Arizona's Tommy Lloyd credits mentors while picking up AP Coach of the Year award

Even as a youth soccer and little league player, Tommy Lloyd said he always looked up to his coaches, figuring one day he might be one of them.

As an adult, he wasted no time joining the best of them. After just one season as a head coach, Lloyd now has three national coach of the year awards, receiving his latest on Friday from the Associated Press.

“I was somebody who grew up knowing I was going to be a coach,” Lloyd said Friday at an AP news conference at the Final Four in New Orleans. “I loved playing but unfortunately I wasn’t good enough to play on this stage. So I think I always held coaches in high esteem. I had some great coaches when I was young who were just great mentors.”

After he finishing his playing career at Division III Whitman College and playing briefly in the pros, Lloyd found another mentor as he began his coaching career. Lloyd spent 22 years on the Gonzaga staff, working under head coach Mark Few, who won the same AP coach of the year award in 2017 while leading the Zags to the Final Four in Glendale.

Lloyd left Few and Gonzaga last April to take over the Wildcats. He then inherited — and in some cases, re-recruited — five players who would make up his starting lineup, while pulling in three key transfers. Then he mixed everyone together into a free-flowing, fan-friendly team that won the Pac-12 regular-season title by three games and earned a No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed.

“Obviously you need good players,” Lloyd said, when asked what coaching attributes earned him the AP award so quickly in his career. “We inherited some good players. And honestly, I didn’t have a grand plan. I knew how I kind of wanted to play and literally attacked it day-by-day.

“As things came up you addressed them, and that was my approach all year long. I gotta remind myself that’s always a good approach: Don’t get too far ahead of yourself. Don’t think you’ve got all the answers. And as things come up, find solutions.’”

The Wildcats had only a few bumps, surviving the unexplained loss of reserve Kim Aiken (early December) along with significant ankle sprains to starters Azuolas Tubelis (Jan. 20) and Kerr Kriisa (March 10) to roll over the Pac-12 and reach the NCAA Sweet 16.

Eight days after the Wildcats’ season ended with a 72-60 Sweet 16 loss to Houston, Lloyd was at the Final Four as an award-winner.

Thanking UA president Robert C. Robbins for playing a big role in getting him to Arizona, and Few for being a valued mentor, Lloyd said the award meant a lot.

“I probably can’t even process quite where it fits on the spectrum of things,” Lloyd said. “But I’m really proud. I’m proud of my staff. I’m proud of our players at Arizona. And I’m proud to have been mentored by a great coach in Mark Few.

“It’s pretty crazy that his name is on some of these awards and mine’s right underneath it. I’m sure he and I, as we get older, will really cherish the memories and the time we had together. I’m just very thankful overall.”

It was the third national coach of the year award Lloyd won in a span of four days this week, with the National Association of Basketball Coaches and United States Basketball Writers Association giving him the same honor earlier this week.

All those awards suggested that Lloyd already has aspiring young coaches looking up to him, too.

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“Just to see my name on a list with some of those other coaches who are legends of the game that I love, it’s overwhelming,” Lloyd said. “But I also look at it like I have a responsibility to make myself and obviously my program as good as we can be. And then be an example for younger coaches like I was back in the day.

“Because it’s a great life. It’s not an easy life. But it’s a great life, and it’s very rewarding. And I want others to be able to have experiences that I’m having and feel the feelings that I feel about this job.”

Reynolds leaving Arizona

Ryan Reynolds, Arizona’s director of men’s basketball operations under Sean Miller, announced Friday he is leaving UA.

Reynolds declined to comment on his next move, though it appears possible he could rejoin Miller at Xavier, where the former UA coach was hired last month. Reynolds worked under head coaches Miller and Thad Matta at Xavier earlier in his career. Then, after spending 2008-09 as assistant basketball operations director at Wake Forest, Reynolds joined Miller for his entire UA stint from 2009-10 to 2020-21.

After Miller was fired last April, Reynolds moved to a general athletic department role at Arizona, becoming UA’s assistant athletic director for administration and operations. He worked with men’s basketball last summer and fall as special assistant TJ Benson took over most of the operations duties.

UA reportedly pursuing all-Big 12 guard

Arizona has reportedly expressed interest in potential transfer Nijel Pack, an all-Big 12 guard this season at Kansas State.

According to Jon Rothstein, Pack has also heard from Gonzaga, Purdue, Xavier, Tennessee, Miami, Ohio State and N.C. State — meaning Lloyd, Few and Miller may all be competing for him.

A 6-foot combo guard from Indianapolis, Pack both decided to test the NBA Draft and enter the transfer portal while Kansas State transitioned coaches from Bruce Weber to Jerome Tang. Weber stepped down after K-State went 14-17 this season.

Pack averaged 17.4 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.2 assists this season while shooting 43.6% from 3-point range, the 46th-best mark in Division I.

Mathurin sixth, Koloko 29th in Athletic’s mock draft

The Athletic’s Sam Vecenie moved Arizona’s Bennedict Mathurin up to No. 6 in his updated mock NBA Draft, saying his 30-point NCAA Tournament game against TCU was “arguably the best any single player has played in the event” even though he struggled in his final game against Houston.

Vecenie had Christian Koloko at No. 29, but did not list guard Dalen Terry.