Alford humbled by new job

LOS ANGELES – Steve Alford calls his new job as UCLA basketball coach “a challenge.”

Alford walked into Pauley Pavilion for the first time since the 1984 Summer Olympics and took his place under the 11 national championship banners Monday.

He says that he doesn’t think he’ll change who he’s been for the first 22 years of his coaching career now that he’s in charge of the storied program that fellow Hoosier John Wooden built. He calls his new job “a great, humbling, honorable position.”