8]

College career

In March 2013, Steve became the coach at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and Alford followed him.[12] The Bruins rarely sought players who were not four- or five-star recruits.[2] With Alford rated a consensus three-star prospect,[8] skeptics were wary of nepotism.[2][13] In Alford's first season in 2013–14, his father groomed him over fellow freshman Zach LaVine to be the team's backup point guard behind starter Kyle Anderson.[14] However, Alford started the season slowly, averaging only five points on 37.9 percent shooting through the first six games. Fans began questioning Alford's role compared to the crowd-favorite LaVine's, and he felt pressure to justify his scholarship.[15][16][17] Alford cited two games that helped boost his confidence: an 18-point game early in the season in the Las Vegas Invitational, and a 20-point performance in the Pac-12 season opener against USC that followed his scoreless game against Alabama.[18][15] On February 27, 2014, with stars Anderson and Jordan Adams suspended, Alford scored 31 points in an 87–83 double-overtime loss at home to Oregon.[19] He became the first UCLA freshman since Don MacLean in 1988 to exceed 30 points in a game.[14] For the season, Alford averaged eight points and 2.8 assists in 23 minutes per game, and was named to the Pac-12 All-Freshman Team.[2] He and LaVine were named the Bruins' top freshmen.[20]

After Anderson and LaVine left UCLA for the National Basketball Association (NBA), Alford became the Bruins' starting point guard in 2014–15.[21][22] Although he was considered more of a shooter than a true point guard,[23][24][25] Alford was the team's only legitimate option for the position.[26] Twice in the first three games he reached double figures in both points and assists to record the first double-doubles of his career. On November 20, 2014, he scored 28 points along with a career-high 13 assists in a 107–74 win over Nicholls State.[27] During a five-game losing streak later in the season, Alford had a streak of 19 consecutive missed shots, part of stretch in which he made just 5 of 39 attempts.[28] Criticism for him being the coach's son was at its peak, but the team looked to him and senior Norman Powell for leadership.[16] At season's end, Alford received honorable mention for the All-Pac-12 team.[29] Proving most major projections wrong, UCLA received an invite to the 2015 NCAA Tournament, earning a No. 11 seed.[30][31] In the Bruins' opener, Alford made four three-point field goals in the final four minutes and was credited with the game-winning three-pointer after a goaltending call with 13 seconds remaining in a 60–59 win over sixth-seeded SMU. He finished with a game-high 27 points and connected on 9 of 11 three-point attempts,[32] the most ever made by a UCLA player in the NCAA Tournament and tying the school record held by Jason Kapono for the most in any game.[lower-alpha 1] Alford also broke the Bruins' single-season record for made three pointers, held for eight years by Arron Afflalo.[lower-alpha 2]

As a junior in 2015–16, Alford began the season sharing point guard duties with freshman starter Aaron Holiday.[34][35] In the conference opener against Washington, Alford was shooting just 1 of 13 in the game when he made two three-pointers with 23 seconds left in regulation to force overtime, and forced a second overtime with another tying three-pointer. UCLA lost the game and began the season 0–2 in the Pac-12, while Alford shot just 7 for 31.[36][37] The Bruins ended their losing streak the following game when Alford scored 25 points and made the game-winning three-pointer with 1.8 seconds left in an 87–84 win over No. 7 Arizona.[38] In the subsequent game against Arizona State, he made a three-pointer with 24 seconds remaining in the game to secure an 81–74 win.[39] He was named Pac-12 Player of the Week after averaging 21.5 points in the two games on 55 percent shooting.[40] Alford was often clutch during the season, but he made just 38.5% of his shots despite leading the team in attempts.[41] He finished the season ranked seventh in the Pac-12 in scoring with 16.1 points per game, second in assists with 5.2 per game, and second in assist-turnover ratio (2.7). The National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) named him second-team All-District 20.[1]

Notes

  1. ↑ Kapono made 9 of 11 against Washington State on January 4, 2003.[33]
  2. ↑ Afflalo made 87 in 2006–07.[32]

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Bryce Alford Bio". UCLA Bruins. Archived from the original on December 5, 2014.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 Helfand, Zach (November 13, 2014). "UCLA's Bryce Alford shapes his own identity as starter". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 5, 2014.
  3. 1 2 Denison, Matt (February 3, 2013). "Q&A: Steve Alford's son, Bryce, putting up big numbers in New Mexico". The Courier-Journal. Retrieved December 7, 2014.
  4. ↑ Dyer, Jessica (March 27, 2012). "Bryce Alford Commits to Lobos". Albuquerque Journal. Archived from the original on February 11, 2016.
  5. 1 2 Wang, Jack (May 22, 2013). "Bryce Alford invited to USA U19 training camp". Inside UCLA. Archived from the original on December 5, 2014.
  6. 1 2 3 "New Mexico Boys Basketball POY: Bryce Alford". USA Today. March 21, 2013. Archived from the original on December 5, 2014.
  7. ↑ McLaughlin, Brian (May 18, 2013). "Meet PARADE's 2013 All-America Basketball Teams". Parade. Archived from the original on October 21, 2014.
  8. 1 2 3 4 Lee, Emanuel (June 11, 2013). "Bryce Alford ready to prove doubters wrong". MaxPreps.com. Archived from the original on January 31, 2016.
  9. ↑ Vecenie, Sam (December 17, 2015). "After stumbling out to a 3-3 start, UCLA has turned its season around". CBSSports.com. Archived from the original on February 11, 2016.
  10. ↑ Dauster, Rob. "All For One". NBC Sportsworld. Archived from the original on February 11, 2016.
  11. ↑ Holt, John (June 14, 2013). "Men's U19 Training Camp Begins, Players Feeling Eager". USA Basketball. Archived from the original on December 5, 2014.
  12. ↑ Foster, Chris (March 30, 2013). "UCLA hires Steve Alford as basketball coach; he has big job ahead". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on February 11, 2016.
  13. ↑ Warsinskey, Tim (March 20, 2015). "Bryce Alford's goaltending 3-pointer doesn't count in Steve Alford's book". Cleveland Plain-Dealer. Archived from the original on January 31, 2016.
  14. 1 2 Wang, Jack (March 28, 2014). "UCLA freshman Zach LaVine to declare for NBA draft". Los Angeles Daily News. Archived from the original on September 16, 2014.
  15. 1 2 Bowman, Kevin (November 14, 2014). "Guard Bryce Alford ready to face pressures of 2014 basketball season". The Daily Bruin. Archived from the original on December 13, 2014.
  16. 1 2 Plaschke, Bill (March 19, 2015). "For UCLA coach's kid Bryce Alford, his shot finally falls into place". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on March 20, 2015.
  17. ↑ Macur, Juliet (March 21, 2015). "As Three Alfords Lead U.C.L.A., a Fourth Anchors the Family". The New York Times. Archived from the original on March 25, 2015.
  18. ↑ Gold, Jon (June 9, 2014). "UCLA's other Alford providing early season spark". Arizona Daily Star. Retrieved December 5, 2014.
  19. ↑ DeCourcy, Mike (February 28, 2014). "UCLA coach Alford suspends stars Anderson, Adams for Oregon game". Sporting News. Archived from the original on December 5, 2014.
  20. ↑ Wang, Jack (May 5, 2014). "Kyle Anderson named UCLA's most valuable player at team banquet". Inside UCLA. Archived from the original on December 5, 2014.
  21. ↑ Foster, Chris (April 17, 2014). "UCLA's Bryce Alford, Isaac Hamilton likely to share point guard job". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 5, 2014.
  22. ↑ Hefland, Zach (November 13, 2014). "UCLA guard Isaac Hamilton continues to shake off the rust". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 5, 2014.
  23. ↑ Gottlieb, Doug (January 7, 2015). "Unimpressive UCLA has plenty of problems". CBS Sports. Archived from the original on January 10, 2015.
  24. ↑ Eisenberg, Jeff (January 4, 2015). "Diagnosing what's wrong with UCLA as its losing skid hits five". Yahoo! Sports. Archived from the original on January 10, 2015.
  25. ↑ Brennan, Eamonn (January 5, 2015). "Do UCLA's problems have solutions?". ESPN. Archived from the original on January 10, 2015.
  26. ↑ Wang, Jack (January 9, 2015). "What's wrong with UCLA men's basketball?". Los Angeles Daily News. Archived from the original on January 10, 2015.
  27. ↑ Wang, Jack (November 21, 2014). "Bryce Alford notches second double-double in three games". Inside UCLA. Archived from the original on December 17, 2014.
  28. ↑ Kartje, Ryan (January 6, 2015). "Alford searching for right buttons to turn around Bruins". Orange Country Register. Archived from the original on January 10, 2015.
  29. ↑ "2014-15 Pac-12 Conference Men's Basketball Honors" (Press release). Pac-12. March 9, 2015. Archived from the original on March 9, 2015.
  30. ↑ Helfand, Zach (March 15, 2015). "UCLA earns a surprise selection into the NCAA tournament". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on March 18, 2015.
  31. ↑ Wang, Jack (March 15, 2015). "UCLA gets No. 11 seed in NCAA Tournament, will play SMU". Los Angeles Daily News. Archived from the original on March 18, 2015.
  32. 1 2 Wang, Jack (March 19, 2015). "NCAA Tournament: Bryce Alford gets hot and fortunate as UCLA stuns SMU". Los Angeles Daily News. Archived from the original on March 22, 2015.
  33. ↑ "No. 14-seed UAB (20-15) vs. No. 11-seed UCLA (21-13)" (PDF). UCLA Sports Information. March 21, 2015. Archived from the original on March 22, 2015.
  34. ↑ Helfand, Zach (November 29, 2015). "UCLA finds outlet for better point-guard play in 77-45 win over Cal State Northridge". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on December 8, 2015.
  35. ↑ Helfand, Zach (November 13, 2015). "Freshman Aaron Holiday brings energy and swarming defense to UCLA". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on December 8, 2015.
  36. ↑ Helfand, Zach (January 2, 2016). "Bryce Alford will take the last shot for Bruins". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on January 11, 2016.
  37. ↑ Kaufman, Joey (January 6, 2016). "UCLA's Bryce Alford once again searching for his shooting touch early in Pac-12 play". The Orange County Register. Archived from the original on January 11, 2016.
  38. ↑ Helfand, Zach (January 7, 2016). "Bryce Alford again pops the clutch to lift UCLA past No. 7 Arizona". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on January 11, 2016.
  39. ↑ "Holiday's 3-pointer sends UCLA past Arizona State, 81-74". AP. January 9, 2016. Archived from the original on January 11, 2016.
  40. ↑ Kaufman, Joey (January 11, 2016). "Bryce Alford takes Pac-12 player of the week honors". The Orange County Register. Archived from the original on January 12, 2016.
  41. ↑ Helfand, Zach (March 13, 2016). "How UCLA basketball roster shapes up for 2016-17". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on June 8, 2016.
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