Oladipo and Zeller named all-American, Steve Alford to UCLA and other IU miscellany.

Well, it is time to get into the offseason routine, a week earlier than we had hoped. As noted above, the AP all American teams were released today, and its no surprise that Victor Oladipo was named to the first team and Cody Zeller was named to the second team. Oladipo is IU's first first teamer since AJ Guyton in 2000.

In other IU-related news, Hoosier legend Steve Alford, who has done a nice job at New Mexico after leaving Iowa a step ahead of the firing squad, was named the new head coach at UCLA. The Bruins didn't have any success making a run at the likes of Shaka Smart or Brad Stevens, and the Alford hire is a bit of a surprise, but apparently he has been recruiting California heavily and successfully while at New Mexico, and he was won 75 percent of his games there. It's interesting from the IU perspective because Alford apparently drew no serious consideration when the IU job was open in 2006 or 2008, yet after rehabilitating his career Alford finds himself with a top shelf job at a program to which he had no previous connection. Of course, the list of coaches who are alumni of one top shelf program who coached another has some pretty successful names on it. Kentucky legend Adolph Rupp was a Kansas alumnus; so is Dean Smith. UNC alum Roy Williams was pretty successful at Kansas before returning to his alma mater, and fellow Tar Heel Larry Brown led the Jayhawks to the 1988 title.

As for Alford, here is a link to SB Nation site Bruins Nation, one of the best college sites on the network. To the extent that the views there represent the UCLA fan base as a whole (and I really have no idea), I think it's fair to say that Alford is stepping into a toxic situation. Of course, some of the heat is self-inflicted. Alford's handling of the Pierre Pierce situation in 2002 was deplorable, and while it may have been to some degree forgotten since then, it's back in the spotlight again. It will be interesting to watch from afar, that's for sure.