Associate head coach Jack Murphy, left, and assistant coach Jason Terry, right, have been retained by new UA coach Tommy Lloyd.

 Kelly Presnell, Arizona Daily Star

No matter how competent assistant coaches are, the hiring of a new head coach usually means all of them are soon headed elsewhere.

In some cases, if the fit is right, there might be a holdover. But Tommy Lloyd has already kept two.

Within the first week of taking over the Wildcats, Lloyd announced he will keep both Jack Murphy and Jason Terry, while confirming Thursday that the third assistant coach spot held by Danny Peters will be opened.

Lloyd said he is doing some reorganization β€” UA has also posted an opening for a non-coaching director of basketball operations position β€” but it doesn’t appear to be a major housecleaning at this point.

β€œI didn’t want to come in and be like a tornado coming through,” Lloyd said Thursday. β€œArizona basketball has an amazing history and tradition... I wanted to come down open-minded and meet people and make sure that I’m making the best decisions going forward for Arizona basketball, not just to make Tommy Lloyd comfortable.”

Breaking down the Wildcats' hire of Tommy Lloyd and what to know about the new men's basketball coach

As he is also doing with the Wildcats’ current players, Lloyd said he has tried getting to know all staff members who served under Sean Miller via sit-down conversations. That’s become easier over his first week because the NCAA is still forbidding off-campus recruiting, which otherwise would be dramatically affecting face-to-face opportunities.

So Lloyd quickly retained Murphy, a longtime coaching friend, while also offering a spot to Terry, the popular late β€˜90s Wildcat star who went on to play 18 years in the NBA.

β€œObviously, Jason has a great reputation, an amazing history here and had a storied NBA career,” Lloyd said. β€œJet and I had a couple of really nice meetings and I really liked him. I’m looking forward to going both feet in with him and I think he’s doing the same.”

Lloyd didn’t need to have any get-acquainted sort of talks with Murphy because, well, those two guys took care of that about 15 years ago.

New basketball head coach Tommy Lloyd speaks during his introductory news conference at McKale Center in April.

Then an assistant coach with the Denver Nuggets, Murphy took a few summertime scouting trips to West Coast basketball programs to get to know the key players and those the college coaches might know from rival teams. One of his stopovers was to Spokane, where he met Lloyd, then only a few years into his assistant coach’s job at Gonzaga.

β€œWe became fast friends,” Lloyd said. β€œWe were both young in the business and I have a lot of those relationships with guys from over the years. They’re young scouts coming through or young assistants and I’m a young assistant, so you kind of link up and you find out that you have a lot of similarities.”

The two stayed in touch while Murphy moved on to being an assistant with the University of Memphis and head coach at NAU. Murphy even dared take the Lumberjacks into Spokane to face Gonzaga in the 2015-16 season, though playing the game wasn’t a direct result of their relationship; NAU was also playing at Washington State and Boise State on the same trip.

Then, last spring, their friendship was also clear when Murphy’s international recruiting efforts started generating congratulations.

β€œI do remember the first day that Azuolas and Tautvilas (Tubelis) committed, one of the first guys who texted me was Tommy,” Murphy said. β€œHe wasn’t recruiting Azuolas β€” they had Drew Timme and other guys β€” but he knew who he was.”

While Terry has star power from his UA and NBA playing days, plus deep recruiting connections to his hometown of Seattle and adopted hometown of Dallas, Murphy brings not only his international connections and head-coaching experience, but also nearly lifelong UA ties.

Murphy served as a manager and in several administrative roles under Lute Olson, before later returning to coach under Miller, while his wife attended UA’s law school.

β€œI’ve been part of this program for a lot of years, and I’m really looking forward to being part of this program in the future,” Murphy said. β€œI can’t thank Coach Miller enough for bringing me and my family from Flagstaff and am very excited to have coach Lloyd keeping me on for the future.”

In short, it could be a good fit professionally, and personally. Murphy’s family also gets to stay home, which doesn’t happen often in the coaching business.

β€œThat’s the hardest part,” Murphy said. β€œI have a wife and three kids. I’ve got two sixth-grade daughters and a third-grade son, and you’re looking around the landscape of college athletics: Do I want to get into the moving game, where we’re taking them to new cities and new environments and new schools – and possibly have to move them in another year or two? No. It can really start to be a slippery slope.”

β€œI just couldn’t be more thankful that Coach Lloyd is keeping me on and I have the opportunities to help to grow and build this program while keeping my family here in Tucson.”

Meanwhile, Lloyd’s β€œnon-moves” also will benefit UA’s athletic department since Murphy (at $335,000) and Terry ($280,000) were under contract to be paid through April 2022 anyway.

UA will have to pay Peters his contracted $275,000 but that amount will be offset by whatever salary Peters makes next season if he takes another job in basketball.

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Contact sports reporter Bruce Pascoe at 573-4146 or bpascoe@tucson.com. On Twitter @brucepascoe