Knight once criticized Alford's work habits and leadership ability, telling him he couldn't "lead a whore into bed." Knight later admitted Alford was in fact an incredible worker and leader and the comments were just Knight's method of motivating players. The Hoosiers went 21–8 that year and finished second in the Big Ten, with Alford earning All-America and Big Ten Player of the Year honors. In his senior year, the Alford-led 1986–87 Hoosiers won Indiana's fifth national championship, when the team defeated Syracuse in title game of the tournament. The game was decided by a game-winning jump shot by Keith Smart with five seconds remaining. Alford shot 7–10 from the three-point line, scored 23 points, including a buzzer-beating three-pointer at the end of the first half that put the Hoosiers ahead by one point to start the second half. After graduation, Alford wrote a book about his college playing experiences entitled Playing for Knight: My Six Seasons with Coach Knight. College statistics |- | style="text-align:left;"| 1983–84 | style="text-align:left;"| Indiana | 31 || 27 || 38.0 || .592 || || .913 || 2.6 || 3.2 || 1.5 || 0.1 || 15.5 |- | style="text-align:left;"| 1984–85 | style="text-align:left;"| Indiana | 32 || 31 || 36.0 || .538 || || .921 || 3.2 || 2.7 || 1.4 || 0.0 || 18.1 |- | style="text-align:left;"| 1985–86 | style="text-align:left;"| Indiana | 28 || 28 || 37.0 || .556 || || .871 || 2.7 || 2.8 || 1.8 || 0.0 || 22.5 |- | style="text-align:left;"| 1986–87 | style="text-align:left;"| Indiana | 34 || 34 || 37.0 || .474 || .530 || .889 || 2.6 || 3.6 || 1.1 || .0.1 || 22.0 |- class="sortbottom" | style="text-align:center;" colspan="2"| Career | 125 || 120 || 37.0 || .533 || .530 || .898 || 2.8 || 3.1 || 1.4 || 0.1 || 19.5 Professional playing career Alford was drafted 26th in the 1987 NBA draft. Many fans in Indiana expected Alford to be drafted by the Indiana Pacers, but the Pacers selected Reggie Miller and Alford fell to the Dallas Mavericks. Initially the choice angered Indiana fans but ultimately they and even Alford embraced the decision. Years later, Alford said "not only was it a much better draft choice than drafting me... Reggie turned out not to be a great pick, he turned out to be great for the state of Indiana." Alford played in the NBA for four seasons,