Knock knock — Alford's gone!

Fans of Iowa basketball should write down today’s date: March 22, 2007. They’ll want to remember it for the rest of their lives.

Sing the praise and shout the good news in the streets! Steve Alford is gone.

Woooooooooo hoooooooooooooooo!

According to ESPN, Alford and the University of New Mexico have finalized a contract to make him the Lobos’ new men’s basketball coach. The athletic department at Iowa has remained silent, but ESPN says Alford will be introduced to the media tomorrow in Albuquerque. Adam Haluska, Iowa's star for the past two years, confirmed the rumors tonight. Alford is out.

The dark days of Iowa basketball are over.

I want to go back to Iowa City just for tonight and tomorrow night. It’s the first time I’ve felt the urge to go back since moving to California. I want to celebrate there. I want to dance down Iowa Avenue in my blue and gold Iowa sweatshirt, drink pint after pint at The Que Bar, and get so drunk I’ll forget how to play stick. I could have the worst night of pool ever, but it wouldn’t matter because Alford is gone. There could be fifty bar crawls packing the tables and bar, and it wouldn’t matter because Alford is gone. The same old shit of Iowa City could depress me, but it wouldn’t matter because Alford is gone.

My dad has been updating me on the rumors spreading around town. He’s a longtime Iowa basketball fan who boycotted the team a couple years ago. He did it because of Alford, because he’s a horrible recruiter and an even worse coach. He refused to go to games when people offered him tickets, and he laughed when the team lost. It was sad to see.

Dad instilled his love of Iowa basketball in me. He took me to games at Carver when I was a kid. I grew up listening to his stories about the 1969-’70 season (the Hawks went undefeated in the conference that year) and the old Iowa Fieldhouse (bathrooms were scarce, concession stands were nonexistent, and fans could get the entire building to rock — what a home court advantage).

Even though I hated Alford I still supported the team. I threw pillows and empty beer cans at the TV when the Hawks lost. It made me sick to see them lose close ones, to fall to teams everyone knew they could beat (Northwestern a couple times, Michigan, Minnesota, Drake, the University of Nothing Important).

I didn’t think I could struggle through another four years, and now I don’t have to.

Alford is gone. Thank God.

Tonight my dad told me he was a fan of Iowa basketball again.

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