NCAA Basketball: 5 recent hires that has had Deion Sanders-level hype

Tommy Lloyd – Arizona Wildcats

Mark Few has been viewed as one of the top coaches in all of NCAA Basketball for the past 20+
years, taking Gonzaga from a little-known mid-major from out west to a national juggernaut with multiple national title game appearances. By his side throughout those years was his assistant Lloyd, who developed a reputation for being one of the top international recruiters out there.

After being linked for multiple jobs, he landed at Arizona, which parted ways with Sean Miller after some recruiting issues that ended up with sanctions for the program. The big question was whether or not Lloyd was good enough on his own without Coach Few leading the way.

In the two years since that question has been answered very easily. The Wildcats have won 61 games total, including a Pac-12 regular-season title and a Sweet 16 appearance as a 1 seed in the first season. Lloyd turned Oumar Ballo into an All-Pac 12 star, Azuolas Tubelis into an All-American, and Kerr Kriisa into an all-around international starting guard.

Arizona is now battling Gonzaga for the top program out west and overall in all of NCAA Basketball. In just a short period of time, Coach Lloyd has put his name at the top of many coaching lists and has proven to be even greater than the hype. Now, he just needs a run in March to fully solidify it.