Seen and heard in Indy: On the quarantine Final Four, Tomm-E and COY awards

“I don’t remember anything about it,” he said.

Neither did a lot of other people, and maybe that’s just as well.

It was the end of the COVID-restricted season of 2020-21, a weird-all-in-one tournament played exclusively in Indianapolis, and two coaching veterans of that experience have been on hand this weekend: Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd, then with Gonzaga, and UConn coach Dan Hurley.

Lloyd said he spent three weeks in the same Marriott hotel while the Zags reached that Final Four, and all the participants staying there or in nearby hotels, but not too nearby.

You know, social distancing and all.

“It was very different,” Lloyd said. “You didn’t leave the hotel.”

Not even for dinner.

“That was a mess,” Hurley said. “They were literally knocking on your door, and dropping the food at your door. It wasn't slop, but it was … maybe it was.”

But within their bubble, all but quarantining together, the participants bonded anyway. It just took a little creativity.

“There may or may not have been a lounge created by the coaches where they all hung out at night together, which was really cool,” Lloyd said. “You went in there and you built some relationships with coaches.”

There were 68 head coaches at first, each with their own staff. Then 64. Then 32, with Hurley bounced after the Huskies lost in the first round. Then 16 and eight before only Gonzaga, Baylor, Houston and UCLA reached the Final Four.

“It was almost like being on one of these reality shows,” Lloyd said. “The next day 'Coach X' would have been gone. He would have been sent off the island. You're like, 'Man, I'm sad they lost; we don't get to hang out tonight.'"

It was bad. It was weird. But it was basketball.

Hurley said they were lucky there was a tournament at all, and Lloyd said he looked back at the 2021 Final Four with “fond memories,” as different as they were.

“The NCAA and the city of Indianapolis did an amazing job pulling off the NCAA Tournament at a time when we needed that type of thing,” Lloyd said. Not just for “the game of basketball, but for our entire country just to be able to celebrate together.”

Hoiberg named AP COY

After taking Nebraska to its first NCAA Tournament in 10 years and winning 28 games, Cornhuskers coach Fred Hoiberg was named the Associated Press Coach of the Year on Friday.

Hoiberg drew 17 votes from the 61-person media panel that also votes on AP Top 25 polls, while Duke’s Jon Scheyer drew 13 first-place votes and Arizona’s Lloyd had 11.

Lloyd was named the Sporting News Coach of the Year, while the United States Basketball’s Henry Iba Award for Coach of the Year went to Michigan’s Dusty May, and Scheyer won the National Association of Basketball Coaches Coach of the Year award.

Lloyd, Scheyer, May and Hoiberg are also the four finalists for the Naismith Coach of the Year award that will be announced Sunday. Lloyd will receive a $20,000 bonus from Arizona if he wins the AP, NABC or Naismith Coach of Year awards.

Tomm-E appearance

While Lloyd maintained he had “full focus” on the Final Four this week, even as contract negotiations were playing out behind the scenes, he did manage to blow off a little steam Thursday.

Lloyd made a brief DJ appearance as his alter-ego “Tomm-E” at a downtown Indianapolis gathering spot on Thursday, a performance several staffers said was low-key.

“Nothing crazy,” UA athletic trainer Justin Kokoskie said.

The appearance was somewhat fitting with Lloyd’s usual road trip routine: If the Wildcats arrive early for a game, he’ll take his family and other staffers out two nights before the game, while players hang out elsewhere.

The big number

10: Million dollars for Lloyd to buy out his contract in the first year of his new five-year deal (his previous buyout dropped to $9 million as of Wednesday).

Quotable

“I thought it was fitting that they gave me that race car helmet. I probably could have used it on Sunday night. Or that might have been bad. Might have made it worse.” — UConn coach Dan Hurley, referring to a Final Four gift, and the headbutting with a referee in the Elite Eight that did not draw a technical.