Senior Bryce Alford says he prefers the reduced role he is playing for No. 2 UCLA
His first two seasons, the coach’s son was under constant scrutiny to prove his father didn’t unjustly gift him a UCLA uniform. Last season he was burdened with something even more stressful, trying to save Steve Alford’s job.
This season, Alford is finally playing the role he was meant for. He’s not a point guard. There are plenty of nights when he doesn’t even have to be a primary scorer. He has better defensive players around him to offset his deficiencies on that end of the floor. He’s mainly just a shooter…and the team’s vocal leader.
Alford finally seems secure enough in himself – and he has accepted that he can’t single-handedly save his father’s job – to play a reduced role. The thing he spoke most passionately about was how he perceives criticism of himself, which is detailed in this feature story I wrote about him. The turning point came during UCLA’s trip to the Sweet 16 in the 2015 NCAA tournament his sophomore year.
“The same voices that were bashing me my freshman year for playing over Zach (LaVine) or whatever it may be were the same voices that were praising me after I had a good game against SMU,” Alford said. “So I kind of saw it first hand, the same exact people that are going to bash you when you’re not doing well are going to praise you when you are doing well. That’s when I really started to realize the voices that I needed to listen to and not to pay attention to anything else.”
He admitted to pressing, especially early in his career, to justify the scholarship given to him by his father. He did consider other schools besides UCLA, but only for about a week. The elder Alford told his son that if Bryce wanted to explore other options, then his father would too.
Sons playing for fathers is a tradition in the Alford family. Steve played for his father in high school. Kory Alford played for Steve at New Mexico before following him to UCLA for his two final seasons. But nobody has found themselves in the crosshairs like Bryce.
“It’s one thing being a coach’s kid in high school and it’s another being a coach’s kid at UCLA in Los Angeles,” Steve Alford said. “I’ve told Bryce I don’t know if I could handle it at the age of 19 and 20 if what happened to him was happening to me at Newcastle High School.”