Tommy Lloyd

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. 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.[6][7]

Lloyd has become 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.[7]

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), and Filip Petrušev (Serbia), as well as current Gonzaga players Joël Ayayi (France), Martynas Arlauskas (Lithuania), Pavel Zakharov (Russia), and Oumar Ballo (Mali).[8][9][10][11] 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. In the aforementioned ESPN story, Gonzaga athletic director Mike Roth told Borzello: "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."[7] However, in 2021, Lloyd finally left Gonzaga to pursue a head coaching position at The University Of Arizona, following former head coach Sean Miller's termination.

Two weeks after the 2021 NCAA tournament ended, Lloyd was announced as a possible candidate for the vacant head coaching position at Arizona, which had spent the previous twelve seasons under former head coach Sean Miller. On April 15, 2021, Lloyd was introduced as the 18th head basketball coach of The University of Arizona.[12] Coach Lloyd would get his first win in his first collegiate game as a head coach on November 9, 2021, beating in-state rival Northern Arizona 81–52.[13] Two weeks after getting his first career coaching victory, he would go on to defeat his first ranked opponent, No. 4 Michigan Wolverines 80–62 to win the Roman Main Event and start the season 5–0.[14] 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 would enter the top 25 AP Poll for the first time under Coach Lloyd at Number 17, on November 22, 2021.[15] On December 5, Coach Lloyd would defeat his first Pac-12 opponent in his first Pac-12 game, the Oregon State Beavers, 90–65.[16] Arizona reached the top 10 in the AP Poll for the first time under coach Lloyd, coming in at number 8 in the December 13, 2021 poll.[17]