With his 2025-26 roster pretty much in hand and a staff helping with summertime duties, now is usually a pretty good time for Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd to work a more normal schedule.
Some out of town recruiting, some on-campus obligations but minimal stress and maybe even a few days off here or there.
But not last year, when Lloyd served as head coach of USA Basketball’s U18 AmeriCup team, and certainly not this year, when he is scheduled to lead the same cohort into the much more challenging FIBA U19 World Cup.
Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd, pictured at USA Basketball's U18 training camp last year, began coaching USA's U19 team in training camp this weekend before the Americans travel to Switzerland for the FIBA U19 World Cup.
Lloyd’s summer USA Basketball blitz will include two weeks of camp and preparation that began Saturday in Colorado Springs, Colorado, before leading the top American youth team to Switzerland for a nine-day tournament in which they will attempt to get past countries such as 2023 gold medalist Spain and perennially strong France after failing to medal when the event was last held two years ago.
“As an NCAA coach, you’re usually not used to feeling summer game stress,” Lloyd said. “It does take something out of you.”
It might be even tougher on the players, especially during the training camp that began this weekend. USA Basketball is bringing in 31 players, many of whom have never been cut before in their lives, and trimming the roster all the way down to just 12 guys who will go to Switzerland.
“I don’t think anybody that’s never been through it or witnessed it really understands,” Lloyd said. “USA Basketball told me an amazing stat that of the guys that get cut, something like 38% of them still get drafted in the NBA.
“You’re looking at young men, older kids, whatever you want to call them, that have been the best of the best their whole life at what they do. And now they’re put in a situation where they walk in a room and over 50% of them are going to be told, ‘Here’s a ticket to go home.’ “
While most high school class of 2026 camp invitees face especially long odds to make the team — including UA targets Cameron Holmes, Christian Collins and Tajh Ariza — Lloyd said even incoming UA freshman forward Koa Peat will be under pressure during workouts this week despite already owning three gold medals from other USA Basketball junior events.
USA Basketball is expected to have its first cutdown on Monday, after four workouts, then announce the final 12-player roster on or before Friday.
“Koa is a veteran of FIBA Basketball and USA basketball, but he’s gonna have to earn his way on the team like everyone else,” Lloyd said. “There’s a lot of other good guys that he’s going to be competing against.”
Perry’s Koa Peat (10) draws a crowd of Badgers including Tucson’s Malaki Cunningham-Hiadzi (22), Adam Armadillo (5) and Xavier Grajeda (1) while dragging down an offensive rebound in their game at Tucson High on Jan. 7.
Peat is actually one of the more high-profile invitees, along with projected 2026 high-lottery pick A.J. Dybantsa, an incoming BYU freshman. Then there’s seven returning college players who were still young enough to qualify; players can’t play U19 events this year if they turned 19 before Jan. 1 (which makes incoming UA freshman Brayden Burries ineligible).
The returning collegians include guard LJ Cason of Michigan, forward Tony Duckett of Saint Mary’s (San Diego last season), center Daniel Jacobsen of Purdue, center Morez Johnson Jr. of Michigan (Illinois last season), center Royce Parham of Marquette, forward Tyrone Riley of San Francisco, and guard Tyler Tanner of Vanderbilt.
While USA qualified for the U19 World Cup by winning the U18 AmeriCup last summer under Lloyd, there are just five players returning from that team: Jacobsen, Morez Johnson and incoming college freshmen Jasper Johnson (Kentucky), Mikel Brown (Louisville) and Nik Khamenia (Duke).
The MVP of the U18 AmeriCup, five-star Arkansas-bound guard Darius Acuff, opted not to play in the U19 event.
“He just told me he wanted to go get ready for the college season,” Lloyd said. “Darius is a good player, he’s a great young man, and I’m wishing him nothing but the best.”
While the camp was scheduled to open with one workout after players arrived Saturday, USA Basketball has scheduled twice-daily practices mostly through June 22, after which the team will transition to Lausanne, Switzerland, for the World Cup.
Aside from Peat, Lloyd will be surrounded with plenty of familiar faces. His assistants are the same ones that worked under him for the U18 AmeriCup — Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland and Notre Dame coach Micah Shrewsberry — while former UA standout and assistant coach Damon Stoudamire will assist with coaching in camp.
Other camp coaches, who typically coach the scrimmages in the early days of camp, include North Carolina’s Hubert Davis, Alabama’s Nate Oats and Kentucky’s Mark Pope.
Lloyd’s U19 staff also includes UA athletic trainer Justin Kokoskie and assistant coach Rem Bakamus, who both served on the U18 team last season, Kokoskie as trainer and Bakamus as a special assistant.
Once he gets to Switzerland, Lloyd also might have to face one of his own incoming freshman, too: Germany’s Ivan Kharchenkov. While USA drew a Group D pairing with Australia, Cameroon and France, it is possible USA and Germany could meet in bracketed play and Kharchenkov likely will be there if he is released to participate by his Bayern Munich club — or if the club’s playoff season ends.
USA will open with Australia during the first day of the U19 World Cup on June 18, and the event will continue through July 6. That means a full 22 days away from home, away from (most of) the Wildcats and away from leisure time, for Lloyd.
He says he’s ready.
“It probably takes a little bit more than people realize to run a practice, and if you’re doing two practices a day, then digesting and planning and digesting, and then out on the court,” Lloyd said. “It takes a lot of energy to engage with the guys and make sure that we’re sharp.”
Coaching requires “making sure my energy is in a good place. My energy and enthusiasm are in a great place for all things in my life — Arizona, my family, USA basketball. So I’m in a good way.”
