How Arizona won the 2021 coaching carousel with Tommy Lloyd hire | Greg Hansen

At the top, Hubert Davis went to North Carolina, Chris Beard to Texas, Mike Woodson to Indiana. All have encountered significant difficulty.

It was typical March madness (or insanity). About 17% of college basketball teams changed leadership. What other industry does that?

Late to the party, Arizona fired Sean Miller in early April and quickly interviewed Los Angeles Lakers assistant Miles Simon, Georgia Tech head coach Josh Pastner, Pacific head coach Damon Stoudamire and made contact with Arkansas coach Eric Musselman and BYU's Mark Pope. None struck the right chord.

Simon had never been a head coach. Stoudamire was unproven. Pastner had gone 31-44 in ACC games at Georgia Tech.

Former Arizona president Bobby Robbins and athletic director Dave Heeke then flew to Spokane to interview 20-year Gonzaga assistant coach Tommy Lloyd.

The pressure to make the right hire must've been overwhelming. The doubters doubted.

I phoned a prominent UA booster and asked his preference. He referred to Robbins and Heeke as "dumb and dumber" and spun off that remark by saying Lloyd "was not ready to be a head coach."

Before Robbins and Heeke offered the 46-year-old Lloyd the job, they did enough research to know that Mark Few’s three assistant coaches at Gonzaga had not exactly blossomed as head coaches.

Bill Grier went 117-144 at the University of San Diego.

Ray Giacoletti had gone 155-159 at Utah, Drake and Eastern Washington.

Leon Rice had reached the NCAA Tournament five times in 15 years at Boise State, but went 0-5 and had settled into mid-major mid-majorness.

But once meeting Lloyd and spending time at his Spokane home, Robbins and Heeke were sold. What was there not to like? Lloyd is an engaging, upbeat personality. He was probably college basketball's most accomplished recruiter across the previous 20 years. Gonzaga athletic director Mike Roth put a stamp on Arizona's move by saying "They hit a home run. Tommy will be successful, I have no doubt. Arizona is getting a great coach and, more important, a really special individual."

In a year that basketball-blessed North Carolina, Indiana, Texas and Oklahoma hired basketball coaches, it turns out Arizona made the best hire.

In retrospect, it's mind-boggling that Lloyd was available. Three years earlier, Washington AD Jen Cohen hired Syracuse career assistant Mike Hopkins to replace fired Lorenzo Romar. She wasn't intuitive enough to take a look at the Kelso, Wash., native, who grew up 80 miles from the Husky campus. Hopkins was fired after five years.

"I never got a call from Washington," Lloyd told me five years ago.

Now, after five years, we can put Lloyd's five Arizona seasons in perspective. Through Friday, he had gone 140-35 with three league championships. He has become a net-cutter, climbing the ladder of success to cut down the nets in the UA's 2022, 2024 and 2026 league championships. No coach in college basketball history has won 140 games in his first five seasons.

It's early. Lloyd is only 51. At 51, Lute Olson had yet to coach Arizona to a Final Four.

In many ways, Lloyd is just getting started. He almost lapped the field in his first five years.

His five-season winning percentage (exactly 80.0% through Friday) of 140-35 almost duplicates Olson's best five-year period at Arizona, 1988-92, when the UA went 141-28 (or 83%).

When Lloyd walked off the court at McKale Center after Monday's Big 12-title clinching victory over No. 6 Iowa State, he wore his Arizona cap backward for follow-up interviews. It's about the only time the word "backward" and Tommy Lloyd have been used in the same sentence.