No matter how this season turns out, as UCLA heads into the home stretch and vies for an NCAA Tournament bid, what a whirlwind of a year it’s been for Alfee Reft.
And in the middle of it all there was this one five-week stretch where he alternated between his UCLA program and the USA women’s national team as it prepared for and then qualifiied for the Olympcs.
“It was the most challening thing that I’ve done professionally, but probably the most rewarding and fulfilling,” Reft said. “And I really mean this, when you get to work with people like Karch and Tama (Miyashiro) and Erin (Virtue) and Marv (Dunphy) and coming here to UCLA where we’re building something so great and have equally a great staff,” he paused and laughed, “I try not to take a lot of time to think about the rigor of what we’re doing but there’s so much purpose on the line it keeps you going.
“So I haven’t thought a lot about what that was, you’re just putting one foot in front of the other.”
Eleven months ago, Reft capped a three-season run as an assistant at San Diego with that program’s first trip to the NCAA national semifinals.
Four days later, he got his first head-coaching job, taking over the storied UCLA program.
That was just the…
