Arizona’s International Roster Comes Together Through Basketball

Despite their cultural differences, the Wildcats have been a cohesive unit. But for Tommy Lloyd, the team’s first-year coach, it has been business as usual. Lloyd, who replaced Sean Miller after last season, had been an assistant to Gonzaga Coach Mark Few for the previous 20 years and specialized in international recruiting.

When he hired Lloyd in 2001, Few recommended that his new assistant find a recruiting niche at which he could excel. A native of Kelso, Wash., Lloyd had grown up in a family that regularly hosted foreign exchange students. After college, he played professionally in Brisbane, Australia, and Düsseldorf, Germany. He and his wife, Chanelle, traveled extensively. He gravitated toward his niche naturally.

“I love international players,” Lloyd said. “And it will probably, hopefully, always be a foundational piece of any program I’m involved with. I think they have a certain basketball I.Q. and unselfishness that they naturally play with. And when you put a group of them together and you mix in some American kids, it becomes easy.

“And one of the things about European kids coming over at a young age, they’re much more adept to being a role player and doing those role-player-type things, because if you’re 16, 17, 18, 19 in Europe, you’re playing with men, usually. And then those men don’t let you just dribble the ball around and jack crazy shots.”

Lloyd, 46, was chiefly responsible for bringing in about two dozen international players to help fuel Gonzaga’s powerful teams over the years. Among those who became N.B.A. draft picks were the two-time N.B.A. All-Star Domantas Sabonis (a son of Basketball Hall of Famer Arvydas Sabonis), Rui Hachimura, Ronny Turiaf, Mario Kasun and Kelly Olynyk. Others for whom Lloyd was responsible for signing and developing at Gonzaga include J.P. Batista, Elias Harris, Kevin Pangos and Przemek Karnowski.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/03/23/sports/ncaabasketball/arizona-march-madness.html