He made us wait a few extra minutes, and he decided when the post-game interviews were done.

It's inevitable that Alford, the head basketball coach at New Mexico, will always bear the burden of following his lightning-rod mentor into the coaching profession. Not only will his success rate be scrutinized, but his attitude and demeanor, as well.

So far, Alford is doing well on both counts. Despite Saturday's 83-66 loss at BYU -- and but for a 21-4 run to end the game, it wouldn't have even been that close -- Alford already has believers in Albuquerque. He's won 16 of his first 21 games in the Duke City.

Who would have blamed Alford for throwing a chair across the Marriott Center floor or strangling a player after watching his team fall behind by 34 points early in the second half?

Hey, he could have brought Knight with him on Saturday and it wouldn't have made much difference. New Mexico bore the brunt of BYU's shooting frustrations. After hitting just 33 percent from the field for the past three games, the Cougars drained just about every open shot. The Cougars finished 13-of-16 (81 percent) from the 3-point line.

When Jonathan Tavernari hit his first jumper early in the game, I turned to Daily Herald BYU basketball beat reporter Jason Franchuk and said, "He's going to hit seven or eight in a row now."

Not quite -- he finished 7-of-9 from the field, including 5-of-6 from the 3-point line -- in the first half. This after going 5 for his past 29.

It's funny how the team collectively shot poorly the past three games but shot well collectively against New Mexico. Shooting, it appears, is contagious.

Maybe that's what BYU's Trent Plaisted and Wyoming's Daniel Faris talked about in the elevator after the game. They had a huge battle during the game (where did Faris get all those post moves?) but I don't know if there was anything more than a "What's up?" head nod between them afterwards.

Awkward.

But back to Alford. I have to admit, it was pretty cool seeing and talking to the former Indiana prep legend, though his voice is a lot deeper than I imagined. I guess I still picture him as the fresh-faced, hair-parted-in-the-middle sharpshooter from New Castle, the kid who led the U.S. Olympic team to a gold medal in 1984 and Indiana to a national championship in 1987. He also took everything the volatile Knight could throw at him, due in large part to the fact that he was a coach's kid to begin with.

Back in the day, the 3-point line had just made an appearance in college basketball. Alford perfected the art of coming off screens and dropping in a triple (shooting from, as The Mtn. commentator Marty Fletcher annoyingly calls it, "a little place we like to call 'Treyville' ").

Knight has always been a fascinating guy to me. A terrific basketball coach, fiercely loyal to his friends and players, a complete jerk to the media and those others who dare to question his methods.

Thankfully, Alford seems to have acquired some of Knight's coaching acumen without the snide remarks and poor attitude.

Hey, if Alford can get the mercurial J.R. Giddens to play hard and shut his mouth, he must be a good coach.

• Daily Herald Sports Editor Darnell Dickson can be reached at 344-2555 or by e-mail at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it