Seen and heard in Seattle: On Lloyd's homecoming, fan lineups, greenery, and the Havocs

SEATTLE — The typically damp, cold, gray weather was one small sign Tommy Lloyd had arrived home this week.

For him, the people were the big one.

The Arizona men’s basketball coach, who grew up in the small Western Washington town of Kelso and spent the bulk of his early career on the east side of the state in Spokane, said he went to dinner upon arriving in Seattle on Wednesday with one of his best friends, Cody Morrison.

Also present: Cody’s father, Rusty, who was also Lloyd’s little league and youth football coach.

“Thank God he wasn’t my basketball coach,” Lloyd said, laughing.

In Lloyd’s world, that sort of playful jab is often a sign of respect. So he elaborated, in all seriousness, about Rusty Morrison.

“He had a huge influence on me,” Lloyd said. “I almost get emotional thinking about that. I’m up here now because of guys like him. That means a lot.”

At dinner, Lloyd said he thanked Rusty for being a “great coach,” and noted that he doesn’t get to see him much anymore — later admitting that he doesn’t even have time to get back often to Kelso, the site of so much growth.

“I grew up in a small town where you played all the sports, and pretty much all your best friends were your teammates,” Lloyd said. “My dad grew up in a way where he really didn’t get to play sports because of his family situation. He was a guy who had a lawn mowing business at 12. He worked, and he was a carpenter at 18. And he worked his ass off to kind of break a cycle, so our family could be different.

“That’s the reality right there. I never had to do that. I grew up, I had a great childhood.”

Lloyd continued.

“So Rusty would do a lot of the coaching, and my dad was usually the sponsor. He was around and didn’t know much about sports, but it was really cool that he was around for all that stuff. So I appreciate all those memories.

“And, listen, that’s why I coach. I coach because of those experiences I had from the coaches. We don’t have time, but I could probably list every coach I had and what they meant to me, and that’s special stuff.

“I hope that doesn’t get lost on today’s generation because those were my mentors. I didn’t even know what the word mentor meant back then. I was 6, 7, 8 years old, but those experiences are things that I carry in my life to today.”

Tax-free Tommy

One other good thing Lloyd found all those friends: Lloyd says they “used to bug me for tickets,” but don’t anymore, buying their own tickets when they want to show up.

That saves him a little.

“What’s really cool about it is they figured out that when I give them tickets I get taxed on them,” Lloyd said. “Like this other side of it. That first couple years I didn’t realize it and I was getting these tax bills and I’m like, what? Like, what?

“So honestly, I don’t have one friend request a ticket. A few of my family members did, but other than that nothing crazy. So I hope there’s a great contingent of them coming here because I’m proud to be from Kelso and I’m proud to have great friends and great family from there, as well.”

Literally green

Climate Pledge Arena, host of this weekend’s Seattle NCAA Tournament pods and permanent home for the NHL’s Kraken and WNBA’s Storm, is trying its best to live up to the name.

The arena states it “serves as a long-lasting and regular reminder of the urgent need for climate action and will be the first net zero carbon certified arena in the world.”

In one concourse, decorated by a series of tiles speaking to things such as “credible offsets,” and “climate action,” an introductory sign notes that the Climate Pledge is a growing collection of companies committed to being net zero carbon by 2040, or 10 years before the Paris Agreement’s 2050 target.

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Another side of the concourse features ferns and other plants sprouting out of the walls and ceiling, making Climate Pledge Arena literally green, as well as aspirationally so.

Just in time

Since the GCU-Maryland game didn’t end until 3:50 p.m, just 45 minutes before the Arizona-Akron game, that meant fans of the two “UA”s were in jeopardy of getting into Climate Pledge Arena in time.

The arena had to be completely emptied and cleaned out before fans were allowed to enter about 20 minutes beforehand. The tipoff was moved back over 10 minutes from 4:35 p.m, which helped, but the arena still was just about half-full for the tipoff.

Arizona fans had a similar situation that was even worse three years ago in San Diego, when they couldn’t enter Viejas Arena until it had been cleared out. The Wildcats played before a half-empty arena for the opening segments of that game — and they were never able to accelerate after taking an early 13-point lead, going ahead by just nine at halftime.

What’s more, once UA fans got into Viejas, they weren’t too active, at least not enough for Lloyd.

“This is supposed to be a great, advantageous fan base for us. And yesterday we didn’t feel it,” Lloyd said the following day. “I know we’ve got a great fan base and I know some will take it personal but they’ve got to be better tomorrow. They’ve got to bring it tomorrow as fans.”

On Friday, the Arizona fans who did enter in time for tipoff at Climate Pledge Arena were vocal, making it clear during their early 9-0 outburst that they were the dominant voices in the arena.

Lope-blooded

Arizona reserve guard Liam Lloyd has said he will likely be a graduate assistant for the Wildcats next season, but he has a job lead in Phoenix if he wants it.

GCU coach Bryce Drew, whose Antelopes lost to Maryland in a West Region pod earlier Friday, coached the son of UA coach Tommy Lloyd during the 2021-22 and 2022-23 seasons before Liam spent the next two seasons at NAU (and ultimately transferred to UA last summer, making him the only player ever to play for three Arizona Division I teams).

“We loved Liam,” Drew said. “Loved his energy, really tough player on the court. Knew the game like a coach, and we were happy coaching him for two years. We’re happy that he’s with his dad, Tommy, right now.

“Whatever he decides to do, if he wants to coach, we’ll definitely be calling him, if he wanted to come back to Grand Canyon and help us coach. Or if he wants to do something else he’ll be successful. He’s a great young man.”

Bringing Havocs

While teams still bring along cheerleaders and bands for the NCAA Tournament, rowdy student sections are usually missing in an era of pricey lower-bowl tickets.

Not so at GCU, which flew in 200 of its Havocs student fans and then placed them in what is normally a top-dollar area: Starting about 20 rows up in a lower-level section that was right across from the GCU bench.

All of the students stood throughout GCU’s game with Maryland.

Known for creating one of the West’s best homecourt sections in college basketball, the Havocs are known to often travel to Antelopes road games. It was a level of intensity new to forward JaKobe Coles, who has also played for Butler and TCU.

“They’re just amazing,” Coles said. “The atmosphere back home is just amazing. It’s my first experience with that type of crowd. It definitely brings a lot of energy to the team and makes us want to play harder.

Quotable

“I feel like we should have won 120. I don’t know. I don’t know if there’s anything special about it.” — Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd, when asked about winning 110 games in his first four years, the third by a power-conference coach in his first four seasons