SAN DIEGO — In an NCAA Tournament universe that mandates the generic in an effort to level the playing field — same logos, same colors, same basketballs, even the same drinking cups, no matter the venue — the Arizona Wildcats wound up playing in a somewhat homey outlier over the weekend.
The San Diego NCAA Tournament first- and second-round games were being played inside an arena built on the side of a hilltop, about 400 feet above sea level, adjacent to a 10-ton boulder commemorating John F. Kennedy’s 1963 commencement address.
Interviews are conducted not in a sterile heated indoor ballroom, but in an outside tent, where the breezes — though warm this weekend — can flow in and out.
Just down the hill and toward the west, where Interstate 8 disappears as it runs along the southern edge of Mission Bay, are the attractions Arizonans know all too well: Beaches, palm trees, taco shops, seafood shacks, Sea World, the zoo, and (almost) always comfortable weather.
“It feels like Tucson, but just with the ocean next to it,” said UA freshman wing Ivan Kharchenkov, a native of Russia who grew up in Germany.
Having driven to Mount Lemmon in the preseason to get away a bit, Kharchenkov said he's found “America’s too big to move around by foot,” and noted that he didn’t have a car to really check out San Diego.
Arizona forward Ivan Kharchenkov (8) shoots against LIU center Isaiah Miranda (7) during the first half in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, Friday, March 20, 2026, in San Diego.
Neither did another foreigner, wing Anthony Dell'Orso, who said he mostly saw the place from the Wildcats’ downtown hotel and on shuttles back and forth to play basketball, getting a faint feeling of his Melbourne, Australia, homeland.
“I seen the views from the room and from the surrounding areas, and it looks pretty nice,” Dell'Orso said. “I've heard good things about San Diego.
“It’s very similar to back home — a nice area, clean ocean right there, a lot of people eating at cafes ocean side, all that kind of stuff. Very similar.”
A limited view is all the players and coaches could really afford over the weekend. It was a business trip for them, the most serious sort of trip in their industry, and the tight turnaround from a Friday to Sunday game can ratchet the pressure even more.
“I'm losing track of coffee,” Utah State coach Jerrod Calhoun said Saturday, stopping at a press conference while preparing to face Arizona on Sunday. ”It's starting to taste like all the same, whether it's a latte, a light roast, a dark roast.
“Four already today, to be honest with you.”
But unlike some NCAA Tournment sites, where players don’t even really have the option to be comfortable outside, San Diego at least allows a brief break from the routines.
“You can get out and you can walk,” Calhoun said. “I think it's really important to keep perspective, obviously with all the media and the hoopla of the NCAA Tournament. I encourage our guys to get outside and walk. I think it's refreshing for them.”
Having arrived on Wednesday, two days before the Wildcats’ first-round game against LIU, UA coach Tommy Lloyd and his family joined other staffers and families at a Solano Beach pizza restaurant owned by former Wildcat guard Matt Othick.
Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd, middle, reacts toward players during the second half in the first round of the NCAA Tournament against LIU, Friday, March 20, 2026, in San Diego.
There, they found not games, but the big picture that can build around them. A family.
"I think (Othick) told anybody that had any affiliation with the Arizona Wildcats to show up ... I was expecting a small little get-together of a few players," Lloyd said. "But man, the place was hopping. It was great to hang out with guys like (former UA players) Jud Buechler and Kevin Flanagan. These guys are great Wildcats. They're the fabric to our program.”
Even when he retreated to the Wildcats’ hotel, Lloyd still found perspective around him. He was accompanied over the weekend not just by players and staffers but by a multi-generational family group that includes a nearly 2-year-old grandson, Luka, and a 5-week-old granddaughter, Londyn. They are the two children of Lloyd's son, Liam, a UA graduate assistant.
That meant, even in San Diego, not everything was calm off the floor for Lloyd.
He maybe sensed some restlessness, but the kind that has nothing to do with game pressure.
“It's been great,” Lloyd said, when asked about having Liam on the staff, but jokingly added: “We might have to rethink the adjoining rooms with the grandkids in the next room over, you know what I mean?”
