'Tomm-E' hopes Red-Blue Showcase touches present, future of Arizona basketball

Maybe it’s just a silly marketing gimmick. Or maybe we got it wrong all along.

Is he Tommy, or Tomm-E? The Arizona basketball coach in Friday’s Red-Blue Showcase, or the DJ who will spin back-to-back with Mix Master Mike onstage at the afterparty?

“My parents were clairvoyant,” UA coach Tommy Lloyd said, when asked who came up with the “Tomm-E” alter ego. “They knew I would be a world class DJ in my 50s.”

Lloyd joked that he would “have to check my birth certificate” to see what the legal spelling of his name really is, but whatever the case, Arizona may need both of those guys to help pull off a full night of hype over Wildcat basketball.

Started in 2022 as a postgame gathering at Gentle Ben’s that catered especially to NIL collective members, the UA’s afterparty has become a bigger part of the annual preseason celebration once known simply as the Red-Blue Game and now called the Red-Blue Showcase.

This time, on the Bear Down Field just north of Arizona Stadium, the afterparty will feature not only Tomm-E and Mix Master Mike of Beastie Boys fame, but also Shaquille O’Neal, aka DJ Diesel, and his son, Myles.

“I’m going to be honest with you: I was just hoping we were going to get Mix Master Mike and we could hang out again,” Lloyd said, thanking UA athletic officials and producers of the Dusk Music Festival for arranging the party. “And that would have been if I was the only fan at the show. That’d be good for me.

“But when they told me they’re bringing Shaq and his son, wow. I mean, they’re really stepping up their game. I think it’s really cool.”

Earlier Friday, during the Red-Blue Showcase inside McKale Center, Myles O’Neal and Mix Master Mike are also scheduled to serve as judges for the dunk contest, along with former UA and NFL football standout Rob Gronkowski and his longtime girlfriend, model Camille Kostek, plus “Love Island” contestant and Tucson resident Hannah Fields.

Also during the Red-Blue Showcase, UA has scheduled its usual shooting contest, which is expected to include women’s basketball players this time, and will finish up with an intrasquad scrimmage.

During two 10-minute halves, the scrimmage will give fans their first look at UA’s eight newcomers and at how center Moteijus Krivas looks after he was shelved most of last season with a foot injury.

On Wednesday, Lloyd said Krivas has improved while participating fully in everything the Wildcats have done for several months.

“Mo has made a lot of progress in a number of areas,” Lloyd said. “We’re going to continue to encourage him and push him, but I think he’s at the point now where the next step probably needs to be doing it under the lights.”

While it will be the first time under the McKale lights for the Wildcats’ many newcomers, that may not be too much of an issue.

Among the new guys are Harvard grad transfer Evan Nelson, who grew up attending UA youth camps and watching the Wildcats before he went on to stand out at Salpointe Catholic, while several of UA’s seven freshmen are already long in experience: Forward Koa Peat has won four gold medals with USA Basketball, wing Ivan Kharchenkov spent all of last season playing in Germany’s top-self Bundisliga, and combo guard Brayden Burries is 20 years old.

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With a returning core of Krivas and three other veterans, the Wildcats will inevitably have to rely on at least three or four of the newcomers for heavy contributions this season.

But so far, Lloyd says the freshmen have shown a “real maturity about them,” and are physically ready, giving him optimism for what’s ahead.

“I just feel like it’s so early. I don’t want to come out and say a bunch of superlatives and all these amazing things, because we know how hard it’s going to be.

“But I feel like we got a lot of great pieces and I think the initial parts of our culture build have been positive. I feel like this is a team that’s going to be built for all the challenges that are in front of us.”

While current fans can start deciding whether they agree based on the early glimpse at the Wildcats during the scrimmage, the Red-Blue Showcase is also about the future beyond the upcoming season, about engaging future players and future fans alike.

Usually, Arizona recruiting targets sit in the lower west seats of McKale Center and, for years, UA commits have cited attending the Red-Blue event as a reason behind their interest in the Wildcats.

Because of other conflicts, the Wildcats are expected to welcome only one recruiting target on an official visit this weekend, but he’s a high priority: Guard Caleb Holt, who was one of four high school players to make Lloyd’s Team USA roster for the U19 World Cup last July in Switzerland.

Ranked No. 5 in 247’s latest player rankings, Holt averaged 10.0 points and 4.3 rebounds while shooting 63.6% (52.0% from 3-point range) over USA’s seven-game romp to the gold medal in Switzerland. Holt played with Peat both on the U19 team and in the U17 World Cup last summer, winning gold both times.

From Loganville, Ga., and now playing for Prolific Prep in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Holt has already visited Alabama, Kentucky and Providence, and is scheduled to visit Auburn next week. However, the Tigers are in the middle of an upheaval after Auburn coach Bruce Pearl’s sudden retirement last week, prompting the school to name his son, Steven, as head coach.

Coincidentally, Arizona is scheduled to host Auburn on Dec. 6 in what is its most high-profile home nonconference game.

“He retired at a point where they have their team already and I’m assuming the roster is not going to change from what he had,” Lloyd said of Bruce Pearl and the Tigers. “I know his son’s been his right-hand guy and I’m sure he’s had a huge impact on the success they’ve had. So I would expect Auburn to come out and be really spirited.”

Bama Hammer, an Alabama-focused website, already suggested that Bruce Pearl’s retirement may have given the Crimson Tide a “significant leg up” on Auburn, while Arizona has the advantage of having Lloyd build a connection on the floor with Holt over the summer.

Now UA will attempt to sell the rest of the package to Holt this weekend while, Lloyd hopes, also swallowing more and more Wildcat fans into the culture of the red and blue.

“One of the greatest things about our program is how it brings the community together,” Lloyd said. “I have the good fortune of being a representative of Arizona basketball, so a lot of people come up to me and share their stories about Arizona basketball. … Everyone has a story about Arizona basketball that sits close to their heart.

“I want our fans, 20 years from now, to be telling the next head coach at Arizona how there was moments with some of these teams we have now, or some of these events we’re doing now, that they still remember what made them a fan of Arizona basketball, a passionate fan, to the point where they they had to participate. They had to stop their lives to watch us play.”