Rumors have been swirling about Tommy Lloyd and the Arizona head coaching vacancy, with many believing he will be the man that replaces Sean Miller when all is said and done.
Stadium’s Jeff Goodman slowed that roll a tad by reporting Sunday that Lloyd has only interviewed once for the Arizona job—virtually on Saturday morning—and has not been offered the job yet. He’s also back in Spokane, per Goodman.
Gonzaga assistant coach Tommy Lloyd has interviewed once with Arizona, yesterday morning at 9:30 PT via zoom, source told @stadium.
There is no offer on the table yet, and Lloyd is currently in Spokane, the source added.
— Jeff Goodman (@GoodmanHoops) April 11, 2021
However, as the joke goes in college sports, no one is offered a job until they actually accept the job, so this doesn’t dispel rumors that Arizona has extreme interest in Lloyd.
Goodman has also reported that Arizona interviewed Damon Stoudamire on Thursday and Miles Simon on Friday. Bruce Pascoe of the Arizona Daily Star noted that Jason Terry has interviewed for the job, too.
Lloyd is considered a desirable candidate because he has been Mark Few’s right-hand man at Gonzaga for 20 seasons, helping building that program into the powerhouse that it is now.
Lloyd is especially lauded for his international recruiting. The Zags have churned out names like Domantas Sabonis (Lithuania), Kelly Olynyk (Canada), Elias Harris (Germany), Przemek Karnowski (Poland), Rui Hachimura (Japan), Killian Tillie (France), Filip Petrušev (Serbia) and Joel Ayayi (France), and that’s only a small sample.
Lloyd is Goodman’s top candidate for that very reason.
“You can’t hire an assistant coach as a high-major head coach? That’s bulls**t!” Goodman recently said on his podcast. “I’m going to hire Tommy Lloyd, who can go overseas and get big-time dudes over and over and over. He’s the guy who’s helped build Gonzaga.”
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