Steve Alford

“I just go back to my roots. I was literally born 26 miles from Martinsville High School where Coach Wooden grew up, and then my dad coached there for four years.”

“Sometimes it's forgotten that players are coming to college to get a degree.”

“I've said all along it's a humbling experience being at UCLA. Extremely proud, extremely blessed to be at an institution with all this tradition.”

“When I was a freshman and sophomore, I got booed every time I was put in the game. Then, in my junior and senior years, my dad got booed every time he took me out.”

“The majority of the Big Ten towns are college towns. The colleges are kind of what run the towns.”

“Fans will come if you have a good product.”

“I'm a Christian first. I'm a family guy second. As much as I like coaching, as much as I like basketball, it's third, fourth, or fifth down the line.”

“Everything that UCLA stands for, it's top of the food chain. So you either look at those things as burdens or you look at them as blessings. From day one, I've told my staff we're going to look at it as a blessing and do everything we can to build champions.”

“I never dreamed I would coach at UCLA. It was not one of those things in my coaching career I thought would happen. It's a tremendous blessing, and I'm going to make the most of it.”

“Jabari Parker is one of the best, if not the best, I've seen on tape. He's so hard to guard. You've got to guard from 23 feet. He can shoot it, or he can go one-on-one from there. He can post. He's so fast and long.”

“I got to work for some great administrators at great institutions, and I had an opportunity to coach great players. Iowa is no different.”

“It's been an unbelievable thing for me to walk Bruin Walk and walk past Coach Wooden's statue, a guy that when I was in elementary school, it's Coach Wooden winning his final championship, his 10th in 12 years.”

“I don't know anything about the hotel business.”

“You control what you do offensively, defensively. You're controlling who you play, how you want to play.”

“The two places that I had most imprinted in my mind and in my memory were UCLA and Indiana. To play at one and coach at the other is unbelievable.”

“I feel blessed that I had an opportunity to be in the Big Ten for four years as a player and be in the Big Ten as a coach for eight years. To get 12 years in a conference like the Big Ten - it's a first-class league with great towns and great fans.”

“It's all about persevering. You know you're going to be tested. If you keep your eyes fixed on Christ, He's going to reward you.”

“There are very few LeBron James and Kobe Bryants.”

“I grew up in Indiana. My first four years of elementary were in the gym where Coach Wooden went to high school.”

“A freshman has only about 25% of his degree completed. They go off to play professional basketball, and to assume they will come back and get the degree done five, six, seven years later, I don't see that happening.”