Bryce Alford

Alford was born in Manchester, Indiana,[2] to Tanya and Steve Alford, a college basketball coach and former professional player.[3] His father was coaching at Manchester College at the time.[4] By the time Alford was five, he would sit in on his father's locker room talks, and stood beside him during news conferences.[5]

Alford attended La Cueva High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico.[6] 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.[7] He signed a National Letter of Intent to accept New Mexico's athletic scholarship offer in December.[5][6]

As a senior, Alford broke a 50-year-old New Mexico high school single-season scoring record with 1,050 points.[3][8][9] 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.[9] For the season, he was named New Mexico's Gatorade Player of the Year.[9] While he earned first-team Parade All-American honors,[10] recruiting services did not rank him among the top 100 overall players nationally.[11][12] He was ranked No. 44 at shooting guard, but he considered himself a point guard.[11] Steve believed his son's commitment to play for him negatively impacted his ranking.[13] Alford participated in USA Basketball's training camp for the 2013 FIBA Under-19 World Championship,[8][14] where he was eager to gain national attention.[11]

In March 2013, Steve became the coach at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), and Alford followed him.[15] The Bruins rarely sought players who were not four- or five-star recruits.[5] With Alford rated a consensus three-star prospect,[11] skeptics were wary of nepotism.[5][16] 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.[17] 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.[18][19][20] 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.[21][18] 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.[22] He became the first UCLA freshman since Don MacLean in 1988 to exceed 30 points in a game.[17] 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.[5] He and LaVine were named the Bruins' top freshmen.[23]

After Anderson and LaVine left UCLA for the National Basketball Association (NBA), Alford became the Bruins' starting point guard in 2014–15.[24][25] Although he was considered more of a shooter than a true point guard,[26][27][28] Alford was the team's only legitimate option for the position.[29] 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.[30] 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.[31] Criticism for him being the coach's son was at its peak, but the team looked to him and senior Norman Powell for leadership.[19] At season's end, Alford received honorable mention for the All-Pac-12 team.[32] Proving most major projections wrong, UCLA received an invite to the 2015 NCAA tournament, earning a No. 11 seed.[33][34] 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,[35] 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.[37][38] 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.[39][40] 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.[41] 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.[42] He was named Pac-12 Player of the Week after averaging 21.5 points in the two games on 55 percent shooting.[43] Alford was often clutch during the season, but he made just 38.5% of his shots despite leading the team in attempts.[44] 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, and he again received honorable mention for the All-Pac-12 team.[3]

Alford moved to shooting guard in 2016–17 after highly touted freshman point guard Lonzo Ball arrived at UCLA.[45] During the season, Alford established career highs shooting 48 percent from the field and 43 percent on three-pointers,[46][47] and was named first-team All-Pac-12 along with teammates Ball and T. J. Leaf.[48] He also became the first player in UCLA history to reach career totals of both 1,700 points and 500 assists.[49] On January 12, 2017, Alford scored a career-high 37 points in a 104–89 win at Colorado. He also tied his career high with nine three-pointers, helping UCLA set a school record with 19 three-pointers made.[50] On February 25, he scored a team-high 15 points to lead the No. 5 Bruins to a 77–72 win over No. 4 Arizona, which also snapped their conference rivals' 21-game home winning streak.[51] He also made 3-of-7 three-pointers to surpass his own single-season school record for three-point field goals made (93).[52] In the regular season finale against Washington State, Alford made two three-pointers in a 77–68 win to tie Kapono's school record for career three-pointers made (317).[53] In UCLA's opener in the Pac-12 tournament, Alford made two three-pointers to become the Bruins' career leader in a 74–69 win over USC.[54] He finished his UCLA career as the fifth-leading scorer in school history,[55] and graduated with a degree in political science.[56]

Alford was selected to play for the United States national team in their second round of qualifiers for the 2019 World Cup.[73] He helped the US go 2–0 in their September 2018 games to extend their record to 7–1 with two remaining windows to play.[74]

Alford married Ali Warner in 2019.[75][76] He is a Christian.[76]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Bryce Alford.

• Career statistics and player information from Basketball-Reference.com
• UCLA Bruins bio