UNC basketball watch is in full blast right now as the Tar Heels search for their next head coach. And Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd continues to have his name pop up on the coaching list and around the rumor mill. And most recently, Green Bay head coach Doug Gottlieb jumped into the rumor mill during a conversation with Colin Cowherd.
Colin Cowherd said on his podcast that he laughed at the idea of Tommy Lloyd leaving Arizona. Gottlieb, now the head coach at Green Bay, said, “Don’t laugh at that Colin. That’s the working rumor in college basketball. That Arizona doesn’t have that much money. There’s some fracture in the relationship with the athletic director. And I was told that Michael Jordan called him two nights ago. So that’s the working rumor.”
Gottlieb went on to say none of it is first-hand knowledge, but it’s at least being discussed at all levels of college basketball.
Lloyd has the Wildcats in the Final Four for the first time in 25 years as they get set to take on Michigan this weekend, with Illinois and UCONN on the other side of the bracket. Lloyd just won Big 12 Coach of the Year after winning the Big 12 regular season title and conference tournament. He is the first Arizona coach to win 20 games in first five seasons.
But would Lloyd really pick up, as a West Coast guy, and leave Arizona, where he can now write his own ticket, for the fish bowl of UNC? For the sake of what? Playing Duke two times per season? Tobacco road? He gets to play in Allen Fieldhouse as it currently stands in the Big 12, along with against other national championship-caliber coaches like Scott Drew, Bill Self and Kelvin Sampson.
Time will tell.
