Arizona returned from San Jose early Sunday morning to the sight of hundreds, if not thousands, of fans camped out around McKale Center to welcome the Wildcats home. The team is only in town until Wednesday, when it flies to Indianapolis ahead of the national semifinal with Michigan.
In between?
“Another normal week,” Lloyd said Tuesday. “I don’t know if the energy in the community is like that. To be honest with you I haven’t left my house. That’s with intent, because I don’t want to be out feeling
any different than I normally do, because I don’t think me feeling any different than I normally do will help me do my job better this week.”
The UA returned to practice Tuesday afternoon in preparation for its first Final Four appearance since 2001. It will be the third time there for Lloyd, who went as an assistant with Gonzaga in 2017 in Phoenix and 2021 at Lucas Oil Stadium, site of this year’s Final Four.
Because of that prior experience, Lloyd has an idea of how big the stage will be. He’s done his best to pass that on to the players, particularly when it comes to all the things other than the game itself.
“My message to our guys was pretty simple,” Lloyd said. “The Final Four is an event, but it’s an event for the fans, and we’re the participants. There’s two experiences at the Final Four, there’s the fan experience, and then there’s the player/team experience. And we’re in the player/team experience. We need to go there, understanding that this isn’t a field trip, this is a business trip, and, and we need to treat it as such.
“I think the messaging is really important. We’ve worked really hard at talking about, and understanding what it is to be in the moment and, and so we’re just gonna double down on what we’ve done. I’m not guaranteeing it’ll work by any stretch, because the competition is formidable, but to me, I think that’s the best formula, is to to stick with what got you there and double down on your strengths.”
Avoiding outside distractions is imperative, and Lloyd should know full well. He’s been linked to the vacancy at North Carolina, as has with Michigan coach Dusty May and Chicago Bulls coach Billy Donovan, among others.
Asked about that opening prior to the Sweet 16, Lloyd said he “already” has one of the best jobs in the country and that he was focused on Arizona. Then, after beating Purdue on Sunday he made a reference to the UA having “another good coach after me” which only ramped up the rumor mill.
“It’s absolutely true, there’s gonna be another coach,” Lloyd said Tuesday. “This is a great program. I didn’t say when. I mean, people are gonna speculate all they want. Guys: this team has my full focus. Nothing, nothing, I promise you, nothing is knocking me off that path. And you guys might call them distractions, because you’re distracted. That doesn’t mean I’m distracted, or we’re distracted. It’s pretty cool, once you get some experience in this deal and you’re a player, or you’re coach and you’ve been at it a while, you get pretty good at eliminating the distractions. So I think I’m pretty good at that.”
Though basketball will be the main focus in Indianapolis, Lloyd will take time out to help honor his mentor. The Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame is formally introducing its 2026 HOF class on Saturday, which will include Gonzaga coach Mark Few.
“Just think back to being along for the ride, and just honestly, how many normal moments we had,” Lloyd said. “No one ever talked about being in the Hall of Fame, or honestly, even back in the day, going to the Final Four.”
