SPOKANE, Wash. — Gonzaga men's basketball assistant coach Tommy Lloyd could be the next head coach at Arizona, according to multiple reports.
He's an emerging candidate after the school fired head coach Sean Miller on Wednesday.
Former Arizona players, who became assistants for the team and are now head coaches elsewhere, are being mentioned. According to those reports, Pacific coach Damon Stoudemire and Josh Pastner, who coaches at Georgia Tech, are also in the mix.
There has been a trend of coaches who have ties to a program often getting the job, so it's very possible one of those guys or even other alumni get the nod.
Indiana hiring Mike Woodson and North Carolina hiring Hubert Davis are recent examples of hiring alums as coaches. Those things being said, any program would be a fool to not want Lloyd.
Over his 20 seasons at GU, the assistant was the engineer behind recruiting international players as well as very notable non-international players.
Then he developed those guys into pros. Some that went to the NBA are Domantas Sabonis, Kelly Olynyk, Rui Hachimura and Adam Morrison. The Wildcats have a history of recruiting international players, too.
Arizona is facing five Level 1 NCAA violations for academic misconduct and impermissible recruiting. That could very well result in postseason bans and a loss in scholarships. That being said, it's a blue blood program with a long history of success and the long term outlook of that job looks good.
Tommy's son, Liam, just finished his freshman year at Grand Canyon University, which is a little under two hours away from the University of Arizona.
