Steve Alford University of New Mexico Certainly Steve Alford is no stranger to Indiana basketball fans. He had an outstanding high school career at New Castle High School and was named Indiana “Mr. Basketball” in 1983. While at Indian University he was a three-time all Big 10 selection, twice an All American (1987, 1988) and captain of Bobby Knight’s 1987 NCAA National Championship team. Steve Alford began his coaching career at Indiana‘s Manchester College, going 78-29 in four years and leading his team to a Division III National title match-up in 1995. Another four-year stint followed at Missouri Valley powerhouse Southwest Missouri: now Missouri State—where he compiled four winning seasons and a cumulative 78-48 record plus a pair of post season bids. The former Olympian and one-time NBA pro with Dallas and Golden State was named the University of Iowa head coach in 1999. He led the Hawkeyes to the NCAA the very next year and to five consecutive post season berths thereafter. He completed an eight year stint at Iowa with a 152-106 record. In two short years at New Mexico where he landed in 2007, He’s made the Lobos a distinct threat to all comers and brought new thrills to the infamous “Pit” in Albuquerque. In 2007-2008 his team tied the record for most wins by a Lobo coach in his first season, winning 24 of 33 games. During his 17 year coaching career his teams have averaged 20.6 wins and in early February 2010 were hot on the trail of another 20+ wins and perhaps their first conference championship in 15 years. Welcome home Steve! Dana Altman Creighton University During Dana Altman’s 16 years at Creighton University, 20 win season have become commonplace. After moving form Kansas State in 1994, where he compiled a 68-54 record and secured three post season tourney bids, he’s had 11 straight 20 win seasons during the past 15 years including seven NCAA and five NIT appearances. Dana earned all-conference honors as a quarterback in football and as a guard in basketball at Wilber High School in Nebraska. He began his journey in the coaching ranks as an assistant at Western State in Gunnison, Colorado. He then briefly and very successfully (29-6) served as head coach at Southeast Jr. College and another three highly successful years at Moberly (MO) Junior College where his record was 94-18. He spent three years at Kansas State as an assistant then moved across the country to become the head coach at Marshall University. He became the head coach at Creighton for the 1994-95 season. During his 15 years at Creighton he has led the Blue Jays to a 309-160 record. Altman is among the few coaches to be chosen Coach of the Year in three different conferences including the Southern Conference 1990, the Big 8 in 1993 and the Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year in 2001 and 2002. John Carter NOAH Basketball John Carter is the CEO of Noah Basketball-a leader in Basketball Shooting Technology and Shooting Research. John was instrumental in the development of the Noah Select Shooting System that is now being used by top High School, College, and NBA teams to improve their shooting. He has worked with thousands of players at all levels of the game and has become an authority on how to improve shooting percentages. He speaks at numerous coaching clinics each year sharing with coaches significant unknown facts about shooting. He also served as an AAU basketball coach for many years with over an 80% winning percentage. Tricia Cullop University of Toledo Coach Cullop is a native of Bicknell Indiana and is a former Indiana All Star and Purdue Boilermaker. In the mid 1990’s Cullop left the state of Indiana after three productive years on Purdue's NCAA teams coached by Linn Dunn. She began her coaching career at Radford and then coached at both Long Beach State and Xavier before becoming the head coach at the University of Evansville for the past eight years. During the 2007-2008 season, while leading the Purple Aces, she was Co-Coach of the Year. Coach Cullop became the head coach at Toledo in April 2008. Her first team got off to an unexpectedly strong 18-13 season and Cullop earned MAC Conference Co-Coach of the Year Honors. This season Toledo is 15-4 in late January as this newsletter goes to press. Rodney Watson University of Southern Indiana Coach Watson is a native of Paris, Illinois. He began his career at Coulterville (IL) High School and won the schools’ first ever regional title. He then moved to Madison High School (IL) and had even greater success. Watson entered the collegiate ranks at Nebraska-Omaha in 1986 before becoming the assistant coach at Southern Illinois University. During his tenure at SIU, the Salukis won 11 Missouri Valley Conference titles and qualified for nine NCAA and six NIT tournaments. In May 2009, Watson became the head coach at the University of Southern Indiana and as of late January 2010, the Screaming Eagles were undefeated and nationally ranked. Spencer Wood Icebox Athlete For the past 10 years, Spencer Wood has traveled the globe as an author, teacher and speaker on mental skills and toughness training. He has spoken at events such as the 2010 American Baseball Coaches Convention, the 2005, 2006 & 2008 NCAA Final Four, the 2010 Nike Football Coach of the Year Awards and the NCAA Champs/Life Skills Program. Some notable programs that Icebox has recently worked with also include international and U. S. Olympic coaching conferences including SEC, CAA and Big East. Spencer Wood’s articles have appeared in publications such as the WBCA journal and World Class Coaching and his Mental Skills and Toughness Training Workshops were featured on ESPN, and at the 2007 NCAA Final Four. Spencer has two undergraduate degrees as well as a Masters Degree in Exercise Science from California University. He is an NASM-PES & NSCA-CSCS exercise specialist and is a PHD (ABD) in motivational psychology with an emphasis on sport psychology. Spencer is the President of Icebox Athlete – a leading provider of Mental Skills/Toughness Training programs that championship athletes, coaches and professionals across the United States have used with distinction.