NCAA 2022 BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

April 1, 2022

Tommy Lloyd

Barry Bedlan

Associated Press Coach of the Year Press Conference

BARRY BEDLAN: Hello, I'm the sports products director for the Associated Press. It's my pleasure to present the AP Men's College Basketball Coach of the Year.

Since 1977 the recipient of this award has been selected by the same panel of journalists that decides the weekly AP Top 25.

Voting for the award is conducted at the end of the season before the start of the NCAA Tournament. Past recipients include John Wooden, Bob Knight, Roy Williams, Bill Self and Mark Few, someone this recipient's knows better than any of us.

This year's award winner is the first for the University of Arizona. In the 55 years of this award, he is only the fourth Pac-12 coach to receive it. What is so unbelievable about this year's recipient is he has never been a head coach even up until a year ago.

He becomes only the third coach to receive this honor in his first season as a head coach of any team at any level. Yes, he had been the steadfast assistant for 22 years with Mark Few at Gonzaga, one of the most successful programs during that time. But he had never been a head coach until now.

He took over a program reeling from an NCAA investigation and that hadn't reached the NCAA Tournament, nor won a conference title in four years.

Arizona's die-hard fans weren't so sure about the future a year ago, but it didn't take long into the season for them to realize their new coach was someone special.

In his first year, the Wildcats won both the Pac-12 season and tournament championships. His team also set a Pac-12 record for conference wins with 18, secured a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament and the No. 2 seed overall.

In fact, one of the more memorable images of the past tournament was this coach consoling Eddie Lampkin, the star player of TCU after Arizona beat the Horned Frogs in overtime. This year's AP Men's College Basketball Coach of the Year is Arizona's Tommy Lloyd.

(Applause).

COACH LLOYD: What an incredible honor. First I'd like to thank Dr. Robbins. He was a big part of me making the decision to go down to Arizona. And just so thankful for the opportunity.

And I want to thank you guys. This means a lot. I probably can't even process quite where it fits on the spectrum of things.

But I'm really proud. I'm proud of my staff. I'm proud of our players at Arizona. And I'm proud to have been mentored by a great coach in Mark Few. It's pretty crazy that his name is on some of these awards and mine's right underneath it.

I'm sure he and I, as we get older, will really cherish the memories and the time we had together. And just very thankful overall.

Q. First season as a head coach, which aspects of your coaching method do you think got you this award so quickly?

COACH LLOYD: Well, obviously you need good players. And we inherited some good players. And I just think honestly what I did, I didn't have a grand plan. I didn't have any crazy [inaudible]. I knew how I kind of wanted to play and literally attacked it day-by-day. As things came up you addressed them.

And that was my approach all year long. And I think I gotta remind myself that's always a good approach. Don't get too far ahead of yourself. Don't think you've got all the answers. And as things come up, find solutions.

Q. We just heard all the coaches that won this award. What does it mean to be mentioned with those coaches, and especially to do it in your first year?

COACH LLOYD: It's overwhelming, to be honest with you. I was somebody who was probably growing up knowing I was going to be a coach. I loved playing, but unfortunately I wasn't good enough to play on this stage.

And so I think I always held coaches in high esteem. I had some great coaches when I was young that were just great mentors. Going back to Little League and youth soccer. And so I always had an affinity for coaches.

And just to see my name on a list with some of those other coaches who are legends of the game that I love, it's overwhelming.

But I also look at it like I have a responsibility. I have a responsibility to make myself and obviously my program as good as we can be. And then be an example for younger coaches like I was back in the day to follow, because it's a great life.

It's not an easy life. But it's a great life. And it's very rewarding. And I want others to be able to have experiences that I'm having and feel the feelings that I feel about this job.