As Coaches vs. Cancer kicks go up for auction, Arizona's Tommy Lloyd shares news of passing of friend Andrew Reed

Among the many folks that Tommy Lloyd has routinely left tickets for since becoming the Arizona Wildcats’ coach in 2021-22 are several buddies from his days at Whitman College.

Most of them played basketball with Lloyd for the Blues, a Division III team at the small liberal arts college in Walla Walla, Washington. Another was Andrew Reed, a fraternity brother of several players who came to know Lloyd through them.

They assembled every season to watch Lloyd coach some basketball, and to share some good times together.

A lot of good times.

“They would come for years,” Lloyd said Wednesday. “Even when I was at Gonzaga, they’d spend a weekend there every year. They were doing that in Tucson the first couple of years. Andrew came down a couple of times.”

But not this year. Andrew Reed passed away last week, the victim of brain cancer at age 49, coincidentally just as college basketball coaches around the country slipped on sneakers as part of the week-long Coaches vs Cancer event.

In the glow of the Wildcats’ Nov. 10 win at Duke, Lloyd made it known how hard the news eventually would hit.

Instead of talking first about the heroics of Keshad Johnson, Caleb Love or Kylan Boswell that evening, Lloyd opened his postgame press conference by noting that Reed had just received a "tough, tough cancer diagnosis" and that the Whitman gang had huddled around Reed back in Walla Walla to watch the game.

It was 10 p.m. local time on a Friday in Durham, North Carolina, where Lloyd had just collected probably his most significant nonconference win at Arizona, but mentally Lloyd was in Walla Walla, too.

“You know, my college teammates, we weren’t great players, but we were great F-ing guys,” Lloyd said that night. “All my college teammates flew to Walla Walla to hang out with Andrew and watch this game because he can’t travel.

“I've been thinking about that a lot. And I didn't want to get too emotional about it. But, you know, there's bigger things in life than winning at Duke, believe it or not.”

On Wednesday, Lloyd sat at the McKale Center interview podium, next to the pair of shoes he wore last week for the Coaches vs Cancer, since Arizona is scheduled to auction them off for charity after wearing them a final time Thursday against California.

Lloyd made a few opening comments about the auction and its purpose, then was asked how Reed was doing.

He didn’t pause.

“Andrew passed away. It’s real,” Lloyd said. “He passed away last Monday. … It was crazy. He’s my age, 49 years old. He has a family and, yeah, it’s hitting us all pretty hard. It’s reality.”

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Cancer has a way of hitting people everywhere hard, of course. That’s why for over 30 years, the Coaches vs Cancer initiative has aimed to increase awareness, fundraising and advocacy programs to help fight it.

The National Assocation of Basketball Coaches says former Missouri coach Norm Stewart started the program by challenging fans to pledge a dollar for every 3-pointer the Tigers made and the initiative grew to a “suits and sneakers” week where coaches across the country would attempt to draw awareness with their attention-getting look.

These days, Lloyd and many other coaches wear more casual shoes anyway on the sidelines. But UA added its own twist earlier this month by asking pediatric patients at the Diamond Children’s Medical Center to paint or draw on shoes that UA staffers would wear for Coaches vs Cancer event last week.

As did the ages of the artists, the results varied wildly. That added to the whole thing.

“These actually turned out pretty good,” Lloyd said, gesturing to the pair he’s been wearing, then grinning as he added that: “Some of them are a little rough … but it's all in fun. Our coaching staff, we've had a bunch of fun with it, giving each other a hard time.”

Lloyd and conditioning coach Chris Rounds had among the most polished versions, crisply painted shoes sporting official UA red and blue, while special assistant TJ Benson wore a pair that was randomly decorated with scribbles in about seven different colors, including a big black splotch on the top of the right shoe.

Even though the Coaches vs Cancer week is officially over, UA staffers will wear the shoes one more time on Thursday before they are auctioned off at UArizona.givesmart.com. Bids will be taken through Feb. 10, and all proceeds will go to Diamond Children’s Medical Center cancer services and a planned “Play Zone.”

In the first game that Lloyd and his staff wore the shoes, Arizona lost at Oregon State, and Lloyd joked that if the Wildcats didn’t beat Oregon two days later “we were gonna have to cancel the auction.”

But the truth of it is, no, not for something like this. Not a chance.

“College basketball is very positive in most instances, and life’s tough,” Lloyd said. “We’re all touched by this stuff. So anytime we can use the platform of college basketball to promote some of these charities, I think it’s a great thing.”