Indiana Coach Search: Tommy Lloyd Wins With Efficiency On Both Ends Of The Floor

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Every now and then, Indiana fans mention Gonzaga coach Mark Few as a candidate to be the next men’s basketball coach for the Hoosiers.

It’s a good idea, but with Few having been the boss at Gonzaga since 1999 without having been tempted by overtures before, it would be a surprise if the 62-year-old Few would be the next man in Bloomington.

However, it doesn’t mean that the most prominent coach in his coaching tree wouldn’t be someone worth kicking the tires on.

Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd was an assistant under Few from 2001-21. He took over an Arizona program that was showing signs of atrophy and restored elite level winning at the Tucson school.

What Makes Lloyd An Attractive Choice

Tommy Lloyd, Oumar Ballo. — Arizona Wildcats head coach Tommy Lloyd talks to Arizona Wildcats center Oumar Ballo (11) on the bench in the first half at McKale Center during the 2023 season. Ballo is now with Indiana. | Zachary BonDurant-Imagn Images

If you want efficiency on both ends of the floor? Lloyd is your guy.

Since he arrived at Arizona in 2021, the Wildcats have not been below 39th in either offensive or defensive efficiency, according to Kenpom.com. Arizona peaked in the 2023-24 season when the Wildcats ranked 11th in offensive efficiency and 10th in defensive efficiency.

Lloyd’s teams are high-scoring, but they manage to balance an up-tempo style (Arizona’s current rank of 51st in Kenpom tempo is the lowest they’ve ranked under Lloyd) with good shooting numbers.

Arizona has not shot lower than 47.1% in any one of Lloyd’s seasons. Lloyd is flexible with his personnel. If his team has 3-point shooters, Arizona will let fly, but they don’t force threes if they don’t have the players to make it work.

Defensively, Lloyd’s teams work hard at taking away easy shots at the rim. A familiar face helped Lloyd accomplish this in his first three seasons at Arizona – current Indiana center Oumar Ballo.

Ballo is also an example of another way Lloyd builds his teams – with international talent. Bennedict Mathurin, Azoulas Tubelis, Christian Koloko, Kerr Kriisa, Pelle Larsson and Henri Veesaar are just a few of the success stories has had with foreign-born players at Arizona.

As far as coaching itself, Lloyd casts himself as a teacher.

“I have really high standards. I know it’s my job to push and get players to meet those standards. That can come in different shapes and forms. It can come from a positive, it can come from getting on a guy, it can come from holding him accountable, it can come from patting him on the back, in my office watching film,” Lloyd told 247sports.com shortly after he was hired at Arizona.

“It is definitely going to be fully engaged with the players and the main focus is going to be on helping them become better basketball players and helping us become a better basketball team on a daily basis. That is literally how I approach it.”

All of the above has led to serious winning. Lloyd is 107-29 at Arizona. The current season has been his roughest in charge of the Wildcats, but Arizona is still 19-9 overall. The Wildcats are second in the difficult Big 12 with a 13-4 conference record.

He has the Wildcats ahead of other Big 12 schools with coaches mentioned in the Indiana search. Arizona is one game ahead of Grant McCasland’s Texas Tech team and two games ahead of T.J. Otzelberger’s Iowa State squad.

Lloyd is highly respected. He is the current coach of Team USA’s under-19 team. His assistant coaches are also mentioned as Indiana candidates – McCasland and Notre Dame coach Micah Shrewsberry.

What Are Drawbacks With Lloyd

Arizona Wildcats head coach Tommy Lloyd watches game action against the Princeton Tigers during the first half at Golden 1 Center. | Kelley L Cox-Imagn Images

To the degree it matters, Lloyd has no Midwestern roots. He’s spent his entire life west of the Great Plains. In the day and age of the transfer portal, that doesn’t matter as much as it used to, but Lloyd would have to make inroads as far as local recruiting is concerned.

What can also be filed under “to the degree it matters” is Lloyd’s use of the transfer portal. He uses it to build his teams, so his rosters tend to have their fair share of flux.

Several players have starred for Arizona, but then moved on to other schools, Ballo obviously included. Current Illinois guard Kylan Boswell is another former Wildcat. Kriisa was an important Wildcat from 2021-23, but moved on to West Virginia and now Kentucky.

For all of the talent Lloyd has assembled and the high win totals the Wildcats have amassed, it hasn’t yet equated to a deep NCAA Tournament run. Arizona lost in the Sweet 16 to Houston in 2022 and Clemson in 2024. The Wildcats were upset in the first round by Princeton in 2023.

Is It Realistic To Expect Lloyd To Take The Indiana Job?

There are no indications that Lloyd is unhappy at Arizona – he signed a contract extension in February 2024 that stretches to 2029.

He’s paid well at $5.25 million per year with an increase to $6 million by the end of the deal. His buyout in his original contract was $12 million, so it stands to reason that Lloyd would exact a heavy price if Indiana was interested, perhaps too heavy of a price.

From an institutional point of view, the allure of Indiana may not appeal to Lloyd. Arizona is a lot like Indiana in that it values its basketball program as much as it does its football program. So this isn’t a case where Indiana can sell their commitment to basketball as it can to basketball coaches who work at football-oriented schools.

Given all of that, it would be a surprise if Lloyd was announced as Indiana’s next coach, but if he was the choice, he’s got a proven record of winning on his resume.

What Makes Lloyd An Attractive Choice

What Are Drawbacks With Lloyd

Is It Realistic To Expect Lloyd To Take The Indiana Job?

Related stories on Indiana basketball