It’s 8:30 a.m. Wednesday and Steve Alford has woken up as a 60-year-old man for the 11th straight day. He’s in his office at the University of Nevada, joking that his recent monumental coaching record “just means I’m getting old.”

Honoring a Coaching Legacy

There have been plenty of 60-year-old coaches before him in Division I basketball, hundreds before him. Yet, Alford is only the second in the history of DI college hoops to achieve a remarkable feat: Winning at least 100 games at four different schools. 156 at Iowa, 155 at New Mexico, 124 at UCLA, and now 102 at Nevada. This puts him alongside the late legendary Lefty Driesell, the coach known for starting Midnight Madness. Driesell also accumulated at least 100 wins at Davidson (176), Maryland (348), and James Madison (159). He retired in January 2003, in the middle of his 41st season, with a career record of 786-394, which at the time made him the fourth winningest DI men’s basketball coach behind only Dean Smith, Adolph Rupp, and Bob Knight.Being talked about in the same breath as Driesell is an honor, Alford says. He never played against Driesell but had followed his career.

The Steve Alford Story, Part 1: ‘Everything Coach Knight Promised Me, It All Came True’

Alford’s 100th win at Nevada came on November 16 at home with an 85-59 victory over Santa Clara. Since that game, the team has won two more, putting Alford at 102 wins with Nevada and a 6-2 record for the season.With a 687-357 overall record, Alford is the 11th winningest active DI coach. As he talked about his 100-wins feat to IndyStar on Wednesday, he gave much of the credit to his fellow coaches and players throughout his 34-year career.“I’ve been with incredible staffs at all the stops and win, lose, or draw. Those were the people I wanted to go through those challenges with, the celebrations with,” he said. “And then, obviously, the players that those staffs recruited, just high character guys. And that doesn’t mean we won all of our games or didn’t have any speed bumps along the way, but just incredible players.”Alford played his college career under Knight at IU, winning a national title in 1987. He spent four years in the NBA after being drafted 26th overall by the Dallas Mavericks and also played for the Golden State Warriors before leaving pro basketball in 1991.“And I tell people all the time, I had no idea the journey I was going to go on when I got out of playing. I was only 26 years old when I got into this business and Manchester College hired me,” Alford said.At Manchester, Alford finished with a 78-29 record in four years before moving to Southwest Missouri State where he compiled a 78-48 record the next four years. Once at Iowa, his 100-plus wins began.“I’m very blessed that every school, every place, every city, every community has been incredible. And in every stop, something really cool has happened with our family,” Alford said. “And you know those are really the only things you can hope for when you’re a husband, a father, and now a grandfather.”Yes, Alford and his wife, Tanya, are grandparents. A.J. is two and a half years old and the son of Bryce Alford and his wife, Ali. Bryce is now an assistant coach for the Oklahoma City Blue of the NBA G League. Kai is a little over a year old and the son of Kory Alford and his wife, Haley. Kory is the head coach at Huntington University.“I’m just so blessed that basketball has been so good to our family,” Alford said.As for setting this historical record? “You know, I don’t think anybody ever wins enough, but I think the communities appreciated how we went about it, the culture that we were trying to build in basketball.”

The Steve Alford Series

The Steve Alford story, Part 1: ‘Everything Coach Knight Promised Me, It All Came True’The Steve Alford story, Part 2: Learning from Bob Knight — the hard wayThe Steve Alford story, Part 3: Defeated for the first time, he brings Indiana to NevadaSteve Alford: The early yearsAlford was born in Franklin, Indiana, on November 23, 1964. He played for New Castle High School, where his father, Sam, was his coach. Alford became the all-time single-game and career scoring leader for New Castle. He scored 57 points in the 1983 semi-state game and had 2,116 career points, which puts him 33rd on Indiana’s list of top scorers. He was 1983 Indiana Mr. Basketball. The Steve Alford Inn in New Castle pays tribute to him and stays current: A giant shoe is repainted to the colors of the team he’s currently coaching.Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on X:@DanaBenbow. Reach her via email:dbenbow@indystar.com