MADISON, Wis. -- After hosting Tommy Lloyd’s parents at his home in Appleton, Wisconsin, and heading with them to Friday’s game, John Speilman realized there was one problem.
He had no UA gear. So Speilman went to Facebook Marketplace, searched around and found a warehouse en route to Madison that sold him a navy blue Arizona Wildcats shirt for only $16.
“It was brand new,” Speilman said, grinning.
In all, Dale and Jackie Lloyd, parents of the UA coach, were joined by a group of eight extended family members. Speilman and Linda Fritz are both cousins of Dale Lloyd, and second cousins of Tommy Lloyd.
Family mic swap
Because he couldn’t be in Arizona Stadium and the Kohl Center at the same time Friday – and because he also probably can’t be in the Bahamas over Thanksgiving and make the Nov. 30 UA-ASU football game-- UA broadcaster Brian Jeffries had a decision to make.
Turns out, he didn’t have to look far for an answer. Jeffries opted to work the UA men’s basketball game Friday, while his son, Brody Dryden, did the same for the football game.
Later this month, their roles will be reversed, with Dryden heading to the Battle 4 Atlantis in the Bahamas with the basketball team while dad stays home to do the UA-ASU football game.
“He’s trying to get into the business, and this gives him more tape to show somebody that he can do it,” Jeffries said. “Someone was going to have to do the Bahamas other than me so why not send him? It’s kind of the same way tonight, trying to find someone who could be here on a Friday night because everybody else has jobs.”
Make ‘em believe
Wisconsin kicked off its tribute to its “make ‘em believe” Final Four teams of 2014 and 2015 with a video on the gigantic Kohl Center screens, in which the narrator said those teams “took fans on a ride of a lifetime.”
The tribute included game clips that, of course, showcased their wins over Arizona in both the 2014 Elite Eight and the 2015 Elite Eight.
‘Same program,” the narrator said. “Same result.”
In the end, longtime Wisconsin broadcaster Matt Lepay summed up the local view of things.
“Did they make us believe?” Lepay asked. “Damn right they did.”
Silver lining
If there was anything good about getting released by the Phoenix Suns last month for Frank Kaminsky, it was that he could at least make the Badgers’ celebration. Kaminsky predictably received one of the loudest ovations, slapping hands with one arm and holding a trophy with another as he strode on to the court.
Coach Bo Ryan and key player Bronson Koenig also received especially warm introductions while former UA nemesis Sam Dekker was not present because he’s playing pro ball in Spain this season.
Fans later competed during a halftime timeout to name as many Final Four players as they could, with the winner rattling off eight names.
Bucky takes in the full moon and sunset on Lake Mendoza in Madison, Wisconsin, on Nov. 15, 2024.
Madison vibes
The pregame hours in Madison literally sparkled when a full moon and sunset both bounced off Lake Mendoza just before 5 p.m. on Friday.
Even though the temperature was dipping below 50 degrees at the time, most shorefront tables near the UW campus were full of people drinking beer or otherwise enjoying the scene – including a table of Oregon fans apparently warming up for Saturday’s football game between the Ducks and Badgers.
When math mattered
Among the many items in display cases lined around the Kohl Center concourse is a 1970s-era cartoon of Big Ten mascots posing in football gear in front of a goalpost.
“Big 10 family portrait,” it read.
The poster was so old-school that there were actually only 10 Big Ten schools represented: Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State, Purdue, Northwestern and Ohio State.
Today’s Big Ten has 18 after four former Pac-12 teams signed up for this season: UCLA, USC, Oregon and Washington. The league hasn’t had only 10 teams since 1989, with Penn State becoming the 11th in 1990.
Extended travel prep
Partly because the Pac-12 used to have a rule prohibiting opposing teams from practicing on campus the day before a non-weekend game, and because the geography and time zones used to work in their favor, the Wildcats usually just left Tucson a day before all away games.
But things are different now. Between Friday’s game at Wisconsin, Battle 4 Atlantis competition and their Big 12 schedule, the Wildcats will play all but two of their away games in the Central and Eastern Time Zones.
So they took off Wednesday for Madison, giving themselves a full day to adjust and practice on Thursday, before Frieday’s game. But UA coach Tommy Lloyd indicated it won’t necessarily be a trend.
“We’re looking at every trip individually,” Lloyd said. “Sometimes, it’s nice on your first road game to get out of town a little bit better, so you can kind of kind of hunker down and get in your bunker mode.
“We’ve done that in the past. We just decided to do it this year as well. But I don't think it's going to be something we're doing on the norm.”
After arriving in Madison on Wednesday evening, the Wildcats used the extra time to spend a full day with film review, practice at the Kohl Center and a dinner out on Thursday.
Bo’s place
Wisconsin’s celebration was meant to follow Ryan’s induction last month into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in a 2024 class that also included former players Chauncey Billups, Vince Carter, Michael Cooper and Walter Davis.
Ryan led the Badgers for 15 seasons, retiring early in the 2015-16 season after taking the Badgers to two straight Final Fours. He had a 364-130 overall record with 15 NCAA Tournament appearances.
Before taking over the Badgers, Ryan led the University of Wisconsin-Platteville to four NCAA Division III Tournament titles in 1991, 1995, 1998 and 1999.
Taking the microphone after a banner was raised in his honor, Ryan thanked family, players and fans alike.
“To the greatest fans in America: Two words, and I’ll say it loud and proud,” Ryan said. “Thank you for everything.”
Basketball nut
While Wisconsin’s nearly century-old fieldhouse still houses wrestling and volleyball, the Badgers started looking for an upgrade for basketball in the 1990s.
Where they started was not a surprise. Former Senator and well-known businessman Herb Kohl offered a lead gift of $25 million that put his name on the Kohl Center when it opened in 1998.
Kohl was already known locally and regionally as a U.S. Senator who had worked with. His siblings to expanded his parent’s grocery store into a national department store chain, then becoming a benefactor of multiple charities. He was also as a die-hard Milwaukee Bucks fan, donating $100 million to help build arena that kept the NBA team in his hometown.
After Kohl died in 1998, the New York Times wrote that in Wisconsin and surrounding states, the Kohl name had become almost as familiar as Schlitz, which called itself “the beer that made Milwaukee famous.”
Herb Kohl was president of the Kohl Corporation from 1970 to 1979, when the British American Tobacco bought the company completely out, and later spent four terms as a Senator starting in 1988.
The big number
0 — Arizona losses in 20 November games until under Tommy Lloyd took over the Wildcats in 2021, until the Wildcats lost Friday.
Quotable
"We were just all talking in the locker room that this is a night we'll never forget. Having a really good team like Arizona coming in here, and having the Kohl Center full, it's everything you dream of as a kid."
-- Wisconsin guard Max Klesmit
