Tommy Lloyd

Tommy Lloyd (born December 21, 1974) is an American college basketball coach who is the current head coach at the University of Arizona of the Pac-12 Conference.

His 61 wins in the first two seasons are the most for any head coach in NCAA Division I history.

In the summer of 2024, he will be the head coach of the United States men's national under-18 basketball team at the 2024 FIBA U18 Men’s AmeriCup.

Born and raised in Kelso, Washington, Lloyd graduated from Kelso High School in 1993.

During his senior year, he led the Hilanders to a 21–4 record and to the WIAA state 4A tournament, their first appearance in fifteen years.

Lloyd began his collegiate career at Walla Walla Community College in Walla Walla; his 52 points against Treasure Valley Community College still stands as the school's single-game record.

In his sophomore season, he averaged over twenty points per game and was selected to the Northwest Athletic Association of Community Colleges (now Northwest Athletic Conference) Eastern All-Star team.

After graduating from WWCC, Lloyd transferred to Colorado State University–Pueblo.

After one year with the ThunderWolves, he returned to Walla Walla to play his senior season at Whitman College, and graduated in 1998.

Lloyd played professionally in Australia and Germany.

By that time, Monson had left for Minnesota immediately after Gonzaga's 1999 Elite Eight run, and his top assistant Mark Few had replaced him as the Zags' head coach.

Few honored the tacit agreement Monson had made with Lloyd, and Lloyd joined the men's basketball staff as a volunteer administrative assistant in 2000, becoming a full-time assistant the next year.

Lloyd soon became Gonzaga's key international recruiter.

He began to develop a niche as an international recruiter early in his tenure on Few's staff.

In Borzello's story, Few recalled that one area where he wanted Lloyd to develop was recruiting, telling him that in order to become an assistant at a top program, he needed a niche.

Few told Borzello,"He loved traveling over in Europe. And I told him, hey, if you want to make it in this business, you gotta develop a niche, you gotta have something different than somebody else. There's so many guys in this business, you have to separate yourself. So he kind of figured out like, 'Hey, I can figure out how to do this European thing and see if I can establish a network and trust, you know, some real expertise over there.' And he's done that."

Among the international players that Lloyd has played a role in recruiting are former Bulldogs Mario Kasun (Croatia), Ronny Turiaf (France), J.P. Batista (Brazil), Abdullahi Kuso (Nigeria), Robert Sacre (Canada), Kelly Olynyk (Canada), Elias Harris (Germany), Kevin Pangos (Canada), Przemek Karnowski (Poland), Domantas Sabonis (Lithuania), Rui Hachimura (Japan), Killian Tillie (France), Filip Petrušev (Serbia), Joël Ayayi (France), Martynas Arlauskas (Lithuania), Pavel Zakharov (Russia), and Oumar Ballo (Mali).

Lloyd has also been integral in developing NBA players for Gonzaga like Turiaf, Adam Morrison, Jeremy Pargo, Austin Daye, Sacre, Olynyk, Kyle Wiltjer, Sabonis, Zach Collins, Hachimura, and Brandon Clarke.

Lloyd had previously turned down numerous interview requests for head-coaching positions during his Gonzaga tenure.

He was contractually guaranteed of becoming the Bulldogs' next head coach upon Few's departure.

Gonzaga athletic director Mike Roth said, "Tommy has it in writing from me and the [university] president that says, as long as he's here, when Mark retires, it's your job. He's got a document. I've got a document. The president's got a document. Our general counsel has a document. It's his job."

However, in 2021, Lloyd left Gonzaga for the head-coaching position at the University of Arizona.

Two weeks after the 2021 NCAA tournament ended, Lloyd was announced as a candidate for the vacant head-coaching position at Arizona, which had been led the previous 12 seasons by Sean Miller.

On April 15, 2021, Lloyd was introduced as Arizona's 18th head basketball coach.

Coach Lloyd earned his first win in his first collegiate game as a head coach on November 9, 2021, beating Northern Arizona 81–52.

Two weeks after his first career coaching victory, he earned his first victory over a ranked opponent, No. 4 Michigan, 80–62 to win the Roman Main Event and start the season 5–0.

Also with his 5–0 start, Coach Lloyd became the first in division I history to win his first five games, win by an average of 30 points per game & beat an AP top-5 team.

Arizona entered the top 25 AP Poll for the first time under Coach Lloyd at Number 17, on November 22, 2021.

On December 5, Coach Lloyd defeated his first Pac-12 opponent in his first Pac-12 game, the Oregon State Beavers, 90–65.

In the December 13, 2021 AP poll, Arizona reached the top 10 for the first time under coach Lloyd, coming in at number 8.

Coach Lloyd lost the first game of his career & season in Knoxville on December 22, 2021, 73–77 against no. 19 Tennessee.

On January 17, 2022, Arizona made it into the top 5 for the first time under Coach Lloyd, coming in at no. 3 in the AP poll.

It was the program's first time in the top 5 since the 2017―18 season.

The AP poll's update on February 21, 2022, placed Arizona no. 2 in the nation, following only Lloyd's former team, Gonzaga.

Coach Lloyd & the Arizona Wildcats would win their 1st regular season conference title under Lloyd & 17th overall as a program with a 91–71 win over USC.

According to a 2020 story by ESPN journalist Jeff Borzello, Lloyd's journey to his assistant coach position at Gonzaga actually began while he was playing in junior college.

At the time, Gonzaga was still recruiting in Walla Walla's conference.

After watching Lloyd, Gonzaga coach Dan Monson told him that he would not be offered a scholarship, but that if he ever wanted to go into coaching, he should give Monson a call.

He made the call to Monson after his Whitman career, but had to back out once receiving an opportunity to play overseas.

After his playing career, he and his wife Chanelle spent several months backpacking on several continents before he decided to begin a coaching career.