Arizona announced Wednesday that it has hired former Lloyd, Gonzaga’s assistant, as the next men’s basketball coach.
In recent weeks, Lloyd had become the favorite to replace Sean Miller in Tucson. Arizona watched coaches with connections to the Wildcats, specifically Damon Stoudamire of the Pacific, Josh Pastner of Georgia Tech and Miles Simon, assistant coach of the Los Angeles Lakers, but the program chose to leave the family.
Lloyd, 46, was interviewed over the weekend, sources told ESPN.
The school said in a statement that Lloyd will get a five-year contract.
“While there are certain potential hurdles ahead for our program, I accept the challenge as we will build on the bases to compete for the Pac-12 and national championships,” Lloyd said in a statement.
Lloyd has been with Gonzaga since 2000, serving as assistant coach to Mark Few for the past 20 seasons. The Bulldogs have come to the NCAA tournament every season since Lloyd joined the show. They won the national championship game twice, in 2017 and last season, when Baylor ended their unbeaten record.
Lloyd has established itself as the top international college basketball recruiter, bringing dozens of foreign players to the Zags over the past two decades. Among the international prospects who played for Gonzaga and joined since Lloyd joined Few’s roster are Ronny Turiaf, Robert Sacre, Kelly Olynyk, Domantas Sabonis and Rui Hachimura.
This could be important when he takes over from Arizona, which had seven international players on its roster last season, including Lithuanians Azuolas Tubelis and Canadian Bennedict Mathurin.
“There was never a master plan,” Lloyd told ESPN last year about his international prowess. “It was just one day at a time. A phone call, a relationship, a recruitment. And then when you start to be successful, more opportunities present themselves.”
He also played a key role in helping Gonzaga secure the five-star prospects of Jalen Suggs and Hunter Sallis in the last two recruiting classes, has positioned the Zags to achieve Chet Holmgren’s No. 1 overall recruitment and also led the path in landing impact transfers like Brandon Clarke and Kyle Wiltjer.
Lloyd, the coach who was waiting for Gonzaga, had turned down multiple opportunities to interview other jobs in recent years. But Arizona, despite question marks appearing on the show, is considered one of the elite jobs in college basketball.
“I’m satisfied,” Lloyd told ESPN a year ago. “I love being in a bigger place than any of us in the coaching staff. We’re all part of something bigger than us. And I think it’s something pretty special.”
Lloyd replaces Sean Miller, who was fired earlier this month after 12 seasons at Tucson. He led the Wildcats to seven NCAA tournaments and three appearances in the Elite Eight, but had reached the second weekend of the NCAA tournament only once since 2016. The Wildcats won at least a portion of five NCAA tournaments. the regular Pac-12 season under Miller’s direction.
Arizona had been embroiled in the 2017 federal investigation into college basketball corruption. Former assistant coach Emanuel “Book” Richardson pleaded guilty to a conspiracy to bribe after being accused of accepting $ 20,000 to direct Arizona players to aspiring sports agent Christian Dawkins. During Dawkins’ trial, prosecutors made a call intercepted by the FBI in which Richardson told Dawkins that Miller was paying $ 10,000 a month for former player Deandre Ayton.
Miller has consistently denied paying players to attend Arizona.
The NCAA charged the men’s basketball program with four Level I infractions, according to a statement of allegations released last month. The program was affected by two alleged cases of academic misconduct, while Miller was accused of failing to demonstrate “that he promoted a compliance environment and supervised his staff.”
Arizona self-imposed a one-year postseason ban for last season.