Arizona's Tommy Lloyd, Sean 'Pickle' Miller dominate pickleball courts together in Tucson

LAS VEGAS — Tommy Lloyd. Sean Miller. Together, the two are a fierce — and sometimes unstoppable — duo on the court.

Imagine uttering those words to an Arizona Wildcats fan. The current head coach of the UA basketball program paired up with his predecessor. What parallel universe is this?

Here’s the real story: Yes, Lloyd and Miller share the same court together essentially every week. Except it’s not the hardwood. It’s a pickleball court.

And Miller isn’t that Sean Miller, the fiery man who was Lute Olson’s successor, coached the Wildcats for 12 seasons and led the program to three Elite Eights. This Sean Miller is one of Lloyd’s pickleball teammates.

“That’s right, one of the guys I play pickleball with is named Sean Miller,” Lloyd told ESPN Tucson earlier this week, leading up to the Pac-12 Tournament. “We play all the time, and out of respect for the other Sean Miller, I call this guy ‘Pickle.’ And Pickle is a pretty good pickleball player, so we have a ton of fun.”

Sharing the same name as the head coach of the most beloved sports team in town had pros and cons.

The pros?

“I got great service at restaurants whenever I got a reservation,” he said.

The cons included second-hand embarrassment whenever the Cats lost in the NCAA Tournament — or when Arizona snapped its 25-year streak of qualifying for the big dance in 2010.

“When that happened, it hurt bad. I had a secret alias and it was my grandfather’s, so on Twitter I’d go by Jack Turner,” Miller said. “There were positives and negatives. I just wish we won (a national championship).”

Akin to the popular gif of the two Spider-Men pointing at each other, the Millers — Pickle and Sean — have met each other. Pickle Miller jokingly told Sean Miller, “‘You’ve been in my city for a while, we have the same name and I’m sure you’ve been mixed up with me several times.’ ”

“We had a small laugh, and that was about it,” he said.

Chance meeting

The 41-year-old Pickle Miller first met Lloyd, who recently installed a pickleball court in his backyard, at a birthday party for Brian Brigger, the Wildcats’ longtime equipment manager. That moment “changed my life,” Miller said.

“(Brigger) made me relevant with U of A people that I never would’ve known,” Miller said. “Tommy is a phenomenal guy, and I absolutely love him. He’s just a well-rounded, kind and genuine person. Anyone who has met (the Lloyds), they’re such a great family. Arizona is really lucky to have him.”

The relationship built from acquaintances to teammates to player-coach.

“He’s developed the ability to see the court better now, where he can be a little bit more aggressive,” Miller said of Lloyd. “His footwork needs improvement, and his backhand could be a little better. Then I’ll be much happier with where he is as a pickleball player.”

Lloyd said on ESPN’s “SportsCenter” last week that his pickleball prowess is a “work in progress.” But he still enjoys it.

“I enjoy getting out there, competing and talking some trash with my buddies,” Lloyd said.

“There’s a lot of trash-talk, and definitely some conversations that we’re not allowed to say publicly, but we always have a blast,” Miller said. “We play with the (UA) tennis coaches and have a great group of guys.“

Back to homepage

Subscriber Login

Keep reading with a digital access subscription.

Subscribe now

Pickleball has been widely dubbed as the fastest-growing sport in the U.S. Pickleball is similar to tennis, except the court is badminton-sized, and instead of racquets and a fuzzy ball, players use table tennis-looking paddles and a plastic ball.

“The timing of it is so much harder,” Miller said. “It’s more of a Wiffle ball, so you can control it more. And it’s a finesse shot when you bring a tennis swing into it.”.

For Lloyd, “pickleball is a humbling game.”

“What makes it cool is that there are a lot of equalizers in the game,” he said. “A lot of older people can play with younger people, and it can be pretty frustrating for some who consider ourselves younger.”

Growing sport

High-profile professional athletes such as LeBron James, Tom Brady, Patrick Mahomes, Draymond Green and Kevin Love, among others, have invested in Major League Pickleball. A friend of Miller told him several years back that “pickleball would become the most popular sport.”

“I told him, ‘You’re an idiot. It’s pickleball, like, there’s no way,’ ” Miller said. “I’ve completely eaten my words. I don’t see it slowing down.”

Lloyd, an eastern Washington native, said pickleball is a popular activity in the Pacific Northwest and “we played a lot near the lake during the summers.” But seldom did he play while he was the top assistant for Mark Few at Gonzaga. Few is also a passionate pickleballer.

“Like, more than me, and he’s a pretty good player,” Lloyd said. “He really, really got into it over the last few years, and I actually wasn’t invited to play in the matches because he and I worked together for 22 years so closely. He felt like his extracurricular activities — he didn’t want to be staring at me.

“Then once we got down (to Tucson), my wife and I started picking it up again and playing a bunch. It’s a great social outlet. I have a great group of guys I play with, and I play with a couple different groups. One of the groups is pretty good; (Arizona) tennis coaches are fun to play with.”

Arizona baseball coach Chip Hale and Wildcats football coach Jedd Fisch are among several other members of the UA athletic department who have partaken in the intense pickleball matches.

“The best thing about it is that it’s social,” Miller said. “You can get people who have never played, and within half an hour of explaining the rules there will be a game going. Anyone can play and get a game going.

“You can go to a park — Udall in particular — and 50 people are waiting to play, and they put their paddles up and go. It’s not that hard to get the ball going and get a point. It’s very addicting also. It’s the most addicting game I’ve ever seen. I only see it getting bigger due to the pros and all the famous people buying teams. Anyone can play, and I’m sure it’ll be an Olympic sport.”

The ‘walk-off’

Miller, who is the head tennis professional at Tucson Country Club, immersed himself in the pickleball community “about five or six years ago.” Born and raised in Tucson, the Sabino High School graduate briefly became a walk-on for the UA men’s tennis team.

“I like to say I walked off, because within a week I was like, ‘There’s no way I’m waking up at 7 a.m.’ It was my first taste of freedom, so I didn’t go the college route,” Miller said.

Although he didn’t pursue a professional tennis-playing career, Miller often played in friendly tournaments around Southern Arizona, before applying his passion playing tennis to coaching; he’s been coaching at TCC since 2001. He’s been Lloyd’s pickleball Yoda since this past year.

The Lloyd-Miller tandem isn’t slowing down on the pickleball court anytime soon.

“We have a ton of fun playing it,” Lloyd said. “It’s one of my favorite things to do.”