When Arizona put on a celebratory introduction for its new men’s basketball coach last Thursday at McKale Center, talk focused on Tommy Lloyd’s championship pedigree at Gonzaga, his character, his recruiting ability and his player development.

But nothing about his clean NCAA record. Even though it could potentially help shoo away the elephant that’s been living McKale Center for 3 1/2 years now.

“I’m not going to comment on anything from an NCAA perspective,” UA athletic director Dave Heeke said, when asked about Lloyd’s NCAA record. “I’m celebrating the fact that we have an outstanding individual leading our program.”

New Arizona basketball coach Tommy Lloyd sat down with the Star to discuss why he believes he's the right guy for Arizona, his plans for the roster and more.

Stu Brown, an Atlanta-based attorney who works with schools on NCAA infractions cases, said the hiring of Lloyd is likely “to move the needle only marginally” in UA’s favor with regard to the findings and penalties imposed by the Independent Accountability Resolution Process. In December 2020, the IARP agreed to take on UA’s case, which stemmed from the 2017 federal investigation into college basketball and now involves additional allegations.

But Brown said Lloyd’s hiring would still benefit Arizona in two ways.

First, there’s Lloyd’s presence itself. After firing head coach Sean Miller on April 7, UA now employs none of the basketball coaches named in the formal Notice of Allegations the NCAA delivered in October 2020, though Heeke and UA president Robert Robbins were listed as aggravating factors for allegedly compromising the investigation.

“Often, a corrective measure cited by schools is the replacement of the coach under whose regime alleged violations occurred,” Brown said, “with a new coach who has a long-term, clean NCAA compliance record.”

Then there’s the fact that it will be Lloyd, not Miller, who ultimately sits down with the IARP to answer questions.

Brown said it is customary on the standard NCAA resolution track to have the current head coach speak at a final hearing, and that he expected the same would be the case within the IARP, a newly created process that involves attorneys and investigators who are mostly outside NCAA sports.

Having Lloyd present “will preclude the IARP from being able to ask questions about why UA hired a coach without a clean compliance record,” Brown said. Also “it will allow coach Lloyd to credibly answer questions from the IARP in a way that emphasizes his, and UA’s, commitment to compliance.”

Whether all that’s enough for Arizona to avoid more postseason bans on top of the one Arizona self-imposed last season may not be likely — if the IARP was going to go in that direction anyway.

“However, it could help influence the IARP to impose somewhat less severe recruiting restrictions or scholarship cuts,” Brown said, “or perhaps impose one year less probation if the IARP is otherwise undecided on how many years of probation are appropriate.”

The IARP’s ruling will ultimately depend on how it judges the facts of allegations, which were all based on alleged events before 2020. The NCAA’s Notice of Allegations — which the IARP can accept, throw out or re-investigate – listed five Level I charges and more aggravating than mitigating factors.

Brown said those listings indicated the NCAA probably would have classified Arizona’s case as “Level I aggravated,” which carries a 2-5 year postseason ban under the NCAA’s penalty matrix, though it is possible it could be classified as a “Level I standard” case, which carries a 1-2 year ban (a Level I “mitigated” case does not require a postseason ban at all).

Arizona’s one-year self-imposed ban was an indication the school believed the floor was a standard Level I case.

It is difficult to compare UA’s situation to other Level I cases, in part because the newly-formed IARP has not yet decided a single case that could set precedents.

Of the recent infractions cases involving primarily men’s basketball that were run through the NCAA’s standard resolution process, the NCAA accepted Pacific’s self-imposed ban in 2015-16 after it fired coach Ron Verlin, and it accepted Missouri’s one-year ban for 2015-16, though former coach Frank Haith left on his own for Tulsa four days after the school received its NOA in that case.

The NCAA also did not add extra years to Northern Colorado’s one-year self-imposed postseason ban after that school fired coach B.J.Hill in 2016.

Meanwhile, of schools also named with the federal investigation into college basketball, Louisville fired coach Rick Pitino but its case is still under IARP review. USC and South Carolina did not receive postseason bans despite keeping their head coaches – but their cases were both less complex than Arizona’s and involved the actions of a single former assistant. Oklahoma State’s postseason ban remains under appeal.

After Arizona’s introductory celebration Thursday, Lloyd spoke of having to deal with “NCAA restrictions that will come eventually” but also said he wouldn’t be complaining about it.

He knew that was part of the deal, even if it isn’t something everybody wants to talk about.

“I understand it’s part and parcel,” Lloyd said. “And let’s be honest: If those issues weren’t hanging over the program, we wouldn’t be sitting here talking right now. I mean, Sean would be the head coach and he would be killing it.

“So I understand that and I embrace it and I’m going to do the best job I can shepherding the program through it.”

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