LAS VEGAS β Tommy Lloyd. Sean Miller. Together, the two are a fierce β and sometimes unstoppable β 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?
Hereβs the real story: Yes, Lloyd and Miller share the same court together essentially every week. Except itβs not the hardwood. Itβs a pickleball court.
And Miller isnβt that Sean Miller, the fiery man who was Lute Olsonβs successor, coached the Wildcats for 12 seasons and led the program to three Elite Eights. This Sean Miller is one of Lloydβs pickleball teammates.
βThatβs right, one of the guys I play pickleball with is named Sean Miller,β Lloyd told ESPN Tucson earlier this week, leading up to the Pac-12 Tournament. βWe play all the time, and out of respect for the other Sean Miller, I call this guy βPickle.β And Pickle is a pretty good pickleball player, so we have a ton of fun.β
Sharing the same name as the head coach of the most beloved sports team in town had pros and cons.
The pros?
βI got great service at restaurants whenever I got a reservation,β he said.
The cons included second-hand embarrassment whenever the Cats lost in the NCAA Tournament β or when Arizona snapped its 25-year streak of qualifying for the big dance in 2010.
βWhen that happened, it hurt bad. I had a secret alias and it was my grandfatherβs, so on Twitter Iβd go by Jack Turner,β Miller said. βThere were positives and negatives. I just wish we won (a national championship).β
Akin to the popular gif of the two Spider-Men pointing at each other, the Millers β Pickle and Sean β have met each other. Pickle Miller jokingly told Sean Miller, ββYouβve been in my city for a while, we have the same name and Iβm sure youβve been mixed up with me several times.β β
βWe had a small laugh, and that was about it,β 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 Wildcatsβ longtime equipment manager. That moment βchanged my life,β Miller said.
β(Brigger) made me relevant with U of A people that I never wouldβve known,β Miller said. βTommy is a phenomenal guy, and I absolutely love him. Heβs just a well-rounded, kind and genuine person. Anyone who has met (the Lloyds), theyβre such a great family. Arizona is really lucky to have him.β
The relationship built from acquaintances to teammates to player-coach.
βHeβs developed the ability to see the court better now, where he can be a little bit more aggressive,β Miller said of Lloyd. βHis footwork needs improvement, and his backhand could be a little better. Then Iβll be much happier with where he is as a pickleball player.β
Lloyd said on ESPNβs βSportsCenterβ last week that his pickleball prowess is a βwork in progress.β But he still enjoys it.
βI enjoy getting out there, competing and talking some trash with my buddies,β Lloyd said.
βThereβs a lot of trash-talk, and definitely some conversations that weβre not allowed to say publicly, but we always have a blast,β Miller said. βWe play with the (UA) tennis coaches and have a great group of guys.β
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.
βThe timing of it is so much harder,β Miller said. βItβs more of a Wiffle ball, so you can control it more. And itβs a finesse shot when you bring a tennis swing into it.β.
For Lloyd, βpickleball is a humbling game.β
βWhat makes it cool is that there are a lot of equalizers in the game,β he said. βA lot of older people can play with younger people, and it can be pretty frustrating for some who consider ourselves younger.β
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 βpickleball would become the most popular sport.β
βI told him, βYouβre an idiot. Itβs pickleball, like, thereβs no way,β β Miller said. βIβve completely eaten my words. I donβt see it slowing down.β
Lloyd, an eastern Washington native, said pickleball is a popular activity in the Pacific Northwest and βwe played a lot near the lake during the summers.β But seldom did he play while he was the top assistant for Mark Few at Gonzaga. Few is also a passionate pickleballer.
βLike, more than me, and heβs a pretty good player,β Lloyd said. βHe really, really got into it over the last few years, and I actually wasnβt invited to play in the matches because he and I worked together for 22 years so closely. He felt like his extracurricular activities β he didnβt want to be staring at me.
βThen once we got down (to Tucson), my wife and I started picking it up again and playing a bunch. Itβs 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.β
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.
βThe best thing about it is that itβs social,β Miller said. βYou 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.
βYou can go to a park β Udall in particular β and 50 people are waiting to play, and they put their paddles up and go. Itβs not that hard to get the ball going and get a point. Itβs very addicting also. Itβs the most addicting game Iβve ever seen. I only see it getting bigger due to the pros and all the famous people buying teams. Anyone can play, and Iβm sure itβll be an Olympic sport.β
The βwalk-offβ
Miller, who is the head tennis professional at Tucson Country Club, immersed himself in the pickleball community βabout five or six years ago.β Born and raised in Tucson, the Sabino High School graduate briefly became a walk-on for the UA menβs tennis team.
βI like to say I walked off, because within a week I was like, βThereβs no way Iβm waking up at 7 a.m.β It was my first taste of freedom, so I didnβt go the college route,β Miller said.
Although he didnβt pursue a professional tennis-playing career, Miller often played in friendly tournaments around Southern Arizona, before applying his passion playing tennis to coaching; heβs been coaching at TCC since 2001. Heβs been Lloydβs pickleball Yoda since this past year.
The Lloyd-Miller tandem isnβt slowing down on the pickleball court anytime soon.
βWe have a ton of fun playing it,β Lloyd said. βItβs one of my favorite things to do.β