Tommy Lloyd: No reason to be concerned in delaying extension talks, 'I want to be here'

Saying he wants to stay at Arizona for the long term, men’s basketball coach Tommy Lloyd downplayed the withdrawal of his contract extension proposal from this week’s Board of Regents meeting.

Presently under contract through 2026-27, with a one-year extension expected because of various NCAA penalties on his program in 2022-23, Lloyd said he and Arizona officials had been negotiating a long-term extension last fall and started talking again earlier this month.

Lloyd said an agreement recently was made to pause the discussions again, leading to the proposal’s withdrawal, and he expressed surprise when news broke Monday that he had a new deal lined up. The proposal was posted to the Regents’ website earlier Monday before it was withdrawn late in the afternoon.

“We had actually been negotiating a long-term extension that’s gonna keep me here long term, me and the University committed together,” Lloyd said. “Nothing has changed on that. … There is no extension at this time, but we’re working with the university on a long term extension, and we feel good about it. We’re positive. There’s no alarm.”

The proposal originally submitted for Lloyd was to give him an additional year for 2027-28 with a $100,000 raise, which was in line with the terms of his reworked contract in April 2022.

That contract, signed after Lloyd received several national coach of the year awards for the 2021-22 season, said UA would ask the Regents for an extension equaling the number of years that Arizona had to cope with significant penalties as a result of an infractions case stemming from the Sean Miller era.

The Independent Accountability Resolution Process completed the case in December 2022 and, while it did not add a postseason ban on top of the school’s self-imposed ban in 2020-21, the IARP added a seven-week ban on recruiting communication for UA coaches during the 2022-23 academic year and a reduction of two days of in-person recruiting in 2022-23. The IARP also accepted UA’s self-imposed loss of one scholarship for 2022-23 or 2023-24, which was fulfilled in 2022-23.

The proposal initially submitted for Lloyd to the Regents this week said those sanctions triggered a one-year extension for 2027-28, with Lloyd receiving his standard $100,000 annual salary escalator that season.

Lloyd is contracted to earn $3.7 million from UA this season, plus an extra $200,000 from both IMG and Nike, for a total guaranteed compensation package of $4.1 million. With his annual salary escalators, Lloyd is under contract to receive $4.0 million from UA in 2026-27 and would have been due another $4.1 million in 2027-28 if the extra year were added under the withdrawn proposal.

The Regents kept a private “executive session” discussion about Lloyd on the agenda for their meeting Thursday, but the withdrawal of the proposal means Lloyd currently remains under contract only through 2026-27.

“We were like, ‘Hey, guys, let’s not do a one-year extension now, and then two months later, do another extension — let’s just do them all together at once so we don’t have to worry about the job market or looking at jobs,” Lloyd said. “I want to be here.”

If a new deal is reached later or after this season, under the five-year maximum allowed by the Regents, Lloyd could be in line for a contract that extends to 2028-29.

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Lloyd’s 2022-23 salary already ranked the 14th-highest on USA Today’s coaching database, and a Pac-12 title and/or deep NCAA Tournament run could give him more leverage heading into the Wildcats’ first season in the well-regarded Big 12 next season.

The highest-paid coach in the Big 12, Kansas’ Bill Self, ranked No. 2 nationally with a salary of $5.96 million last season, according to USA Today.

Bryant named McDonald’s All-American

Arizona signee Carter Bryant was named a McDonald’s All-American on Tuesday, becoming the first player to sign with the Wildcats out of high school and make the roster for the prestigious all-star game since Lloyd became the Wildcats’ coach in 2021.

Arizona’s two other fall signees, guard Jamari Phillips and center Emmanuel Stephen, did not make the McDonald’s roster, but ESPN rates Philips the No. 34 overall player in the class of 2024.

Bryant was placed on the West team along with Washington signee Zoom Diallo, a former UA recruiting target, and a future Big 12 opponent in Kansas signee Flory Bidunga, a center from Indiana.

The top-rated player in the 2024 class, Duke-bound forward Cooper Flagg, was named to the East roster.

The Wildcats currently have two former McDonald’s All-Americans, guards Caleb Love and Jaden Bradley, though both transferred to Arizona from other schools. Bradley played in the 2022 McDonald’s All-American Game, and Love was named to the 2020 game, which was not played because of COVID.

The last McDonald’s All-Americans who signed with the Wildcats out of high school were guards Nico Mannion and Josh Green, who played in the 2019 game before both spent one year at Arizona in 2019-20.

Utah’s Smith, CU’s Williams honored

Utah guard Deivon Smith was named Pac-12 Player of the Week after averaging 19.0 points in the Utes’ sweep of Oregon and Oregon State last week, while Colorado’s Cody Williams picked up Freshman of the Week honors after averaging 19.5 points and shooting 69.6% from the field in Colorado’s home sweep of Oregon and Oregon State.

Arizona nominated Pelle Larsson for Player of the Week and KJ Lewis for Freshman of the Week after it beat USC and UCLA at home last week.