NCAA Basketball: Best head coaching hire from each of last 25 seasons

2021: Tommy Lloyd (Arizona)

These coaches have only had two seasons at their programs, but it’s fair to say that 2021 has already provided more successful hires than some of the previous years on this list. Hubert Davis took North Carolina to a Final Four and Shaka Smart had Marquette in fantastic shape this year. There’s also Pat Kelsey’s breakthrough in Charleston or the incredible work Micah Shrewsberry did before leaving Penn State. This might change in the years to come, but it’s Lloyd who gets the attention.

The Pacific Northwestern has been Lloyd’s home, playing at three small colleges before joining Mark Few’s staff at Gonzaga way back in 2000. Across the next twenty-one years, he played a major role in building Gonzaga’s success, with his international recruiting greatly helping build some of these powerful Bulldogs lineups. Arizona, in a lame position after Sean Miller was cast aside, gave him his first-ever head coaching job in 2021.

In year one, Lloyd was named AP Coach of the Year after leading Arizona to a 33-4 season, fresh with Pac-12 regular season and tournament titles and a trip to the Sweet Sixteen. This past season was slightly less successful, but still ended in another trip to the Big Dance and another Pac-12 Tournament crown. Lloyd has the Wildcats in fantastic shape just two seasons in, firmly entrenched as the conference’s best program, especially with UCLA and USC exiting shortly.