Kentucky Basketball: 8 potential candidates to become next HC if John Calipari leaves

Tommy Lloyd

Making a smart hire is important for Kentucky; just look at what happened down the road at Louisville. The Wildcats are going to get someone with significant experience and a name who has already done great things in this sport. Lloyd isn’t exactly a geographic match, but he’s another up and coming coach who could potentially be lured to Lexington.

Lloyd was born in Washington and played college ball at several small colleges on the West Coast. He was a relative unknown when he joined the Gonzaga staff in 2000, but that wouldn’t last long. Lloyd would help build the Bulldogs into a national power as an assistant over the next two decades, landing all sorts of international prospects. His head coaching career began at Arizona in 2021 and he’s already won 88 games and has the Wildcats in their second Sweet Sixteen in three years.

Lloyd is having one of the hottest starts to a head coaching career that we’ve seen in college basketball, and he’s done it on top of the Pac-12. Arizona shifts to the Big 12 next season and it might be the perfect time to lure him away if it’s going to be done. We’re not sure if Lloyd has any desire to move a thousand miles east, but he’d be set up for great success with a different set of Wildcats.