Tommy Lloyd is getting tied to the vacant head coach position at UNC. The Arizona Wildcats head coach is in the middle of the NCAA Tournament, awaiting the Final Four encounter against the Michigan Wolverines this weekend.
Before that, the coaching rumors are getting hot and fans want to know everything about Lloyd.
Tommy Lloyd Coaching Career Timeline and Teams
After playing professionally in Australia and Germany, Tommy Lloyd’s first foray into coaching came with the position of assistant coach at Gonzaga. The history behind this job dates back to his playing days in Walla Walla’s conference. Gonzaga was recruiting from there at the time, and coach Dan Monson told Lloyd that while he may not be able to give him a scholarship, if he wanted to coach, he’s just a call away.
After he finished playing for Whitman, Lloyd followed through on that promise but had to quit for another playing opportunity. After playing in other professional leagues, Lloyd came back to the States in search of coaching in 2000. However, by the time, Monson was already gone and was replaced by his top assistant, Mark Few.
3Few honored the promise made by his predecessor as Lloyd became a volunteer administrative assistant for Gonzaga in 2000. The role was made full-time the following year. Given his past experience, he took the role of international recruiting. Few wanted Lloyd to develop in recruiting if he wanted to become an assistant coach at some point in the future.
Lloyd brought in several players from outside United States, including former Bulldogs Mario Kasun (Croatia), Ronny Turiaf (France), J.P. Batista (Brazil), Abdullahi Kuso (Nigeria), Robert Sacre (Canada), Kelly Olynyk (Canada), Elias Harris (Germany), and Kevin Pangos (Canada).
Lloyd grew in his role under legendary coach Few amid Gonzaga’s rise into a national powerhouse. Lloyd was even promised to become the next Bulldogs head coach when Few departs.
In the meantime, Lloyd was made the head coach of the United States under-19 men’s national basketball team in 2024. He led the team in the 2024 FIBA U18 Men’s AmeriCup in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and qualified for the 2025 FIBA Under-19 Basketball World Cup.
However, after turning down several head-coaching requests, in 2021, he finally decided to leave Gonzaga to become the head coach of the Arizona Wildcats.
Tommy Lloyd Coaching Achievements
With Gonzaga, where he was an assistant for over 20 years, the Bulldogs made it to two national championship games and multiple NCAA Tournament appearances.
In his first season with Arizona, he led the program to a 33-4 record, winning the Pac-12 Regular Season Title and the Pac-12 Tournament. He also won AP Coach of the Year
NABC Coach of the Year, USBWA Coach of the Year and Pac-12 Coach of the Year that season.
The following season, he also led the Wildcats to a Pac-12 tournament win and in his third season, he helped them finish first in the conference regular season standings. In the 2025-26 season, he had made his deepest NCAA Tournament run by taking the program to the Final Four after winning the conference tournament. For that, he’s already announced Sporting News Coach of the Year and Big 12 Coach of the Year.
Internationally, he coached the Under-18 team of the United States to a gold medal in the 2024 AmeriCup in Argentina. In Switzerland last year, in the Under-19 Basketball World Cup, the United States won a gold medal under his leadership.
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