Bryce Alford’s season of redemption is exactly what UCLA needed

Bryce Alford saw the plane pulling the banner that called for his father to be fired. He knew what it meant when a petition started to circulate begging AD Dan Guerrero to restore UCLA basketball to its former glory. He couldn’t escape the heckling whenever he had a rough shooting night, and there were lots of them on the way to a devastating 15-17 season last year.

No player in college basketball has faced as much criticism as Alford during his time in Westwood. To UCLA diehards, he wasn’t just a streaky shooter and inefficient scorer for some perennially underwhelming Bruins teams. He was a symbol of how one of the sport’s most prestigious programs had lost its shine.

Playing for your father can be an unforgiving proposition, especially at a place like UCLA where expectations are always sky high. It didn’t matter that Alford once hit nine three-pointers in an NCAA tournament game. It didn’t matter that he helped lead the Bruins to the Sweet 16 twice or that he’s averaged at least 15 points per game every year since his sophomore season.

For frustrated UCLA fans, Alford was the personification of nepotism and unchecked privilege. His father Steve was the embattled head coach and Bryce was the backcourt gunner who never would have been at a blue blood if his dad didn’t give him a chance.

It took four long years for Bryce Alford to find absolution, but it’s finally happened this season. UCLA is a legitimate national title contender and Alford is one of the nation’s most prolific shooters. He’s been reborn moving off the ball, where he’s developed into a lethal three-point threat for the No. 1 offense in the country. Freshman star Lonzo Ball gets all of the attention for the Bruins, but the entire system would fall apart without a knockdown shooter like Alford next to him.

Alford has already broken his own record for the most three-pointers made in a single season at UCLA. He’s about to move into the program’s top five all-time leading scorers. The only thing left is an extended run through March Madness to cement his season of redemption and fully remove his father from the hot seat.

The March Madness moment Alford has been waiting for might finally be coming. There are no questions about whether he can play at this level anymore.

It takes a certain caliber of recruit to play at UCLA. From 2012 to 2015, 11 of the 16 players the Bruins signed out of high school were ranked in the top 100 of their class by ESPN. That includes McDonald’s All-Americans like Kyle Anderson and one-and-done NBA draft picks like Shabazz Muhammad and Zach LaVine.

Only one player from that time was able to carve out regular minutes without being a four- or five-star recruit. That was Bryce Alford.

Steve Alford was never shy about trusting his son. Even as a freshman on a loaded 2013-14 Bruins team, Bryce finished fifth in total minutes. He played about as much as LaVine, and often played over him.

When the Bruins made their run to the Sweet 16, Alford played 70 minutes to LaVine’s 57. LaVine bolted for the NBA after the season — a decision that drew widespread criticism from the college basketball media at the time — partly because of the lack of opportunity.

Bryce started every game the next year as a sophomore and UCLA again made the Sweet 16, but only after it snuck into the tournament as the weakest at-large selection. The Bruins memorably beat SMU in the opening round on an Alford airball that was called for goaltending (his ninth three-pointer of the game), then dispatched 14th-seeded UAB. That run did little to take heat off the Alfords when the season eventually ended against Gonzaga. Bryce was still very much a high-usage, low-efficiency scorer.

The wheels finally came off UCLA last year, culminating in a sub-.500 season that had the fanbase angry and vocal. This was the peak of what Bruins fans called Daddy Ball, the suggestion that Bryce received favorable treatment from his father and UCLA was suffering because of it.

For the third straight season, Bryce shot under 40 percent from the field. This time there was no tournament run to save the Alfords. Something had to give following one of the worst seasons in UCLA history, setting the table for a make-or-break year as Bryce entered his senior season.

Salvation arrived by way of nearby Chino Hills High School. Lonzo Ball didn’t only save Steve Alford, he gave Bryce a new lease on his career, too.

It seems obvious now that Bryce was miscast as a point guard for his first three years. Playing next to a savant like Ball has unlocked his offensive game and made the Bruins a national contender in the process.

Alford never posted a true shooting percentage higher than 55.8 percent before this season. This year it’s at 66 percent. He never had an offensive rating better than 113. This year he’s at 131.1 — a top-15 mark in the country. He’s shooting over 40 percent from the field for the first time in his career (47.0 percent). He’s made more three-pointers than any power-conference player in the country, and he’s doing it at a 45.4 percent clip.

Ball’s imprint on the Bruins has been undeniable, but having shooters around him has been an equally big part of UCLA’s turnaround. Aaron Holiday, Isaac Hamilton, and T.J. Leaf have been excellent, too, but there’s no question Bryce is the leader.

This has been a season of exoneration for the Alfords, both father and son. The Bruins are rolling, Bryce is playing a pivotal role, and the recruiting pipeline is hot.

After so much criticism, Bryce Alford has finally found himself as a senior. He might just help the Bruins find their way into the Final Four, too.