Key Takeaways in first Arizona Basketball Press Conference for Tommy Lloyd

Making his highly anticipated debut with Arizona Basketball, the newly hired Tommy Lloyd was officially introduced as the head coach, and we look at the biggest takeaways in his first press conference. 

It is a new era of Arizona Basketball and after a grueling week in the Wildcats’ head coaching search, Arizona officially tabbed Tommy Lloyd to become the next head coach of the Wildcats.

Replacing previous head coach Sean Miller, Lloyd will have big shoes to fill as he takes over one of the better programs in college basketball, and as he gets acclimated to his first head coaching gig, Coach Lloyd will certainly see his fair share of lofty expectations in the coming years.

Arizona Wildcats

Officially being introduced as the next head coach on Thursday afternoon, Lloyd addressed the media and fans inside McKale Center, covering a myriad of topics as he looked poised, confident, and ready for what lies ahead.

Speaking for nearly an hour, these were some of the major takeaways in the first press conference from newly hired Arizona Basketball head coach, Tommy Lloyd…

“Arizona is the only place I would leave Gonzaga for”

After serving as an assistant for 20 years on Gonzaga’s coaching staff, finally, Tommy Lloyd is getting his first opportunity to become a head coach, luckily for us, it is with the Wildcats.

Despite his deep ties to the Gonzaga program and essentially being the head coach in waiting, it was time for him to move on, and perhaps we owe a thank you to current Gonzaga head coach Mark Few for pushing him this way.

In a conversation with coach Few, Mark told Tommy “If you can get that job, you gotta take it… It’s not only the right thing to go to the University of Arizona, but we’re gonna celebrate it.”

In his press conference, Lloyd spoke at length about how Arizona is a dream job, and you could tell he is thankful and humbled by the opportunity. With over 20 years in the business, we can’t wait to see what Tommy can do.

“I’m gonna honor this place with every ounce of my being”

Arizona is big on culture and tradition, and whoever steps into the role will have big shoes to fill, in part due to the large expectations that come with it.

From the days of Fred Snowden, Lute Olson, and now Miller, Arizona has seen a lot of success, and Tommy doesn’t want Arizona to be segmented into eras. He wants to honor the tradition that is Arizona Basketball, melding the eras of Wildcat Basketball and continuing the strong traditions we’ve come to enjoy.

Tommy comes from a winning program and culture and has seen first-hand how it is done at Gonzaga. He will have a tough challenge as he learns how to become a head coach, and will learn on the fly at a place like Arizona that comes with plenty of demand. We will see if he is up to the task.

“It’s very important to have Arizona ties on my staff… You’re definitely gonna see some Arizona flavor for sure”

We have already seen the push back from a group of alumni, all expressing their frustration about how Arizona is not keeping the new hire in the “family”. While that is not Tommy’s fault, nonetheless, it is an unfortunate battle he will have to face as he will have to schmooze the alumni and get them in his corner.

Identifying this challenge, it seems Tommy is looking to appease some of the alumni base by tying in a bit of Arizona flavor to his staff. Now to what extent and vision does he have? Who knows, however, it will be refreshing to still see some older faces.

Watch his whole press conference here…