It’s safe to say that Tommy Lloyd’s tenure as the Arizona Wildcats men’s head basketball coach is off to an impressive start. But after his team’s road victory over the No. 2 ranked Duke Blue Devils, it’s also off to a historical start as well.
Lloyd became the first coach in Division I history across the entirety of college basketball to defeat a top-three-ranked opponent in each of their first three seasons, as OptaStats revealed. It’s an incredible feat, which goes without saying, but it also goes along with another record Lloyd holds — his 61 wins over the first two seasons as a head coach surpassed former North Carolina coach Bill Guthridge’s previous high-water mark of 59 victories.
Looking back at the past two seasons, the Wildcats defeated the No. 2 ranked UCLA Bruins in the Pac-12 title game last year. The year prior, they also defeated UCLA when the Bruins were ranked No. 3 in the country, and for good measure, defeated the then-No. 4 ranked Michigan Wolverines earlier in the 2021-22 season as well.
It’s been a stellar first two seasons for Lloyd, even with the upset loss to Princeton in the opening round of the NCAA tournament last season. The Wildcats posted a 33-4 record in his first season while going 18-2 in conference play, and proceeded to post a 28-7 record last year with a 14-6 record in conference play.
