What Tommy Lloyd said before Arizona's NCAA Tournament practice in Seattle
The Arizona Wildcats went through a public practice session on Thursday in Seattle, ahead of their first-round NCAA Tournament matchup with Akron.
The No. 4 Wildcats are preparing for No. 13 Akron's fast-paced offense in a matchup that promises to be as entertaining as any first-round March Madness game on Friday's schedule. The game is scheduled to tip off at 4:35 p.m. PT/MST.
Before the practice session Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd met with the media. Here's what Lloyd had to say about the Akron matchup and much more.
Lloyd on having 110 wins in his 4 years at Arizona
"Well, I feel like we should have won 120. ... I don't know if there's anything special about it. To be honest with you, I think it's just a simple approach. I'm pretty much a day-to-day guy. If I say something, I try to do it. I think this day and age with players ... I'm hard enough on our guys but I think that I have good enough relationships with them that I can do that."
"I love competing. I love competing. I love the challenge of it. Like this year going to the Big 12 I know was probably going to knock your winning percentage down a little bit, but I tell you, I enjoyed every minute of it. Even the tough minutes, like every day just the challenge that this job brings and you're kind of defined through competition, I mean that's pretty cool. I don't think a lot of people get to experience that."
"Now it makes for maybe a different lifestyle than most people are living because literally your life is ebbing and flowing on a ball going in a basket and you scoring more points than them. But getting back to what you said, honestly, I don't think anything extra special, I think I ended up in a great place and I'm fortunate. So I'm thankful for my players, thankful for my staff, but all I honestly care right now is about playing Akron tomorrow."
Lloyd on having friends from Kelso at the game
(Lloyd grew up in Kelso, Washington, about two hours south of Seattle.)
"I'm sure there will be some people from Kelso coming up. I have a great group of friends still from there. What's really cool about it is they figured this thing out that when I give them tickets I get taxed on them, you know, so like that's real, you know. Like there's this other side of it. I kind of got that first couple years I didn't realize it and I was getting these tax bills and I'm like, what? Like, what?"
"So I honestly I don't have one friend request a ticket. A few of my family members did, but other than that nothing crazy. So I hope there's a great contingent of them coming here because I'm proud to be from Kelso and I'm proud to have great friends and great family from there as well."
Lloyd on what it's like coaching future NBA players
"Here's the deal, there's probably 50 people that are supposed to be lottery picks. Well, only 15 can be. So what, the other 35 fail? I think learning how to navigate that is the most important thing because at the end of the day what's the objective? Well, the No. 1 objective should always be to have a happy, healthy productive life. And I think we put such expectations on these kids, that they don't understand that if they're not that lottery pick, you have an 18, 19, 20-year-old kid thinking they failed. And then have you the people around them that are associated with their success thinking they failed."
"So what do they do? They push, they prod, and imagine being that 18, 19, 20-year-old kid. I mean that's a lot. So I think a lot of times my job is to help them manage that process and have them understand that is a process, it's not an event. Everyone wants it to be an event. You do this, well that's going to come. That's not how it works. It's a lot more complicated than that."
"So I think for me it's made me a better coach because I've had to step back and realize that, man, I've got to help them manage not only the ups, but I really have to help them manage the downs and but at the same time I've got to be the most maybe honest person in their life with basketball, like, no, that's not good enough or maybe you're not ready for that yet or maybe that's not the right thing for this team. Then kind of walk 'em through that stuff."
"So, yeah, it's a complicated process, but at the end of the day I hope everyone steps back and I know we got NIL, thankfully, but these are still kids. Just because they're 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 26, whatever it is in college now, they're still young adults, they're still developing and just because they make a few bucks doesn't mean people should be throwing shade their way."
Lloyd on this team's journey
"I think that you have to understand each team's journey is unique and it's their first time as a team. So you have to acknowledge that. You can't just say, hey, two years ago this happened and expect that lesson to be learned by everybody. I think that the coolest thing is about this tournament is it's one and done. It's the coolest thing and the worst thing about it all together."
"So you have to have your team prepared to come out to play, come out and play consistent basketball. I think you really have to call on the things you've done all year. That's the approach that I take. So thinking that I mean, I'm sure players that have been there, I mean obviously there's probably a little bit of an advantage of having played in a few tournaments and stuff like that, but all in all I don't think it matters because once that ball goes up, like I said the score's 0-0."
"I don't think, you know, if one team hasn't been to the tournament as much as the other I don't think the team that hasn't been is going to say, well, you have been to the tournament more than we have we're going to take it easy. That's not how it goes. These games are knockdown, drag-out affairs and you've got to be prepared to compete like that."
Lloyd on ignoring the outside noise
"Well, I think it's important. I've really become disciplined and learned how to do that. All these things, if you don't acknowledge them, this chatter and all this stuff, it's just stuff that's floating out there and it doesn't stick to you. So I think it allows you to be maybe the most authentic version of yourself."
"So we've talked about that with our guys and hey, I'm not putting limits on their phone, they have to have the discipline to do that themselves and I think it's important. I think it's important to just hunker in on your deal, pour yourself into your teammates. You worked all season for this and come out and try to give it your best effort, because we know you can play good tomorrow and lose. So there is not much room for error."
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-029877d49238355bd3388a94f90e3c72.jpg "Ben Sherman")
Ben Sherman has been covering the sports world for most of his 27-year journalism career, including 17 years with The Oregonian/OregonLive. A basketball junkie, March Madness is his favorite time of the year.