Arizona Head Coach Tommy Lloyd has won me over

I am officially sold! Tommy Lloyd was a great hire for Arizona Basketball and is doing a wonderful job as his team is currently undefeated at 5-0.

Back in April of this year, I wrote a piece entitled “Hiring of Tommy Lloyd is great, but controversial.” The post got a ton of views, and it was a point of contention I still stand by, as he was a controversial hire at the time considering all the former Arizona Basketball players dreaming of this job, some of who were actually interviewing or about to interview for it.

In the post I mentioned Richard Jefferson’s remarks on the subject, and like Rich, I wished Coach Tommy a ton of success and was reserving my excitement.

Fast forward to the Roman Main Event Tournament held in Las Vegas last weekend culminating in a Championship belt on Sunday. Well, now I am officially sold as Tommy Lloyd was a great hire and is doing a wonderful job as his team is currently undefeated at 5-0.

All the more impressive is that in his first five games, he is the first coach in Division I history to win all five games, win by an average of 30 points, and also beat a Top Five team.

While Tommy has been coaching and developing his team in Tucson, Matt Brase was hired by the Portland Trailblazers, Miles Simon is now the head coach of the South Bay Lakers G-League team, Jason Terry is now the head coach of the Grand Rapids Gold G-League team, Joseph Blair is an assistant coach with the Washington Wizards while Damon Stoudamire took an assistant coaching job for the Boston Celtics.

The Wildcats have chemistry, they play well together, they have great attitudes, the Head Coach, for the most part, doesn’t need to yell at his players to motivate them, and all this with players who come from all over the world. Three of the players as well as an assistant coach who speak French.

And after being unranked until this week, now ranked No. 17 in the AP Poll, the Wildcats are on a roll.

“Here’s the deal. You know I’ve been pretty low key since I got this job, and I’ve been trying to build this family from the inside out, and we’re a family,” explained coach Lloyd after the Michigan beat down, “I wasn’t going to beg fans to come to the games. I wasn’t going to make proclamations —  but I knew in my heart I know what success looks like, and I know what great teams look like, and I knew we could be good.” He also explained that he feels pre-season rankings, “Don’t mean anything.” Coach is having a ton of fun watching his players grow and manage game time situations.

Lloyd selected Christian Koloko and Dalen Terry to join him in the post-tournament press conference. C-Lo as he is lovingly referred to now, is Koloko’s nickname because his head coach and Kerr Kriisa (on Instagram) both called him this.

Dalen shouted out the fans, he felt the fans were one of the reasons they beat the No. 4 team in the country, by an 80-62 final. And Oumar Ballo made some good progress and proved he can defend against a huge center.

Coach Lloyd had great things to say about Dalen, C-Lo and Kerr Kriisa: “Kerr? He’s feisty, he’s got swag, he’s competitive, and he’s got heart, he believes and those are all amazing traits — And I love the connection him and I have.”

Since Arizona Basketball is now 5-0 and undefeated, it must be because of that Arizona Swag coach keeps talking about. Here is a list of all the undefeated teams in the Pac-12 and Arizona is tied for first place:

1. No. 17 Arizona 5-0
2. Utah Utes 5-0
3. Washington St. 5-0
4. No. 24 USC 4-0

Arizona fans, from what I have seen on social media, are excited about their basketball team again, really excited! Lloyd also hired Ryan Anderson and Jason Gardner, both beloved former Wildcats. In addition, his assistant coach, former UNC assistant coach Steve Robinson, was a huge get for Arizona and adds a ton of experience to the coaching staff.

For this, all the success we have seen and are seeing with the team so far, it seems this group has a high ceiling, and I am totally on board with this hire. I am excited! Carry on, Wildcats.