Tommy Lloyd needed only one season to pick up the first major coach of the year award in Arizona basketball history.
The National Association of Basketball Coaches named Lloyd its national coach of the year Tuesday after he led the Wildcats to a 33-4 record, Pac-12 regular-season and tournament titles, and a No. 1 NCAA Tournament seed.
Lloyd is also a candidate for several other coach of the year awards that are expected to be announced around this weekend’s Final Four, including those from the United States Basketball Writers, the Associated Press and Naismith. The Naismith Award named Lloyd one of four finalists on March 21, along with Texas Tech’s Mark Adams, Wisconsin’s Greg Gard, and Providence’s Ed Cooley.
Despite having 34 NCAA Tournament appearances, 17 Pac-12 championships and a Basketball Hall of Fame coach in Lute Olson, Arizona had never before had a coach given major national coach of the year honors. However, Olson was named NABC Coach of the Year at Iowa in 1979-80, four seasons before he began coaching the Wildcats.
According to Sports Reference and some UA media guides printed during Olson's UA tenure, Olson was also given the now-defunct CBS-TV Coach of the Year award in 1989.
In 2000-01, when Olson led the Wildcats to their last Final Four during a season when his wife, Bobbi, passed away, he received national Coach of the Year honors by CNNSI.com and the now defunct Clair Bee Award for making the most positive contributions to the sport.
Olson and eventual predecessor UA coach Sean Miller were also regular winners of the Pac-10/Pac-12 coach of the year award, which Lloyd also won this season. Olson won the conference coaching honor in 1986, 1987, 1989, 1993, 1994, 1998 and 2003, while Miller picked it up in 2011, 2014 and 2017.
Lloyd spent the previous 22 years on the Gonzaga staff, including 20 as an assistant coach. During the first weekend of the NCAA Tournament, he said the biggest adjustment for him was the time commitment, not having breaks in scouting opponents or to go out recruiting during the season.
Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd pleads his case to game officials after one of his players picked up a foul during last week’s loss to Houston in the Sweet 16.
Typically, assistant coaches will scout only one of every three teams and they’ll also break from daily practices to go on brief recruiting trips during the season.
“I love coaching and teaching, so that has been fine,” he said. “Everything basketball-wise, I’ve done, basically I’ve been a part of doing before. So I had a real comfort level and a conviction in what I wanted to do.
“The biggest thing for me has been just the amount of day-to-day energy. As a head coach I’ve got to be involved in (recruiting and scouting) on a daily basis and all the game planning. You don’t get that natural time where you just come up for air.”
Lloyd took over a starting five from Miller, then mixed in key role players from the transfer portal: Pelle Larsson (Utah), Oumar Ballo (Gonzaga) and Justin Kier (Georgia). Sophomore guard Dalen Terry, one of the Miller-era holdovers, expressed no doubt in Lloyd’s leadership.
“Tommy knows basketball,” Terry said. “Obviously his work shows it. He’s been in basketball a long time. We just listen to everything he says. Obviously he’s not going to steer us in the wrong direction. He’s a great coach.”
The NABC award earns Lloyd an extra $20,000 bonus on top of the $20,000 he already earned for being named Pac-12 Coach of the Year. The $20,000 bonus equals 0.8% of his university-paid guaranteed base compensation of $2.5 million, and brings his total performance bonuses to $285,000. A clause in his contract says he earns $40,000 if he is named to any of the three major national coach of the year awards -- from the NABC, Associated Press or Naismith -- or $20,000 if named only Pac-12 Coach of the Year.
Lloyd, has a total guaranteed compensation of $2.9 million, counting $200,000 each from Nike and IMG. He is scheduled to receive a $100,000 raise on Friday to run through the 2022-23 season, for a total guaranteed package of $3 million.
