When an Independent Accountability Resolution Process panel last week ruled against giving Arizona a postseason ban or scholarship loss beyond what the Wildcats already have self-imposed, it wasnβt hard to imagine a quiet celebration happening on the UA campus.
Maybe even a little party.
But, even if there was such a thing, UA coach Tommy Lloyd indicated he wasnβt there. When asked about the IARPβs decision after the Wildcats beat Montana State 85-64 on Tuesday, Lloyd indicated he still really hadnβt processed it fully.
He answered a few questions about the decision toward the end of his postgame press conference, then exited with Brent Blaylock, the UAβs senior associate athletic director for administration and institutional control.
βMy general feel is weβre through it. Iβll sit down with Brent and then weβll make the decisions going forward that are best for the program,β Lloyd said. βBut Iβm glad that at least we have an opportunity to sit down and talk about what it actually looks like rather than speculate. We just havenβt had time. Weβve been busy.β
The stiffest penalties Arizona was handed were a fine of about $135,000 β $5,000 plus 1% of the UA menβs basketball budget β and a loss of one scholarship for either the 2022-23 or 2023-24 seasons.
Arizona has just 12 players on its current roster, one down from the maximum of 13, suggesting the Wildcats can absorb the penalty without doing a thing. (The IARP referred comment to UA on whether the scholarship limitation has been officially satisfied, but a request for comment from UA officials beyond their initial statements was unsuccessful.)
Lloyd said no definitive discussions about handling the penalties have been held yet, as Arizona finishes out its pre-Christmas schedule. Just three days after the IARPβs decision, Arizona took on then-No. 6 Tennessee in its biggest game of the season and this week has been hosting Montana State and Morgan State for its final two pre-Christmas games.
βWeβre still having conversations about all that,β Lloyd said. βI just told everybody, βHey, obviously the school and the program went through a lot the last few years. Letβs take a breath, get through these games and then we can start dissecting what actually happened.β
βObviously, there were penalties. The program suffered a lot. All parties suffered. Now weβre through it and thankfully everybody can move on. So I think itβs a great opportunity to hit βresetβ a little bit. β¦ But I havenβt even sat down with β itβs probably gonna be Brent β and heβll interpret all these things for me, all these legalese things that Iβm not used to.β
Even though UAβs case stemmed from actions when the program was run by former UA coach Sean Miller, bracing for the IARP decision has been a part of Lloydβs existence since the moment he was hired in April 2021. His initial contract included language saying he would have his contract extended by a year if another yearβs postseason ban was added.
That wonβt be necessary now, though Lloyd said after the Wildcatsβ somewhat lackadaisical win over Montana State that he was worried more about what was happening on the court than his contract.
βWorried about making my team feel better, and play better,β Lloyd said.
As Lloyd also noted, the Wildcats did already suffer from self-imposed penalties. The IARP said UA self-imposed several recruiting penalties including a one-scholarship limitation in 2022-23, all of which the IARP accepted.
The IARP then added only a seven-week ban on recruiting communication for current UA coaches during the 2022-23 academic year and a reduction of two days of in-person recruiting in 2022-23.
Of course, the postseason ban of 2020-21 was the most significant penalty. At 17-9 during that COVID-limited season, Arizona may have ultimately been on the NCAA Tournament bubble anyway. Nevertheless, the school announced its ban at a time when the Wildcats were on a clear track to make it, just a day after they beat Colorado to go 7-1.
Two Arizona players who sat out that postseason, Azuolas Tubelis and Kerr Kriisa, are still around this season. But, like Lloyd, Kriisa declined to express a whole lot about his reaction.
βI donβt think itβs really my place and time to comment (on) this kind of thing,β Kriisa said. βIβm just happy to how things are and only forward from here.β
Theoretically, had the Wildcatsβ case been processed as Level I-aggravated instead of Level I-standard, the Wildcats could have faced another year or more of a postseason ban, this season or in the future.
But senior forward Cedric Henderson said that sort of thought was not running through the back of their minds.
βThatβs not anything to do with us,β Henderson said. βThatβs for them to worry about. We have one job and thatβs to win games, to play our hardest.β
McKale Center was built at the University of Arizona in the early 1970s. There have been updates through the years.
