Longform, from The Athletic: Tommy Lloyd's Coaching Tree

[YoDeFoe]

Here's 3,500 words on Tommy Lloyd, his offensive coaching philosophy, the coaching tree he's built as an assistant coach, and the success that tree has had over the last five years... Thought this was interesting enough to share it outside of the Athletic paywall.

The triumvirate: Assistants at Gonzaga, Baylor and Illinois all cut their teeth in Spokane

Gonzaga assistant coach Tommy Lloyd has a text chain with Baylor assistant John Jakus and Illinois assistant Stephen Gentry. Jakus and Gentry are former director of basketball operations guys at Gonzaga. All three are heavily involved with running their respective offenses, which all rank in the top seven nationally in adjusted efficiency. All three have an affinity for European basketball, which bleeds into their offensive systems. Because of their Gonzaga ties, they all speak the same language. And they trade tips and talk basketball on those text threads.

On March 8, Lloyd had to boast when the Associated Press Top 25 came out. It read: 1. Gonzaga; 2. Baylor; 3. Illinois.

He sent a screen shot, circled the three teams, and said: “If I was hiring coaching right now … I’d have (current Gonzaga director of operations) Jorge Sanz circled at the top of my list. Last 2 Zag DOBO’s have proved to be valuable hires!! Pretty crazy to think this is where we’re all at … it started with conversations over Kokanee’s in the office!!”

Six days later the three teams received No. 1 seeds in the NCAA Tournament. They’re the top three betting favorites to win the national title.
“You could say it’s a coincidence,” Lloyd says. “But if you peel back the layers, maybe there’s a lot more to it.”

Gentry fell in love with Gonzaga basketball when the Zags made a run to the Elite Eight in 1999 and followed that up with two straight Sweet 16s appearances. When he graduated from Fort Scott (Kan.) High School in 2001, he had interest from Division II schools to play basketball, but Gonzaga was his dream school. He wanted to play ball and eventually be a coach, but the Gonzaga coaches had no idea who he was.

After Gentry failed to make the team as a walk-on as a freshman, he kept showing up for practice every day and watching from the bleachers while staying in the ear of Lloyd, Mark Few’s first-year administrative assistant. “I was trying to bug him to death to let me be a part of the team,” Gentry says.

Gonzaga redshirted seven players that year, and on game days Gentry would join them so they could play four-on-four. He also started working out with Richie Frahm, the star shooting guard of those first tourney teams, who was back in Spokane, Wash., rehabbing a broken foot. Gentry’s persistence paid off, as he made the team the second year. He affectionately became known as “Shaggy,” because one day Few, who didn’t know his name, hollered over to the long-haired kid, “Hey, Shaggy, get over here.”

“Adam Morrison and those guys got ahold of it,” Lloyd says, “and it stuck like glue.”

Gentry is still Shaggy to all the Gonzaga guys, and he has one of the coolest walk-on stories you’ll hear. He never suited up during his first year, and in his second season he got the sense he still wasn’t going to get to wear the uniform. “I was kind of pissed and frustrated,” he says. On the day of the exhibition opener against Emporia State — coincidentally a Division II team from Kansas — he showed up for practice and was approached by then-assistant coach Leon Rice, who informed him he’d torn his pants and needed to borrow Gentry’s. Gentry internally became even more agitated, and then Rice said, “Give me your khakis paints, and here’s a uniform. You’re suiting up.”
Gentry scored a career-high seven points that day.

After getting two degrees from Gonzaga, he started his coaching journey by interning in the film room with the Miami Heat and then spent six years working at Texas A&M. When Brad Underwood got his first head-coaching job at Stephen F. Austin in 2013, he hired Gentry as a full-time assistant. The Lumberjacks went 32-3 and upset VCU in the first round. After the season long-time Gonzaga DOBO Jerry Krause retired. Gentry was Few and Lloyd’s first choice to replace him. Gentry accepted the job, then as he started to think about SFA’s entire team returning and the fact he’d just finally become an on-court coach for the first time … “He started ghosting me,” Lloyd says.

“It just wasn’t the right time,” Gentry says.

That’s when Grant McCasland, then an assistant at Baylor and now the coach at NCAA Tournament-bound North Texas, called. He had a guy Lloyd needed to hire: John Jakus.

Jakus was finishing up graduate school at Baylor and had been a graduate assistant for the Bears. If that’s all someone knew about him, he probably wouldn’t have qualified. But he just so happened to be a 38-year-old graduate assistant with a wealth of experience coaching overseas.

He started coaching internationally in 2008. He was a high school coach in Cincinnati at the time, and he volunteered to coach a group of college players for Athletes in Action on a trip to Bulgaria. The next summer he caught on coaching a group of pros in Bulgaria, and AIA eventually asked him to go full time. In 2010, he moved with his wife and two children to the Greek border town of Macedonia when he was hired to be the head coach and assistant general manager of ABA Strumica. Jakus was in his basketball heaven. The family had sold their home, cars and everything to move overseas and live a simple life. They stayed in an 800-square foot apartment. He walked to work every day, always grabbing coffee or yogurt at the same spot on the way. “I would have stayed overseas for another decade,” Jakus says. “I was really happy.”

Then in December 2011, Sara Jakus took the couple’s 3-year-old son, Cal, back to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital because he wasn’t speaking yet. He was diagnosed with autism. The Jakuses decided they needed to be in the United States to get Cal the therapy he needed. Soon after, John got offered a better job overseas, and Sara told him he could stay behind to coach for a year. “You know how coaches are,” he says.

“They can be addicts.” But Jakus knew he needed to be with his family, and that’s when two friends stepped in.

Mike Sigfrids, a chaplain whom Jakus had met working for AIA, had been a mentor and chaplain to the Drew family for a long time. Jakus had run an event in Macedonia where Tim Maloney, the DOBO at Baylor at the time, had brought over a college all-star team to participate, and the two hit it off. When Maloney found out Jakus was moving back to the states, he went to work to get him to Baylor. “He was like an angel,” Jakus says. With Maloney and Sigfrid’s endorsement, Scott Drew was sold.

That brings us back to Gentry turning down the job, and McCasland, whom Lloyd had met when both were young coaches and had worked a clinic in Africa together. McCasland had spent two years with Jakus, knew he would be perfect at Gonzaga, and Lloyd trusted his word. Lloyd flew Jakus up for an interview, and had him dine with every person on the staff and spend two days working Gonzaga’s team camp.

“Tommy actually interviewed me and got to know me, and we talked basketball and life,” Jakus says. “He went outside the box. Most people just hire their buddies. Few probably thought he was a crazy person.”

“Right away we really liked him,” Lloyd says. “He thought the game different. He saw the game a little different than we did. He was analytically based, which was something we were trying to grow at.”

Jakus also wanted to make sure that Spokane was the right place for his family, and both parties came away convinced.

“Scott saved my family,” Jakus says. “I’ll be honest, we needed a lot of help at that time. But Tommy and Mark, they gave me a career, and I’ll never be able to pay either one of them back.”

Jakus was just grateful for the opportunity and quickly figured out he’d landed in his basketball fantasy land. No program has engrained itself in European basketball more than the Zags. Lloyd, who became a full-time assistant in 2002, made his name as a recruiter overseas and immersed himself in learning from friends abroad. Italian Riccardo Fois, who is now with the Phoenix Suns, was also on the staff.

“John was really able to come and speak the same language,” Lloyd says. “The three were able to really chop it up. ‘Hey, did you watch the Zalgiris-Fenerbahce game last night? Did you see what they’re doing?’ Slowly, we were able to integrate some of those concepts and ideas into the Gonzaga things we were doing and kind of make a nice little hybrid spot.”

“There was a kindred spirit there,” Jakus says. “A lot of the things that I care most about offensively, Gonzaga did.”

Jakus was at Gonzaga for three years — part of a run that included Sweet 16, Elite Eight and national championship game appearances — and he talks like he could have stayed forever. Lloyd, however, had other plans. A spot opened on Drew’s staff when Paul Mills left to become the coach at Oral Roberts in April 2017. Unbeknownst to Jakus, Lloyd got on a flight to Indianapolis to meet with Drew at an EYBL event, taking him to dinner to tell him he needed to hire Jakus.

.....PT 1, to be continued

[YoDeFoe]

Lloyd was not the only one in Jakus’s corner, and it’s not like Drew needed convincing. Jakus got the job, and then he went to work on Gentry. It was time to come home.

Gentry had been on a remarkable run himself. Working for Underwood, they’d made three straight NCAA Tournaments at Stephen F. Austin and then spent one year at Oklahoma State, where they made a fourth straight tourney and OSU ranked No. 1 in adjusted offensive efficiency. Gentry had gone from an assistant at SFA to a role where he was no longer coaching at OSU as director of player development, but he remained heavily involved with the offense. In March 2017, Underwood accepted the job at Illinois, and Gentry followed. He was going to be in another role where he wouldn’t be coaching or recruiting.

That spring Gentry and Jakus were at a coaching clinic in Chicago when Jakus asked him to grab a beer. He told Gentry he might be leaving Gonzaga, and he was sure they’d want Gentry to replace him. Gentry was interested, but he wanted to know that they’d value his input.
Jakus said he always felt like a part of the bigger picture and his voice was heard. “I had to interview,” he told Gentry. “If they’re asking you, they’re going to treat you as well or better.”

Gentry took the job, and everything Jakus said was true. Plus, the program had evolved since he’d left, and there were new lessons to learn. When he was a player, the Zags were still running old-school flex concepts along with a Roy Williams-inspired secondary break. By the time Gentry returned, they’d evolved into a more modern, Euro-style ball-screen offense based on reads and understanding how to attack spacing scenarios and defensive coverages.

“Every day at Gonzaga is like an education in basketball,” he says. “Just being around great coaches. We’re always talking basketball. It’s kind of this really cool melting pot of different basketball philosophies.”

After two seasons back at Gonzaga, Underwood came calling again when he had an assistant opening in August 2019. This time Gentry wasn’t so sure he should leave, and again, he leaned on Jakus.

“He’s like, ‘You’re a coach. You’re a basketball coach,’” Gentry remembers. “Gonzaga is a special place. Gonzaga was my alma mater. It wasn’t John’s. John quickly realized how special a place Gonzaga really is and the people there and all that. At the end of the day, you’re a basketball coach and you want to be coaching and recruiting and that’s your passion. That’s your calling.”

On the drive to the airport to fly back to Chicago, Gentry had tears in his eyes. “I’m getting on the plane,” he says, “saying goodbye to my two kids and wife, and I’ll never forget my daughter’s face. ‘Daddy, you can do it.’ I don’t think I stopped crying until I landed at the airport.”
Gentry once told Lloyd if he ever became a head coach he would run Underwood’s pinch-post spread offense — the creation of Johnny Orr at Iowa State, which Underwood has made his own. Illinois was running that offense last season when the Illini got off to a semi-disappointing 8-4 start and lost to Missouri right before Christmas. When the staff returned from the holiday break, they decided to take an autopsy of the season.

They scrapped their defensive approach, going from being a hard-denial team that applied a ton of pressure to a pack line, and they decided to adopt a more ball-screen continuity offense. It was time for Gentry to apply what he’d learned at Gonzaga.

“I think him coming to us a couple years was a good finishing school for him,” Lloyd says.

It took some time for the Illini to adapt, but they won five of their last six games and their adjusted offensive efficiency jumped from 83rd the previous season to 38th. That late run also included a change in the starting lineup. Giorgi Bezhanishvili came off the bench so Illinois could play four-around-one, which has continued this year.

With a lengthened offseason and no on-the-road recruiting, Underwood assigned offensive and defensive coordinator roles, putting Gentry in charge of the offense. At the top of his white board in his office, he wrote “To have an offense that’s built that is in direct line with your players’ strengths.”

The Illini had ranked 14th in the country in transition offensive efficiency but weren’t a high-tempo team, so they committed to running. (Their average possession went from 18.7 seconds to 16.8.) Then he knew it was important to make sure the offense fit stars Ayo Dosunmu and Kofi Cockburn. (Both are having All-America seasons.)

Gentry created a six-page checklist of how he would install the offense, creating lesson plans for the players.

“We spent our whole fall on our base ball-screen offense,” he says. “We didn’t even add any sets. We kind of went to that Gonzaga mentality of teaching our guys how to play within different ball-screen concepts within different coverages, over and over and over again. It was all that time working on how to play the game that’s been the gift that keeps on giving.”

The Illini rank seventh in adjusted offensive efficiency this year, and Gentry has a bullet-point list of their accomplishments using ball screens, taking pride in fact they’re a “dual-threat” ball-screen team. Among high-major teams, Illinois ranks seventh in ball-screen efficiency, fifth in ball-screen frequency and first in ball-screen roll man efficiency, per Synergy.

Illinois has only one play from the Gonzaga playbook — a zone set — but Gentry, influenced by Lloyd, is constantly experimenting with concepts he sees in EuroLeague. “Every single day I’ve got a new idea or a new something on my desk to look at,” Underwood says. “He’s very creative that way. He’s very thorough. He’s very in-depth, and it’s put us in a situation where we’re one of the top 10 offenses in college basketball.”

Those are all awesome accomplishments, but what really got Gentry excited was when long-time Gonzaga beat writer Jim Meehan called him recently. “I’ve been watching Illinois,” Meehan said, “and you guys look like Gonzaga.”

The Baylor and Gonzaga models are almost twins. Both have utilized redshirts like no other programs in college hoops, and both have leaned on foreign recruits and transfers. When Jakus arrived back at Baylor, he felt as if he’d gotten his PhD in the day-to-day operations of sustaining a winner.

“Other people are building teams; Gonzaga’s building culture,” he says. “The best thing I got was I got to watch Mark Few fight, defend, grow, fund-raise and love his culture, and he’s the best. Basketball is basketball. There’s a lot of people with a good IQ; I don’t know if there’s anyone with as much self-awareness as the Zags. They know exactly who they are and who fits with them and how to keep that and fight for it.”

Drew had won before, but this latest run was spurred by fighting less for players at the top of the recruiting rankings and instead chasing more transfers and guys who fit his culture. He also has adapted his system to fit his personnel.

As for the offense, he has leaned on Jakus to incorporate more Gonzaga-ish ball-screen concepts. The last two Baylor teams have had the highest ball-screen frequency in Drew’s tenure at Baylor.

“What I loved about it is he had learned how we do things,” Drew says, “and then he went away, so he was able to also bring back some thoughts and ideas that he thought could improve us as well.”

Jakus presents Drew with a lot of Euro-inspired plays. The reason for copying European sets and not the NBA is that the EuroLeague defensive rules are the same as college basketball. In the NBA, there is defensive three seconds. In Europe and college basketball, you can plant help defenders in the paint. Drew always prefers if Jakus can show him an example of a play working at the college level, and Jakus learned from watching Lloyd and Few how to pitch his ideas.

“They’re just really picky and specific and not afraid to debate things,” Jakus says. “I just think if you avoid debating, sometimes you end up either too soft or not as sharp as you could be. I give Tommy and Mark a lot of credit. Their friendship can handle the push and pull. Tommy’s always got to do it in a way that fits Mark so Mark sees it, so he feels it, so he likes it. That’s my job. My job is to serve Scott and put it in a way that he feels it and likes it, and he gets the final say.”

PT 2, to be continued...

[YoDeFoe]

Jakus acknowledges that Illinois looks more like Gonzaga, with a post-up centric big man and a commitment to the early duck in. “Kofi (Cockburn) is best suited for the Przemek Karnowski role,” he says. The Gonzaga influence on Baylor is with the guards. In the summer of 2019, Jakus started hosting weekly sessions with Baylor’s guards that he called “Guard U,” and the continuing education has included a heavy dose of studying former Gonzaga point guard Kevin Pangos, now with Zenit Saint Petersburg in EuroLeague.

“Our guards have watched more Kevin Pangos in a ball screen than any other guards in the country,” Jakus says. “I bet you more than Gonzaga’s guards if I’m being honest.”

Bakamus calls Jakus the “guard whisperer,” and the results justify the nickname. Baylor’s three leading scorers are in the backcourt. Jared Butler is an All-American. Davion Mitchell, who started his career at Auburn, just made the All-Big 12 first team and won Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year. MaCio Teague, a UNC Asheville transfer, has made back-to-back All-Big 12 teams. The Bears rank third in adjusted offensive efficiency — Gonzaga, shocker, ranks No. 1 — and are also the top 3-point shooting team in the country.

The three programs hardly share any sets, but… “We have one thing in common,” Jakus says. “We teach our guards over and over how to pick on the tag.”

The ideas that end up on their white boards and on the practice floor usually are shared among the three assistant coaches. And the success as a result of those conversations elicits pride.

“You just can’t be more thankful,” Jakus says. “When you have friends who all have the same thing going on, you’re happy. Because this kind of success isn’t promised. It’s not always sustainable. If people don’t get why you never root against your own coaching tree, my life should tell them they’re an idiot. That’s the deal.

“There’s ups and downs in our career. I know that Tommy and Scott and Mark haven’t had to move and have had tons of success, but for the rest of us, we’ve had a lot of ups and downs and moving. When you find that kind of sustainability, and you find it with friends, and the friends in your coaching tree are experiencing it at that same level, you should be twice as happy.”

This is the wisdom that has been handed down from Lloyd, who is next in line to inherit the Gonzaga throne from Few. It’s in his contract. It’s why he’s never left Spokane, and it’s part of the reason Jakus calls him a legend.

And the legend sent one more text message last week after sharing the AP poll and reminiscing on where they all started.

“Now,” Lloyd texted his buddies, “don’t be the first team to f*#% it up!!”

He plans on seeing both in the Final Four.

FIN

[YoDeFoe]

So... why share all that.

I think that article gives a better representation of Lloyd as a coach than anything I've read or seen so far. His curiosity, his tenacity, his connections up and down college basketball... I think we've got a good one.

[Spaceman Spiff]

That article, for better and worse, sort of reminds me of this one.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.espn.c ... atform=amp

It sort of spotlights the variable results you get, too.

The part I do find funny is spotlighting the positive changes to the Illini when they embraced the packline and a ball screen based offense. I'll be damned if that part of the new boss doesn't sound like the old boss.

Note: that Who reference is courtesy of them being on my mind thanks to Tommy.

[Alieberman]

I misread the thread title and was disappointed this thread wasn't all about Longhorned

[YoDeFoe]

That article, for better and worse, sort of reminds me of this one.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.espn.c ... atform=amp

It sort of spotlights the variable results you get, too.

The part I do find funny is spotlighting the positive changes to the Illini when they embraced the packline and a ball screen based offense. I'll be damned if that part of the new boss doesn't sound like the old boss.

Note: that Who reference is courtesy of them being on my mind thanks to Tommy.

Recall of course that our Arizona team beat the breaks off of that Illinois team, 90-69, right before they made that change to the packline. Good on them for taking the lesson.

[Spaceman Spiff]

That article, for better and worse, sort of reminds me of this one.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.espn.c ... atform=amp

It sort of spotlights the variable results you get, too.

The part I do find funny is spotlighting the positive changes to the Illini when they embraced the packline and a ball screen based offense. I'll be damned if that part of the new boss doesn't sound like the old boss.

Note: that Who reference is courtesy of them being on my mind thanks to Tommy.

Recall of course that our Arizona team beat the breaks off of that Illinois team, 90-69, right before they made that change to the packline. Good on them for taking the lesson.

It just made me chuckle that some people have proposed Lloyd as this modern antidote to Miller's dinosaur strategies...and this article about Lloyd spotlights how Illinois benefitted tremendously from embracing what I'd label as the two most classic Miller strategies.

"Nothing new under the sun, nobody f**king with son
I got a couple of sons, a couple of guns..."

[TheCat]

Let's see if he can get one of those guys as an assistant.

[prh]

I misread the thread title and was disappointed this thread wasn't all about Longhorned

I did the same

[YoDeFoe]

Let's see if he can get one of those guys as an assistant.

Yeah I'm very curious who he brings on board / retains based on how much he values and develops his assistant coaches. Word is that he's going to bring Rem Bakamus on in a basketball ops / director of player development type role. But for the big roles... I'm anxiously awaiting.

[Catintheheat]

Let's see if he can get one of those guys as an assistant.

Yeah I'm very curious who he brings on board / retains based on how much he values and develops his assistant coaches. Word is that he's going to bring Rem Bakamus on in a basketball ops / director of player development type role. But for the big roles... I'm anxiously awaiting.

I think if he will keep anyone on the current staff it would be Murphy. Murphy could help a little with the HC duties since he was a HC. Not sure about Jet and Peters. I don't know how well they are at recruiting, or how they will fit into the system.

[Olsondogg]

Let's see if he can get one of those guys as an assistant.

Yeah I'm very curious who he brings on board / retains based on how much he values and develops his assistant coaches. Word is that he's going to bring Rem Bakamus on in a basketball ops / director of player development type role. But for the big roles... I'm anxiously awaiting.

I think if he will keep anyone on the current staff it would be Murphy. Murphy could help a little with the HC duties since he was a HC. Not sure about Jet and Peters. I don't know how well they are at recruiting, or how they will fit into the system.

I think you keep JET for the alumni bridge too. But I’m not sure JET is excited to stay after getting turned down.

[Merkin]

I misread the thread title and was disappointed this thread wasn't all about Longhorned

Longhorned was very happy about no longer following UA sports, until the UA president got involved.

[Chicat]

I may have to give up my subscription to the Athletic. They have two stories on last night’s win, both by their ACC/Duke writer. One is focused on why Duke lost and the other is largely focused on Caleb Love because he used to be at UNC. Pelle wasn’t mentioned in either except to say he was on the team last year. Boswell was a total afterthought. Why am I paying for that bullshit?

[EastCoastCat]

I may have to give up my subscription to the Athletic. They have two stories on last night’s win, both by their ACC/Duke writer. One is focused on why Duke lost and the other is largely focused on Caleb Love because he used to be at UNC. Pelle wasn’t mentioned in either except to say he was on the team last year. Boswell was a total afterthought. Why am I paying for that bullshit?

So much bullshit. Like the ESPN ticker which keeps showing “first time beating a top 5 team on the road since 2001” or something like that.

How many of those opportunities did we really have over that time period? Such a weird statement to make. A much more pertinent one would be “Arizona is 6-4 all time vs. Duke.”

[pc in NM]

I may have to give up my subscription to the Athletic. They have two stories on last night’s win, both by their ACC/Duke writer. One is focused on why Duke lost and the other is largely focused on Caleb Love because he used to be at UNC. Pelle wasn’t mentioned in either except to say he was on the team last year. Boswell was a total afterthought. Why am I paying for that bullshit?

So much bullshit. Like the ESPN ticker which keeps showing “first time beating a top 5 team on the road since 2001” or something like that.

How many of those opportunities did we really have over that time period? Such a weird statement to make. A much more pertinent one would be “Arizona is 6-4 all time vs. Duke.”

Come on guys! Chill the fuck out! That was news, Duke's losing was a surprise to most fans nationally, and, IMNSHO we (and they) should be aware of every aspect of last nite's great accomplishment!!

BTFD on the BFD of shocking Duke in Cameron - including the stunned expressions, faces and words of the rest of the world!

And, you'll always have Dukie V and Greg Hansen to kick around!!

[Chicat]

I may have to give up my subscription to the Athletic. They have two stories on last night’s win, both by their ACC/Duke writer. One is focused on why Duke lost and the other is largely focused on Caleb Love because he used to be at UNC. Pelle wasn’t mentioned in either except to say he was on the team last year. Boswell was a total afterthought. Why am I paying for that bullshit?

So much bullshit. Like the ESPN ticker which keeps showing “first time beating a top 5 team on the road since 2001” or something like that.

How many of those opportunities did we really have over that time period? Such a weird statement to make. A much more pertinent one would be “Arizona is 6-4 all time vs. Duke.”

Come on guys! Chill the fuck out!

Why can’t I be pissed that a national publication is snubbing the better team to fellate Duke and the ACC?

If you’re going to be the thought/emotion police, at least come up something better than “just be happy people know we won”. Fuck that shit.

[84Cat]

Boswell is a projected lottery pick and had an excellent game. He should be talked about if you are going to cover last nights game. End of story.

[Chicat]

Here’s the article that was focused on Arizona. You all can tell me if I’m overreacting. But Boswell only being mentioned as coming back from last year’s team is a goddamn mockery. And to me, this article was written in his head before tip-off. Just add some stats, a couple of plays, and a few quotes. Waste of my goddamn money.

DURHAM, N.C. — It was about as subtle as a punch to the gut: Caleb Love walking — no, strutting — down the midcourt line of Cameron Indoor Stadium, head cocked slightly to the right, left hand raised, waving, mouthing the same line over and over to a mob full of unimaginable vitriol: Bye-bye.

How sweet must that have felt? How satisfying?

Put yourself in Love’s shoes. You’re 22 and playing your first season at Arizona, far from your St. Louis hometown but further still from Chapel Hill, N.C., your college home for the past three seasons. At UNC you were a hero, then humbled, then heckled away from North Carolina altogether. Out to the desert, by way of a temporary layover in Ann Arbor, Mich. You’re so excited about a new opportunity, to leave all that old stuff behind you, and then you check your new Arizona schedule.

Game 2: against Duke — your biggest former rival, the school whose legendary coach you retired in the 2022 Final Four — back in Durham.

“Obviously, it was on my mind for a little,” Love said Friday. “Soon as I’d seen that they were on the schedule, my eyes got bigger.”

Now try to compartmentalize all that — your extended history with Duke, the pregame boos and obscenities from the Cameron Crazies, the stakes of the best college basketball game of this young season — and actually perform. Not easy. For most players, probably not possible.

And frankly, in No. 12 Arizona’s 78-73 win over No. 2 Duke, Love was just fine. Not exceptional. The senior guard finished with just 11 points on 3-of-10 shooting and only one made 3-pointer in five tries: a banked-in, borderline half-court heave as the first half was ending, a shot that even he conceded was “a bulls— shot.”

But you know what Love did do?

Just enough to help Arizona notch what will arguably be the best nonconference win of the season.

And though it’s only one game, in the first week of a six-month sport, it’s impossible for a performance like Friday’s not to change the national perception. The reality? The Wildcats are once again right where they’ve been in each of their first two seasons under Tommy Lloyd: right in the thick of the national title picture. Although, good luck getting Lloyd to acknowledge that or even feed into the fringe of the idea.

“Listen, my goal is to win all our games in March and April,” the 48-year-old coach said. “I don’t have a November little checklist on my thing, to win all my games in November. So I’m glad we’re winning — it’s better than losing — but nothing more than that.”

If that sounds somewhat reserved, well, then consider the context. For as good as the first two years of the Lloyd era have been — and they have been excellent, by any conventional standard — they have something disappointing in common: their ending. Lloyd won 61 games his first two seasons, more than any other coach in Division I men’s basketball history, as well as two Pac-12 tournament championships and one regular-season title. But in the NCAA Tournament? A Sweet 16 loss to Houston in his debut campaign and, last year, the more painful follow-up: a first-round upset loss as a No. 2 seed to No. 15 Princeton.

Questions, naturally, ensue. Not unique ones, but those familiar to high-profile, highly successful coaches who seemingly come up short in March: Matt Painter, Mark Few and so on. But two seasons into his Tucson tenure, Lloyd was “officially” included on that list — and that was before he lost his All-American big man, and last season’s leading scorer, Azuolas Tubelis.

So, Lloyd’s counter?

Supplement his remaining core — namely big man Oumar Ballo, who had 13 points and five rebounds Friday; point guard Kylan Boswell, who reclassified up last season and got some “seasoning,” as Lloyd put it; and do-everything wing Pelle Larsson, who had a third of Arizona’s six made 3s against Duke — with a talented three-man transfer class: Love, forward Keshad Johnson (from San Diego State) and guard Jaden Bradley (from Alabama).

The common denominator with that trio? Big-time experience, exposure and success in spite of them.

And in Love and Johnson, especially, Lloyd found a duo with national championship game experience. Would you look at that? Imported postseason success, the very thing his team and program were lacking.

2nd half below…

[Chicat]

Friday, that composure was on display, in a game that had the feel of the NCAA Tournament’s second weekend.

“This,” Johnson said, “(is) a March Madness mentality right here.”

And frankly, it was from the opening jump. Arizona imposed its will almost immediately, but nowhere more evident than on the glass. Among Ballo (7 feet, 260 pounds), freshman Motiejus Krivas (7-2, 260) and Johnson (6-7, 225), the Wildcats almost doubled the Blue Devils in rebounding in the first half, 29-15. Between that and Duke’s poor shot selection — seven of its first 11 shots were 3s, with only one make, courtesy of Kyle Filipowski — Arizona had no issue building a sizable lead, even before Love’s bank shot made it an eight-point halftime lead.


In the second half came Duke’s counterpunch. Filipowski, a preseason All-American, turned on takeover mode, scoring 14 of his game-best 25 points after intermission. Between him and senior Jeremy Roach — who chipped in 17 points and clutch shot after clutch shot — Jon Scheyer’s Blue Devils came roaring back, even regaining the lead they hadn’t had since the game’s early minutes. “We told our guys, ‘You’ve got to be able to take punches,’” Lloyd said. “We can’t have a glass jaw.”

So in one timeout, Lloyd assembled his team and delivered a simple decree: Play with poise. Coach speak, really, the same phrase that’s been uttered in middle school gyms. But then he followed it up with a question: “Why am I saying that?”

Answers flew at him.

We’ll make good decisions.

We won’t panic.

We won’t let the crowd get in our heads. (Official attendance: 9,314 — and one Mike Krzyzewski, sitting courtside, something he’s done only once since retiring.)

Good responses, Lloyd told them, but wrong ones.

“I said, ‘No. Play with poise because you’re the better team. Trust that you’re the better team over the course of 40 minutes,’” he said. “I knew it would be a small margin, but I really feel like that.”

And his team had the chance to prove it late. With 1:11 to play, Roach missed a pull-up jumper, but Filipowski grabbed the offensive rebound, putting it back through contact for an and-1 layup. He made the free throw, too, giving Duke a critical 70-69 advantage. But Lloyd’s team never panicked. Instead, it simply played the same balanced offensive system that’s brought the Wildcats back to the pinnacle of the sport, one rooted in ball movement and spacing and simple cuts — cuts like the one Ballo made to the basket with less than a minute to play before kicking the ball out to Love at the top of the key. Love drove and started to lose his balance — the Cameron Crazies at about this moment began frothing at the mouth, ready to hiss at another heinous Love mistake — before he did something un-Love like:

He passed.

“You know, maybe at one point, not having the best game, he would have went in and dunked it himself,” Love’s father, Dennis, said. “But he’s, like, happy to give it up to K.J. and let him finish it off like that.”

That finish was Johnson catching Love’s bounce pass in the dunker spot and going straight up with a shot. (No unnecessary dribbles, right?) The San Diego State transfer fell back as his shot floated up in the air, then down through the netting. Count it, with the foul on Filipowski.

A free throw later, Arizona had a lead it wouldn’t relinquish.

When Tyrese Proctor pivoted in the post on Duke’s subsequent possession and was called for a travel in doing so, it all but sealed the win. All it would take was some clinching free throws — and a willing player to attempt them.

Mr. Love, step right up.

Love took Arizona’s next two free throws before Duke fouled Larsson, sending him to the line as well. But with five seconds left, Proctor fouled Love on Arizona’s inbounds, sending the former UNC star back to the line with a chance to clinch.

“I’m not a scripter; I just try to coach the games that play out in front of me,” Lloyd said. “I’m not surprised he made them, you know. And I told him he deserved that moment.”

Seconds later, Love stole Duke’s final, desperate inbounds throw, passing it to freshman KJ Lewis for a definitive dunk, the kind of exclamation point the game deserved. But the true deciding sequence — the play that changed the game — was Love’s pass to Johnson and Johnson’s timely finish. Coincidence it was those two, Lloyd’s pair of players with championship pedigree? Maybe. But also, it says something about the value of Love’s and Johnson’s experiences and how, maybe, a very good team needed only that little lift to get over the hurdle. Just take it straight from the source:

“I’ve played in big-time games, big-time environments, so I’m kind of used to it,” Love said. “I just wanted to come in this game — I didn’t want to make it about me; I wanted to make this about my team.”

And it was. Kind of.

But when the final buzzer sounded, something came over Love. That history with Duke, the hate spat in his face all evening, isn’t easy to swallow. So, you wave. You smile. You get the last laugh — really this time.

Then you say goodbye. In this case, likely for good.

Love did not win this game for Arizona single-handedly, but he also did not lose it. He did just enough. And in the process, despite all the swirling circumstances — some, one could argue, conspiring to make a mockery of him one last time on Tobacco Road — his Wildcats showed the nation what they’re capable of.

“The kid has been through a lot, man, but I’m glad he went through everything that he went through because it has made him a tenacious winner,” Dennis Love said. “And at the end of the day, people are gonna have to acknowledge he’s a winner. He’s been winning, and he’s going to continue to win, man.

“He is Caleb Love. Remember that.”

[pc in NM]

Friday, that composure was on display, in a game that had the feel of the NCAA Tournament’s second weekend.

“This,” Johnson said, “(is) a March Madness mentality right here.”

.......

“He is Caleb Love. Remember that.”

I think we can agree to disagree. And, its your subscription - do what you want. We're all entitled to our own opinions, , and subscriptions. Its not like we've ever disagreed before...

I liked this article, and not at all surprised that Caleb was the focus, given his history vs. Duke, even though he was not the best player for Arizona in the game. It was primarily about Caleb, after all.

Also, the headline:

Caleb Love does just enough to help seal Arizona’s victory over Duke in return to Durham

And the pics, too:





And, the Twitter link:

[Chicat]

Caleb was the focus because it’s lazy writing with a pre-determined narrative from an ACC-focused writer because apparently the idea that The Athletic was founded on (local coverage of all your favorite teams) means fuck all now that they’re owned by the NYTimes.

I’m not paying $100 a year to have my Arizona Wildcats articles written from an ACC standpoint. Good riddance.

[Alieberman]

Why am I paying for that bullshit?

This is clearly a question for your therapist

[Merkin]

Boswell is a projected lottery pick and had an excellent game. He should be talked about if you are going to cover last nights game. End of story.

Bilas and the other announcer really pissed me off when the game started and they said that it will be a battle between Proctor and Boswell, but Proctor is an NBA talent.

Boswell had more points, more FGs, more 3 PTs, more FTs, more boards, same assists, less turnovers, same steals, all in 5 minutes less playing time.

[Chicat]

Boswell is a projected lottery pick and had an excellent game. He should be talked about if you are going to cover last nights game. End of story.

Bilas and the other announcer really pissed me off when the game started and they said that it will be a battle between Proctor and Boswell, but Proctor is an NBA talent.

Boswell had more points, more FGs, more 3 PTs, more FTs, more boards, same assists, less turnovers, same steals, all in 5 minutes less playing time.

I was screaming “BOSWELL IS AN NBA TALENT TOO YOU FUCKSTICKS” but I may have been slightly drunk.

[AZCatGirl]

And don't forget when they put up their All American list and only had Ballo on it. Maybe they'll finally start adding Boswell too? Oh wait, they can't praise more than one Arizona player, so they'll probably remove Ballo for Boswell.

[dovecanyoncat]

I didn't listen to any audio the entire game. It keeps my heart rate down, just below the level of a fatal cardiac event.