Steve Alford on Bob Knight's death: 'I'm a mess. I loved that man so much'

Steve Alford knew there was no way he could get through a phone call Wednesday evening to talk about the man he has known since third grade, when Alford first traveled from his New Castle home to those summer basketball camps at IU, watching that towering, intense, fiery coach named Bob Knight in awe.

There was no way Alford could talk about his dream all those years ago, a little boy's dream of one day playing for Knight, a dream that eventually came true at IU. Alford wouldn't be able to get the words out, what it meant to win an NCAA championship in 1987, about his and Knight's friendship after basketball that was still strong decades later.

"I’m a mess," Alford, now coaching Nevada, told IndyStar via text Wednesday night, after Knight died at the age of 83. "I could not get through a call."

Instead, Alford wrote almost poetically his feelings on the coach he last visited in October. In recent years, they would watch film of old games together, Alford still asking him for coaching advice. A couple of times Alford had to go out and talk basketball in a pasture while Knight shot birds.

"I'd rather be in a film room with him than out in a pasture," he said in 2019, "but it’s whatever coach wants, I’m going to adhere to."

And sometimes, in the months before Knight's death, Alford would just sit and talk as Knight listened.

"The man meant the world to me," Alford said Wednesday. "I saw him about a month ago. It’s all very sad."

Knight was a frail man in his final days, not the strong boisterous figure Alford had known so well.

"Bottom line, he made me a better man and player. He promised me that I would play with great teammates, we would have a chance to win championships, I would get my degree, and I would have a friend for life," Alford wrote Wednesday. "Not only did he check those important boxes, he has done so much more for me."

The dream came true

The dream of playing for Knight began for Alford as he sat in the lunchroom in high school and saw his dad, Sam Alford, New Castle's basketball coach, walking up to him.

"I was actually mad that dad was bothering me in the lunchroom with my buddies, because you don’t want your dad bothering you in the lunchroom," Alford told IndyStar in 2019. "My dad said, 'OK good. I’ll just leave. Just so you know, coach Knight just called.'"

Alford bolted out of the lunchroom to hear more. Sam Alford had been sitting in his office when the call came in. "Coach Knight was always short and direct and to the point," the elder Alford told IndyStar in 2019.

He wanted to offer Alford a scholarship to play for him at IU. "And of course that’s what Steve wanted from day one," Sam Alford said.

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When Alford left the lunchroom that day and learned Knight had offered him a scholarship, he looked at his dad and immediately said, "Call him back and tell him, 'Yes,'" Alford recalled. "So that was how hard it was for me."

Alford never took an official visit to IU. He didn't need to take an official visit. He was going to play for a legend. And Knight got a player, just the kind of player he liked.

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Alford: 'He got the best out of me'

Knight and Alford had a special bond, one that meant the coach felt comfortable making Alford uncomfortable.

It happened once in February 1987, when Alford became the all-time leading scorer for Indiana. He broke the 2,192-point mark set by Don Schlundt. The Hoosiers' record stood at 20-2 and 11-1 in the conference.

Standing in front of the media after Alford's record-setting game, Knight was livid.

"I thought Alford was horrendous," he said. "We got absolutely nothing out of him from the standpoint of leadership. It's his responsibility to get people ready to play a ball game. He's had two great games and apparently that's what he was interested in this week."

Alford, to this day, isn't mad about it. He said he understood why Knight tore into him.

"I didn't play well. In fact, I played awful...," Alford said in 2019. "It's weird, but it's one of the things I probably appreciated about coach. He had this unique, unbelievable ability to where you could be playing very well and he would convince you that you had to forget about that and get to the next game."

One day at practice, Alford walked up to Knight with an idea about the coach's yelling. When the fury sets in, coach, when a player does something knuckleheaded or idiotic, don't yell at them, Alford said to Knight.

"Just yell at me. Because when you yell at this guy, he can’t handle it. I’ll handle it," Alford said. "I’ll get it. He can’t get it, but we need him. So just yell at me."

Alford and Knight had this thing. No one, not even Alford, can say exactly what it was. But other people saw it. Knight respected Alford right from the start — so much so that Alford got the Knight treatment immediately.

Getting thrown out of practices? That usually happened to the seniors, the ones Knight counted on. Alford got thrown out as a freshman. In Alford's first season on the team, Knight shouted one day in Assembly Hall: "Goddammit Alford, you must have left your brain behind in New Castle."

Knight was never hard on Alford about his shooting, once telling him, "I don't worry about that. I know you can shoot." But Alford's defense and leadership were repeatedly called out by Knight.

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After a game Alford's senior year, Knight blew up in the locker room: "Alford, what's your excuse? How can anybody play four years in this system and not learn one thing about playing defense? I've wasted, totally wasted, three years trying to teach you, and the minute you go into a defensive crouch, I hear people laughing in the stands."

At another practice, Knight told him, "Steve, you can't stand there like a (expletive, expletive) statue. That's what they've got in the harbor in New York, a (expletive, expletive) statue. I don't need that bull (expletive) in here."

Knight later stood in front of an IU student assembly and said: "If any of you pass Steve Alford on campus, I want you to stop him and ask him if he can spell 'defense.'"

No matter how well Alford passed it off on the outside, that he could "take the yelling," there were feelings going on inside. Alford's not going to lie, Knight could break his heart. The words sometimes did hurt.

"While it was the best (playing for Knight) because that’s what I had dreamed about, I mean, it’s hard," Alford said in 2019. "It’s tough. But, he got the best out of me."

What many people didn't realize, Alford said, was in Knight's toughness, he showed how much he cared and loved his players. All he wanted was to make them better.

As the years passed, Alford said Knight became a mentor, a father figure and a friend.

"He was such an incredible man," Alford told IndyStar on Wednesday. "I learned so much from him."

Those years playing for Knight were magical.

"I loved playing for coach so much," Alford said Wednesday, "but his friendship after playing was so meaningful. I loved that man so much. This is a very difficult loss. I'm praying for comfort and peace for his family."

'He always challenged me': IU coach Mike Woodson remembers coach Bob Knight

Steve Alford: The Knight Era

Playing for Coach Bob Knight, Alford graduated as IU’s all-time leading scorer (2,438 points) and all-time leader in steals (178). He is in the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame.

At 19, Alford played for Knight on the 1984 U.S. men’s Olympic basketball team, which won the gold medal.

He was Team MVP for four years at Indiana University; All-American in 1986 and ’87; and helped his team win the 1987 NCAA National Championship.

Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on X: @DanaBenbow. Reach her via e-mail: dbenbow@indystar.com.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Bob Knight's death: 'I loved that man so,' Steve Alford