With Tommy Lloyd, case for National Coach of the Year is easy

As the 2021-22 college basketball season wraps up, making the case for Tommy Lloyd as the National Coach of the Year is an easy one. 

We have finally reached the end of the regular season for Arizona Basketball, and as the Wildcats are poised for a potentially deep NCAA Tournament run while under the tutelage of head coach Tommy Lloyd, the case for him as National Coach of the Year is an easy one to make.

However, coming into the year, the expectations were a bit mixed. Despite returning a large contingency of talent, Arizona was breaking in a first-year head coach and also had a daunting challenge ahead of them with teams like UCLA and USC coming off of a big season.

Well, luckily for us, it has been a rather productive and fortuitous basketball season in Tucson, and coach Lloyd has more than proven his worth.

For starters, while he did inherit a talented core of players, he did get those players to buy in quickly and got them to play his brand of basketball which is never an easy thing to do, especially so quickly.

So with the National Coach of the Year race heating up, and several worthy candidates being named we make the case for coach Lloyd.

Looking at the current coaching resume for Tommy Lloyd

Overall Coaching Record: 27-3 (17-2)
Current Record: 27-3 (17-2)

Coaching Highlights for 2021-22:

• First-Year Head Coach.
• Has won over 30 games on the regular season.
• Has won 18 conference games, the most in a single season in Pac-12 History.
• Predicted to finish in the middle of the Pac-12, has won the regular-season Pac-12 title.
• Won the Conference Tournament Championship.
• Was Named the Conference Head Coach of the Year.
• All three of his teams’ losses have come on the road.
• Went from unranked to being currently ranked No. 2 overall.
• Currently owns the No. 2 overall NET ranking.
• Possesses a 5-2 record against Quad 1 teams.
• The offense is averaging 84.6 points per game which ranks No. 3 overall.
• The team leads the county in assists with 19.9 per game.
• The team is ranked No. 8 overall in team defensive efficiency.
• Has a player on the Naismith and John R. Wooden Award watchlists.
• Had the Conference Player of the Year, the Conference Defensive Player fo the Year, the Most Improved Player of the Year, and multiple All-Team Selections.
• Projected to be a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Now, while there have been several worthy candidates this season, none have been more worthy than coach Lloyd. The resume is an impressive one and the choice is easy, we will see if the national media agrees.