Bryce Alford

Bryce Alford

Alford with UCLA in 2014
No. 20 – UCLA Bruins
Position Point guard
League Pacific-12 Conference
Personal information
Born 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 Pacific-12 Conference in his first season with UCLA. 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. As a senior, he broke a 50-year-old New Mexico high school single-season scoring record with 1,050 points.[1][3][4] 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.[4] For the season, he was named New Mexico's Gatorade Player of the Year,[4] and earned first-team Parade All-American honors.[5] He participated in USA Basketball's training camp for the 2013 FIBA Under-19 World Championship.[3][6]

College career

Alford originally accepted an athletic scholarship from New Mexico, where his father was coaching.[2][7] However, Steve became the coach at UCLA, and Alford followed him. UCLA rarely sought players who were not four- or five-star recruits.[2] With Alford rated at most a three-star prospect, skeptics were wary of nepotism.[2][8]

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.[9] 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.[10][11][12] 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.[8][10] 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.[13] He became the first UCLA freshman since Don MacLean in 1988 to exceed 30 points in a game.[9] 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.[14]

After Anderson and LaVine left UCLA for the National Basketball Association (NBA), Alford became the Bruins' starting point guard in 2014–15.[15][16] Although he was considered more of a shooter than a true point guard,[17][18][19] Alford was the team's only legitimate option for the position.[20] 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.[21] 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.[22] Criticism for him being the coach's son was at its peak, but the team looked to him and senior Norman Powell for leadership.[11] At season's end, Alford received honorable mention for the All-Pac-12 team.[23] Proving most major projections wrong, UCLA received an invite to the 2015 NCAA Tournament, earning a No. 11 seed.[24][25] In the Bruins' opener, Alford was credited with the game-winning three-point field goal 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,[26] 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]

Notes

  1. ↑ Kapono made 9 of 11 against Washington State on January 4, 2003.[27]
  2. ↑ Afflalo made 87 in 2006–07.[26]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 "Bryce Alford Bio". UCLA Bruins. Archived from the original on December 5, 2014.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Helfand, Zach (November 13, 2014). "UCLA's Bryce Alford shapes his own identity as starter". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 5, 2014.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Wang, Jack (May 22, 2013). "Bryce Alford invited to USA U19 training camp". Inside UCLA. Archived from the original on December 5, 2014.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "New Mexico Boys Basketball POY: Bryce Alford". USA Today. March 21, 2013. Archived from the original on December 5, 2014.
  5. ↑ McLaughlin, Brian (May 18, 2013). "Meet PARADE's 2013 All-America Basketball Teams". Parade. Archived from the original on October 21, 2014.
  6. ↑ Holt, John (June 14, 2013). "Men’s U19 Training Camp Begins, Players Feeling Eager". USA Basketball. Archived from the original on December 5, 2014.
  7. ↑ 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.
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Gold, Jon (June 9, 2014). "UCLA's other Alford providing early season spark". Arizona Daily Star. Retrieved December 5, 2014.
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 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.
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 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.
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 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.
  12. ↑ 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.
  13. ↑ 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.
  14. ↑ 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.
  15. ↑ Foster, Chris (April 17, 2014). "UCLA's Bryce Alford, Isaac Hamilton likely to share point guard job". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 5, 2014.
  16. ↑ Hefland, Zach (November 13, 2014). "UCLA guard Isaac Hamilton continues to shake off the rust". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved December 5, 2014.
  17. ↑ Gottlieb, Doug (January 7, 2015). "Unimpressive UCLA has plenty of problems". CBS Sports. Archived from the original on January 10, 2015.
  18. ↑ 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.
  19. ↑ Brennan, Eamonn (January 5, 2015). "Do UCLA's problems have solutions?". ESPN. Archived from the original on January 10, 2015.
  20. ↑ 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.
  21. ↑ Wang, Jack (November 21, 2014). "Bryce Alford notches second double-double in three games". Inside UCLA. Archived from the original on November 17, 2014.
  22. ↑ 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.
  23. ↑ "2014-15 Pac-12 Conference Men's Basketball Honors" (Press release). Pac-12. March 9, 2015. Archived from the original on March 9, 2015.
  24. ↑ 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.
  25. ↑ 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.
  26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 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.
  27. ↑ "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.

External links

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