Indiana

‘That’s Mr. Indiana’: Steve Alford back in Indy for Final Four. His luster hasn’t worn off

Published

4 days ago

April 6, 2026

‘That’s Mr. Indiana’: Steve Alford back in Indy for Final Four. His luster hasn’t worn off

INDIANAPOLIS — As Steve Alford walked among the masses in the state where he used to walk on water, the people came to walk along beside him. His Indiana luster, after all these years, still hasn’t worn off.

Some stopped and watched from afar, gathering their courage, before asking Alford for an autograph or a selfie. Every one of them had a story to tell about the time they saw him play, as if Alford wouldn’t remember what he did in that game.

Alford nods, and he smiles as if it’s the first time he’s ever heard someone talk about that game quite that way. He’s done this so many times.

Back in Indy for the Final Four this weekend, not as coach of his Nevada team, which lost in the quarterfinals of the NIT, Alford was here for other reasons. Reasons which, in his estimation, in the entire scheme of life, were a whole lot more important than playing basketball.

He put them in this order: Faith. Family. Coaching. And, though he doesn’t mention it, a prestigious John Wooden award.

Alford has been a bit nervous about that last one, says his wife, Tanya, who met her husband before his was a basketball star; in the fifth grade in New Castle, Ind.; became his high school sweetheart, built a marriage that’s lasted 38 years and has given them two sons, a daughter and three grandsons, with a granddaughter on the way.

Alford gets emotional at stuff like that. The Coach Wooden “Keys to Life” award is presented each year at the Final Four to a “player or coach who best exemplifies character, leadership and integrity in the home, on the court and throughout the community,” says Athletes in Action, which gives the award.

Before Alford sat under the spotlight on the stage of the 500 Ballroom in the Indiana Convention Center on Saturday morning to receive the award, he spent Friday afternoon coaching a clinic for the National Association of Basketball Coaches. Then he was at Butler University for an Athletes in Action private sponsor event.

And everywhere he went, the people were there beside him.

The masses in Indy this weekend, those more than 70,000 fans, knew their basketball. They talked to Alford about his senior year at New Castle High in the semistate finals against Broad Ripple when he scored 57 points and went 25 for 25 from the free-throw line.

And of course, they talked about him leading Indiana University to its last national title in 1987 and his “almost unbelievable crazy good college stats,” as one fan called them

At IU, Alford shot 89.7% from the free-throw line and 53.3% from the field. The NCAA didn’t allow 3-point shots until his senior season, but on 202 attempts, he made 107. That’s 53%. Today’s Division I basketball 3-point average is 35%.

“That would get me a few mil today,” Alford, 61, jokes under his breath, referring to NIL, which didn’t exist in his days. “Before, it was donated to some library fund.”

Known as a sharpshooting, boy-next-door heartthrob of the NCAA in the 1980s, it can only be assumed that Alford would have gotten a pretty penny from NIL.

He did once get suspended for a game for posing in a fundraising calendar for a sorority, even though he didn’t make any money off of it. When Alford showed up to the airport with the team, thinking he could at least travel to the game, IU coach Bob Knight gave him a few choice words and left him stranded on the tarmac as the team plane flew off.

The basketball stories and memories that link Alford to Indiana are prolifically recorded and number in the hundreds, if not thousands.

“Steve Alford is our home child,” said New Castle Mayor Greg York, who has known Alford since he moved to town in fifth grade. “Everybody knows Steve like he’s their own child.”

As Alford walked through the convention center, Kyle Colsen walked behind him with his 7-year-old son, Charlie, and then noticed who was in front of them.

“That guy right there,” Colsen whispered to his son, “that’s Mr. Indiana.”

‘He’s just Steve to me’

The fanfare surrounding her husband has always felt a bit surreal to Tanya. It’s tough to think about that scrawny boy who lived across the street — who played dodgeball, Kick the Can and Red Rover with her on the playground of Riley Elementary School in New Castle — as being some legend.

Yet, she knows, he is.

Those people came up to Tanya this weekend, too, to tell her stories about the games they watched her husband play and the remarkable feats he accomplished. Tanya nodded and smiled, and she acted like it was the first time she’d ever heard that story told quite that way.

“He’s just Steve to me,” Tanya says. “We grew up together. Our families were very close friends. My parents were very close with his parents.”

Tanya and Alford’s love didn’t blossom until their junior years of high school, when they made plans to go to the New Castle prom. Then Alford was invited to play in the Dapper Dan Invitational that weekend. They ended up at a basketball game instead.

By their senior year, with a missed junior prom and all, Alford and Tanya were in love. They both went to IU for college, then Tanya transferred to the University of Evansville her last two years to get a physical therapy degree.

They married right after graduation, and Alford was drafted 26th overall by the Dallas Mavericks.

“And so the journey began,” Tanya says. “It’s been such a journey and such a, gosh, such a blessing. Just all the places we’ve been and all the people we’ve met. Sometimes, I just stop and think, ‘Wow, we are truly blessed.’”

Shooting into a Pringles can

When the city heard Alford would be in Indy for the Final Four, his calendar started filling up. On Friday, he was mic’d up on a makeshift court inside the Indiana Convention Center giving nearly 200 fellow college basketball coaches the wisdom he’s gained from more than three decades on the sideline and 700 wins.

Every year, the NABC reaches out to coaches from all levels of basketball to conduct clinics at its annual convention, which this year coincided with the Final Four in Indy.

“Given Coach Alford’s respect amongst his coaching colleagues and his ties to Indiana, we felt he would be a natural fit,” Eric Wieberg, NABC director of communications and digital media, said in an e-mail to IndyStar. “Coach Alford gladly accepted our invitation to conduct a clinic and give his time to educate fellow coaches.”

First, Alford urged his coaching peers to stop accepting mediocre 3-point shooting.

“I really don’t get it, how 35% is good 3-point shooting. I don’t get that. I don’t think I’ll ever get that,” Alford said. “You should be above 50%, not 35%.”

Give the passers a rest and let players rebound their own balls in drills, Alford said. It’s built-in conditioning.

“And I’m a big, big believer in the mechanics of the shot. You build confidence by doing it the right way,” Alford said. “Because by doing it the right way, you’re going to see the ball go in.”

Alford’s shooting touch started early, when he was 6 years old or so, and he found a Pringles can, emptied it out and started perfecting making a ping pong ball fall into his target. At first, Alford “cheated,” putting the can up against the window so he could bank the shot. Once he mastered that, he put the can in the middle of the room.

“And it was a lot more difficult,” Alford said. “And that, in my opinion, was the foundation of me developing the touch.”

Alford believes every player should have to earn the right to shoot 3-pointers in a game. That’s why his Nevada team has to earn a “shooting license” to take triples.

The test to get the license can come at anytime, on Alford’s whim, whenever he wants to make sure a player should be shooting 3s. The license requirement is making 35 out of 50 shots from different spots on the arc.

“If you don’t make 35 out of 50,” Alford says, “we don’t want to hear you telling us that you want to be shooting 3s in the next game.”

After the clinic was over, Alford stood once again signing autographs and talking to people who wanted to hear more from him. His son, Kory, stood beside him.

Being back in Indiana with his dad for the weekend has been incredible, said Kory, an associate head coach at Oral Roberts University.

Especially because of that award, the John Wooden award, the one Alford tries to be humble about, but the award everyone in his circle knows means more to him than he’s letting on.

Tears and a lot of laughter

Alford sat under the spotlight inside the Indiana Convention Center with a handkerchief in his hands. He had been worried he would need it, but was hoping he would not.

The video came across the screen. His family had recorded secret messages, telling him in different ways how proud they were of him, what an inspiration he is to them, how they admire the way he never waivers from his faith and his beliefs.

Alford put his head down and wiped his eyes. “I was hoping it wouldn’t be something emotional,” he said as the tribute ended.

“He gets very choked up when he talks about his parents or his upbringing or our kids and grandkids,” Tanya said. “That is his soft spot.”

Then came the video with CBS college basketball analyst Clark Kellogg on set with Nate Burleson, Bruce Pearl, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley, taking a moment to congratulate Alford.

After the others had given Alford his accolades, the screen zoomed in on Barkley.

“Let me look at that camera right there,” Barkley said, pointing his finger. “You know damn well I should have made that (1984 Olympics team), let me tell you. You were such a good dude. We had so many fun nights together.”

As Alford remembers those nights, the word “fun” doesn’t necessarily come to mind, he said, laughing. Barkley was Alford’s Olympic trials roommate in 1984. Alford had just finished his freshman year at IU, was 19 years old, 6-1 and barely 155 pounds.

“And him and Chuck Person, and if you know Chuck (Person), Chuck’s bigger than Chuck (Barkley) and Chuck’s 6-8,” Alford said. “And they would have a wrestling match every day in Chuck and I’s room. And I was pinned up against the wall.”

Alford’s family would call to ask how the trials were going. “I’m like, ‘I’m just trying to survive, because the wrestling that’s going on in this room is unbelievable.’”

Alford made the 1984 Olympic team and won a gold medal. Barkley didn’t. But, Alford is quick to point out, Barkley won gold in 1992 and 1996. He and Barkley are close.

“You’ve been a friend for a long time. You are such a good man. You’ve had a hell of a career,” Barkley said in the video. “Congratulations, man. Well deserved.”

As the awards banquet ended, Alford talked about the Christian faith that has guided him throughout his life and his career.

“I grew up in a spiritual home and was taught the right way,” he said. “You always did the right thing, but you learn about staying close to God, getting closer to God.”

Then Alford told a story about why he decided to play basketball at IU.

“Well, all you’ve got to do is read John 20:21 and it says, ‘So as the Father sent me, so send I you.’ It’s the only university (mentioned in the Bible),” Alford said of the word play on IU. “So that’s where I knew I was meant to be.”

With that, the crowd of hundreds erupted in the 500 Ballroom as Alford sat in the spotlight. And, once again, Alford felt right at home.

The 2026 Final Four championship game is set for Lucas Oil Stadium in Indianapolis Monday, April 6 and will be shown on TBS.

Here’s what you need to know about the weekend, the 2026 March Madness bracket, odds, picks and predictions.

Follow IndyStar sports reporter Dana Benbow on X: @DanaBenbow. Reach her via email: dbenbow@indystar.com.

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Indiana

White House tried to push a Republican candidate out of an Indiana state Senate race

Published

8 hours ago

April 10, 2026

Press Room

White House tried to push a Republican candidate out of an Indiana state Senate race

White House officials offered an Indiana Senate candidate potential government jobs and appointments in exchange for dropping out of the Republican primary election next month, according to recorded phone calls and text messages released Friday.

Alexandra Wilson is running to unseat state Sen. Greg Goode (R-Terre Haute) in Indiana Senate District 38. The other challenger, Vigo County Council member Brenda Wilson, has the endorsement of President Donald Trump.

Trump has backed candidates against Goode and other Indiana senators who voted against his call to redraw the state’s congressional maps mid-decade during the legislative session last year.

Alexandra Wilson released a collection of screenshots, voicemail transcriptions and recorded calls to reporters Friday. NBC News was the first to report on the files.

“Instead of considering the merits of my candidacy, the White House and Indiana leaders have spent countless hours trying to push me aside, including offers of potential employment in taxpayer-funded roles in exchange for my leaving the race,” Wilson said in a written statement. “They crossed a line, and Hoosiers deserve to know that.”

The files shared by Wilson show contact from Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith, Gov. Mike Braun’s chief of staff Joshua Kelley, White House political director Matt Brasseaux and White House deputy chief of staff James Blair.

The calls and text messages appear to begin in early February, just after Wilson filed to run in the primary. Wilson shared call logs with WFYI but it’s not exactly clear what day each call was taken on.

When Brasseaux spoke with Wilson, he asked her to tell him about why she was running.

“I do not believe that Brenda is a good candidate,” she told Brasseaux on a call. “I don’t think she’s a good choice. I don’t, you know, I don’t think she’d be making quality choices for the local folks here.”

But Brasseaux then offered to contact what he described as the White House’s hiring office to find her a “landing spot.”

“Is that something that would be interesting to you? As far as employment?” Brasseaux asked.

Alexandra Wilson told him it would not.

In a statement sent to WFYI, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said “this is what the political team does.”

“They talk to candidates across the country. And it’s not, you know, again, it’s not coming from a place of malice. It is coming from a place of doing their jobs to report back to the president about what’s going on in these races.”

WFYI reached out to Lt. Gov. Micah Beckwith and Gov. Mike Braun’s office for comment, but did not immediately hear back.

In another call with White House deputy chief of staff James Blair, he raised concerns about there being two candidates with the last name Wilson in the race, noting that it could give the edge to incumbent Goode.

Blair also told Wilson that it would be difficult for Trump to “change streams” and endorse her after first endorsing Brenda Wilson.

“If we go the three way and there is no change,” Blair said. “I think this is going to be a really nasty race.”

Blair then asked Wilson where she stood on redistricting and whether he could get her to stand down from the race. Wilson again said she would not step down.

Blair then brought up Wilson’s arrest and asked how she would explain herself to voters.

At 19, Wilson was charged with resisting arrest by vehicle, Wilson’s attorney has said, which means she did not immediately pull over for officers.

Blair warned her that it “will for sure come up” with both Greg Goode and Senate President Pro Tem Rodric Bray “playing for keeps.”

Before ending the call Blair asked her how much in donations she could raise and whether she had a campaign team.

“I’ve got the support of the GOP chairman,” Wilson said.

That call was made in early February. By the end of that month, James Bopp, an attorney who says he supports Brenda Wilson, would be in front of the Indiana Election Commission challenging Alexandra Wilson’s right to appear on the ballot.

Bopp challenged Alexandra Wilson’s eligibility to appear on the ballot on the grounds that she was charged with a felony. The issue has twice deadlocked the Indiana Election Commission even though Alexandra Wilson says she never pleaded to a felony, and her attorney said the charge was pleaded down to a misdemeanor.

Alexandra Wilson has since had that case expunged from her record, but that hasn’t stopped James Bopp from repeatedly asserting she is a felon, something Wilson’s attorney has warned amounts to “defamation per se.”

The primary election is May 5.

Contact Government Reporter Benjamin Thorp at bthorp@wfyi.org

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Indiana

Indiana expands emergency advisories for high water on northern lakes

Published

20 hours ago

April 10, 2026

Press Room

Indiana expands emergency advisories for high water on northern lakes

WOLCOTTVILLE, Ind. (WISH) — The Indiana Department of Natural Resources on Thursday issued a second emergency advisory to restrict watercraft due to high water on lakes in the northern part of the state.

As WISHTV.com previously reported, the first emergency advisory, issued Tuesday, affected lakes in Kosciusko County. On the Barbee Lakes Chain, the operation of all motorized watercraft is restricted. The Barbee Lakes Chain consists of Kuhn, Big Barbee, Little Barbee, Irish, Sechrist, Sawmill and Banning Lakes.

Also in Kosciusko County, an idle speed restriction has been placed on motorized watercraft on the Tippecanoe Lake Chain and Lake Wawasee; the Tippecanoe Lake Chain includes Lake Tippecanoe, Oswego and James Lakes.

The second emergency advisory, issued Thursday, placing an idle-speed restriction on motorized watercraft on the Indian Lakes Chain in southern LaGrange County. The goal is to prevent boat wakes from causing water to enter homes. The emergency advisory specifically impacts Witmer, Westler, Dallas, Hackenberg and Messick lakes, which comprise the Indian Lakes Chain.

Natural Resources lists its advisories on its website.

The lakes provide tourists and residents with year-round recreation including swimming, fishing, skiing, boating, kayaking and canoeing.

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Indiana

Indiana Fever share indoor renderings of new practice facility, set to open in 2027

Published

1 day ago

April 9, 2026

Press Room

Indiana Fever share indoor renderings of new practice facility, set to open in 2027

INDIANAPOLIS — The Indiana Fever are making progress on their new practice facility.

Pacers Sports and Entertainment shared renderings of the inside of the facility, situated across from Gainbridge Fieldhouse at the intersection of Maryland and Delaware streets, on Thursday morning.

The 108,000-square-foot space will be a major upgrade from the Fever’s current practice space, which is situated inside Gainbridge Fieldhouse with just one court and minimal player support areas.

Those renderings include dual practice courts, a podcast studio, golf simulator, individual player spaces within the locker room, and a room for dedicated childcare services. It will also have a full kitchen with a chef, and a recovery suite that includes hydrotherapy pools, an infrared sauna, and massage therapy rooms.

The $78 million structure will be three levels, with part of the first story dedicated to be open to the public with a team store and the Fever Hall of Excellence.

“These renderings bring our vision into focus,” Indiana Fever president Kelly Krauskopf said in a statement. “Every element of this facility has been intentionally designed around our players including how they train, recover, connect and live day to day. This will set a new standard for women’s sports and continue to position Indianapolis at the center of that momentum.”

The facility is expected to open ahead of the 2027 WNBA season — just in time for what may be a frenzy of free agency for the second straight offseason.

Chloe Peterson is the Indiana Fever beat reporter for IndyStar. Reach her at capeterson@indystar.com or follow her on X at @chloepeterson67. Get IndyStar’s Indiana Fever and Caitlin Clark coverage sent directly to your inbox with our Caitlin Clark Fever newsletter. Subscribe to IndyStar’s YouTube channel for Fever Insiders Live.

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