COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Back when Tommy Lloyd was developing into a shooting star at small-town Kelso High School in southwestern Washington, he’d sometimes make the 45-minute trip to Portland for a game.
Some games, that is. Not the ones where Damon Stoudamire was known to play in.
“I wasn’t good enough to play in the gyms that he was playing in,” Lloyd said. “Obviously, he was a great player.”
Stoudamire, Wilson High School class of 1991, went on to play four years at Arizona, leading the Wildcats to the 1993 Final Four and becoming the co-Pac-10 Player of the Year in 1995. Then he spent 13 years in the NBA, including nearly eight seasons for his hometown Trail Blazers, before launching a coaching career that now has him leading Georgia Tech.
Lloyd, Kelso High class of 1994, went to Walla Walla Community College and played at Division III Whitman College before bouncing around low-level pro ball in Australia … and realizing his future was in coaching. Then he spent 21 years at Gonzaga before taking over Arizona in 2021.
Stoudamire played four years at Arizona, leading the Wildcats to the 1993 Final Four and becoming the co-Pac-10 Player of the Year in 1995.
Stoudamire, who rejoined Lloyd this week as a camp coach for USA Basketball’s U19 team, chuckled over the idea that he was probably a better shooter than Lloyd was. The two have never spoken about those skills.
“Nah,” Stoudamire said. “You know what? It’s funny because Tommy’s always been a guy that I’ve talked to but I just haven’t seen him. Me being on the East Coast now a lot, being in Boston (as a Celtics assistant), now at Tech, I just haven’t been on this side of country as much. So it’s really good to get an opportunity to spend time with him and the rest of the coaches.”
While the two never came across each other in their respective Portland days, they did get to know each other once Stoudamire became an assistant basketball coach in college: First at Memphis in 2011 under fellow UA grad Josh Pastner and then at Arizona under Sean Miller from 2013-15.
From there, their relationship grew.
“He’s just a great guy,” Lloyd said. “Damon Stoudamire is just a first class individual. He’s great with coaches, great with players, great with people on the street. He’s got great stories. He loves the University of Arizona and he’s definitely become a good friend.”
UA coach Tommy Lloyd cheers on the U19 players in practice while Georgia Tech coach Damon Stoudamire, a U19 training camp coach, checks out the action in the background.
You’d think it might not have always been the same for Stoudamire – because he spent five years as Pacific’s head coach starting in 2016, which meant he had to annually deal with powerhouse Gonzaga, where Lloyd was then an assistant.
This week, they’re on the same team.
“We coached against each other a lot, but this is the first time we’ve actually been able to spend time together, and it’s been really good,” Stoudamire said. “He’s done a great job with the organization, and it’s been really good to get to know him better in this type of environment.”
Stoudamire said he couldn’t turn down the opportunity to become a camp coach, typically the first stop on the USA Basketball coaching ladder that college head coaches hop on.
After pulling Pacific out of NCAA issues from a previous staff, then moving to the Celtics for two seasons, Stoudamire has begun proving himself against high-major ACC competition.
The Yellow Jackets went 14-18 in Stoudamire’s first season in 2023-24 and broke even at 17-17 last season, which included an eighth-place finish at 10-10 in the 18-team ACC.
“It’s a brick-by-brick thing,” Stoudamire said of Georgia Tech. “We’re trying to build and we’ve gotten better every year. So I’m just looking forward to to the next step, and obviously for us, that’s going to be trying to get in that (NCAA) tournament.”
With playing and coaching experience at both the college and NBA levels, Stoudamire can head either way in the future. But he said he isn’t set on any particular direction at this point.
“I’m just about winning right now,” Stoudamire said. “I want to build and win, and then whatever happens from there, I’m good with.”
