Do As I Did & As I Say: Alford & Penny Only Active Coaches in Rare Category

October 9th, 2025 - 9:58

"The expectations of life depend upon diligence; the mechanic that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools." - Confucius

Nevada's Steve Alford, an All-American guard for Indiana in 1986 and 1987, was the only active coach to have been an A-A player before coaching an A-A (New Mexico's Darington Hobson in 2010, UCLA's Kyle Anderson in 2013-14 and UCLA's Lonzo Ball in 2016-17) until Memphis' Penny Hardaway joined him last season (PJ Haggerty). Memphis (also Larry Finch) joined Boston College (Bob Cousy and Jim O'Brien) and UCLA (also John Wooden) as the only three schools to have two different coaches in this rare All-American category.

Previously, Indiana native Wooden was the only All-American player to eventually coach All-Americans for two different universities (Indiana State and UCLA) with neither of them being his alma mater (Purdue). Unbelievably, Wooden had multiple A-As in 10 of his final 12 campaigns guiding the Bruins. Confucius would say the Hoosier State has sharpened a lot of basketball tools. Indiana's Branch McCracken, the only one of nearly 70 All-Americans who became major-college mentors to compile a higher winning percentage as a coach than as a player, produced 14 A-As with his alma mater. Alford, McCracken and Wooden are among the following alphabetical list of 17 major-college All-Americans who went on to coach at least one major-college A-A:

Coach Alma Mater Year(s) as A-A All-American Player(s) Coached
Steve Alford Indiana 1986 and 1987 New Mexico's Darington Hobson (2010), UCLA's Kyle Anderson (2014) and UCLA's Lonzo Ball (2017)
Henry Bibby UCLA 1972 Southern California's Sam Clancy (2002)
Bob Cousy Holy Cross 1948 through 1950 Boston College's John Austin (1965 and 1966) and Terry Driscoll (1969)
Howie Dallmar Penn 1945 Penn's Ernie Beck (1951 and 1953) and Stanford's Paul Neumann (1959) and Rich Kelley (1975)
Larry Finch Memphis State 1973 Memphis State's Anfernee Hardaway (1993) and Lorenzen Wright (1996)
Tom Gola La Salle 1952 through 1955 La Salle's Larry Cannon (1969)
Jack Gray Texas 1934 and 1935 Texas' John Hargis (1947)
Anfernee "Penny" Hardaway Memphis State 1993 Memphis' PJ Haggerty (2025)
Clem Haskins Western Kentucky 1966 and 1967 Minnesota's Bobby Jackson (1997) and Quincy Lewis (1999)
Juwan Howard Michigan 1994 Michigan's Hunter Dickinson (2021)
Moose Krause Notre Dame 1932 through 1934 Notre Dame's Leo Barnhorst (1949), Leo Klier (1944), Kevin O'Shea (1947 through 1950)
Branch McCracken Indiana 1930 Indiana's Ernie Andres (1939), Walt Bellamy (1960), Archie Dees (1957 and 1958), Bill Garrett (1951), Ralph Hamilton (1947), Marv Huffman (1940), Slick Leonard (1953 and 1954), Bill Menke (1940), Jimmy Rayl (1962 and 1963), Don Schlundt (1953 through 1955), Dick Van Arsdale (1965), Tom Van Arsdale (1965), Lou Watson (1950) and Andy Zimmer (1942)
Jim O'Brien Boston College 1971 Boston College's Bill Curley (1994) and Ohio State's Scoonie Penn (1999 and 2000)
John Oldham Western Kentucky 1949 Tennessee Tech's Jimmy Hagan (1959) and Western Kentucky's Clem Haskins (1966 and 1967) and Jim McDaniels (1970 and 1971)
Harv Schmidt Illinois 1957 Illinois' Dave Scholz (1969)
John Thompson Jr. Providence 1964 Georgetown's Patrick Ewing (1982 through 1985), Sleepy Floyd (1981 and 1982), Allen Iverson (1996), Alonzo Mourning (1989 through 1992), Dikembe Mutombo (1991), Charles Smith (1989) and Reggie Williams (1987)
John Wooden Purdue 1932 Indiana State's Duane Klueh (1948) and UCLA's Lew Alcindor (1967 through 1969), Lucius Allen (1968), Henry Bibby (1972), Keith Erickson (1965), Gail Goodrich (1964 and 1965), John Green (1962), Walt Hazzard (1963 and 1964), Dave Meyers (1975), Willie Naulls (1956), Curtis Rowe (1970 and 1971), George Stanich (1950), Walt Torrence (1959), John Vallely (1970), Bill Walton (1972 through 1974), Mike Warren (1967 and 1968), Richard Washington (1975), Sidney Wicks (1970 and 1971) and Keith Wilkes (1973 and 1974)