Everybody, and welcome to another edition of the Dave Pash Podcast. I'm your host ESPN and Arizona Cardinals broadcaster Dave Pash. Well, as we've done from time to time over the first year and a half of this podcast, we step outside the Cardinals and the National Football League to talk primarily college basketball where Arizona Wildcats head basketball coach Tommy Lloyd. Tommy's in his second year as the head coach of Arizona. He was the APE Coach of the Year last year.
He is the third ever to be named coach of the Year in his first season as a head coach. He was a Gonzaga as an assistant for twenty years before taking over for Sean Miller in Tucson a year ago. He led the Wildcats to a Pac twelve regular season and conference tournament title and a number one seed had a trip to the Sweet sixteen. Arizona currently is fifth in the country and just one loss on the season. We'll talk with Tommy about Arizona basketball twenty twenty three.
We'll also talk about his experience at Gonzaga, how working with Mark Few and building a culture there prepared him for the job with the Wildcats. We'll also ask him about the first time he met Hall of Famer and my partner on ESPN broadcast, Bill Walton. He and I had breakfasens a small cafe, and the first thing is he wants hot water with his eleven and then he wants to order a Brita. He had this argument with the Wakers evening. I want a small brito and we're
not going to waste any food here. We'll talk a little football with Tommy. We'll talk pickleball as well with Tommy Lloyd, and much more coming up. We are presented by bet mgm, an official sports betting partner of the Arizona Cardinals, and by Hila River Resorts and Casinos. The bet MGM Touchdown Boost Token is here increase your payout
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gamble responsibly. Gambling problem called one eight hundred. Next step, all right, time for our conversation now with Arizona basketball coach Tommy Lloyd. So, Tommy, I've had on a lot of number of guests, wide variety of guests, not just Cardinals, even though this is primarily a football podcast. I had Bobby Hurley on recently, Mark Jackson, Damian Lillard, mcel bridges. So, first of all, do you have an NFL team? Are
you an NFL fan? I'm sure probably this time of year you're not paying a ton of attention to it, But how much of the NFL do you like and watch? Well, first off, all those names you mentioned are much bigger basketball guys than me, So geez, quite an a steamed group. But uh, yeah, I know I love football. I mean I grew up. My wife's frustrated me sometimes that I
did grow up. I told her I was raising the Church of the NFL, and you know, just had two services at ten and one every Sunday because I grew up, you know, in the Northwest. So I mean, man, I loved it, and I grew up I was a huge Rams fan. I was just forever the Rams, I mean from Pat Hayden, h you know, Wendell Tyler, Nolan Cromwell, you know, then then on Eric Dickerson, Jim Everett. Man.
I love those guys. So that was my team, and then kind of grew out of it, became a little bit more local and and you know, got starting to following the Seahawks a little bit. And uh yeah, I went to a few games over the years, and even snuck up to a Cardinals game this year. I got up there and and it was a pretty cool experience. Which one was it was it the win I hope against New Orleans or was it one of the laws?
It wasn't. It wasn't New Orleans until my gosh, and and and I had to get out of there, started to get back to introduce something. Oh who was it against U early season game or mid October game? I have to look at the schedule and here and racked my brain. But uh, but it was. It was a cool experience. And you know, I hadn't been in that dome. Well, actually, I'm sorry, I've been in that dome for you know, they have a recruit him in there for high school
called Section seventh, which is really cool. I mean, this group puts on this event in there, and they bring teams from all over the country, high school teams, and they literally put like twenty basketball courts on the on the floor, on the on the football floor there, and uh, and it's pretty cool in the dome. But but then, the only other time I was in there was twenty seventeen in the Final four when Gonzaga lost in North Carolina. Yeah, finally, Yeah,
that was an unbelievable game, unbelievable tournament. Probably felt a lot different right watching a football game there as opposed to watching a basketball game. Yeah, that's the stadium, no question,
But it's so big. It's so big, you know, and you know, playing in those domes and basketball it's almost like a surreal experience because you go out there and it's it's like it's like, is this hum of this noise you're you're in You're like when the crowd yells and doesn't get to you for a second, you know. So it's a kind of a bizarre feeling. Speaking of Gonzaga, I'm sure most people are aware of your history being a Gonzaga for as long as you were from two
thousand and two twenty one. And I know you've been asked this a lot, but maybe in this setting you can elaborate a little bit more since we have time. But how how similar is your approach been to building Arizona basketball to what Mark feud did? Obviously you're a big part of that, with getting Gonzaga to being a
national power every single year. Well, there's probably a lot of similarities, and probably so many that I don't even realize, you know how many there are, and just how we conduct ourselves and you know, obviously, I mean I learned a lot by observing and being a part of it. And one of the great experiences of my young coaching career was, you know, Fewey gave me the opper to contribute and to be a part of it, you know. And I wasn't a bystander. I mean you were. You
were thrown in the middle of it. And then and if you said something, you better be able to back it up. And if you brought an idea to the table, you better be able to argue for it. And uh, you know, and if it works or didn't work, you know, he didn't always hold it against there and so then you get confidence to come back with the next idea. But I'm sure there's a ton of similarities, you know. And uh, you know that being said, you know, I
honestly don't watch them that much, you know. I mean obviously as we're busy doing our own thing and when I catch them on TV, because I love those guys or you know, over the time, but like I don't, I try not to go out of my way because what I don't want to do is I don't want to compare what we're doing to what they're doing because both programs are have different players and you know, and and I think as a as a coach, you have to be authentic to your team and take your team
on its own journey. And I got to be running things you know that I think are going to work for Arizona basketball, and I say, oh, hey, I saw that, you know, Gonzaga ran this or this other team ran, and maybe we could do it too, you know. So I kind of, especially last year, I really kind of just stayed one hundred percent focused on our own team, and I think that helped me kind of eventually help
us kind of create our own identity. You mentioned last year obviously, you win the Pac twelve, you win the Pac twelve tournament, you're a number one seed, You win a p Coach of the Year, only the third ever to do it in his first season as a head coach. Why do you think that you guys had as much success as you did last year? I know that most people outside of your building probably did not see that coming.
I think you guys were picked fourth preseason last year in the conference, and you guys were at the top of the standings, on top of the rankings, I should say, nationally for a good part of the year. Yeah, I mean, I think I'll add to that. I mean, I don't think we saw it coming, But I also don't think
we said any limitations on ourselves. I mean one started happening, like we embraced it and we were like, hey, let's be a great team, and we're on this journey day to day, game the game, Um, you know, and I just think last year it was it was just kind of a collision of a lot of things happening at the right time. You know, they had a few younger players.
You know that that kind of stayed over, you know, from from the Shawn's last team you know, Ben Matter and Christian Coloco, Dave and Terry to Zoous develop Skirt Crista. I mean, who are who were good players, but they were young and and but but they got from experience because you know, they kind of they had a really young team the year before, so they got to play and they got to kind of experience and struggle, and so they had a little bit of an idea what
college basketball is about. And then I came in and so they were kind of ready to blossom, and we really poured into them that offseason. I mean like we we really went like, you know, hey, we're gonna hammer home player development because you know, I'm fighting to build a culture and establish how I'm hoping our program will be. And I want our program to be about great kids who worked hard and want to get better. And so
I really wanted to establish that that first year. And and man, it's just you know, everyone got significantly better
and that was huge. And then we were able to recruit a few key pieces that really really fit well, you know, justin Tire who had a great season, a Pella Larson who had a great season, you know, and so everything just kind of kind of came together, and then I think you put on top of that that team didn't get to play in the NCAA Tournament because the Arizona had self imposed a postseason band, you know, I think would have been with two thousand and twenty
twenty one season, so they weren't allowed to go to the postseason. So they were hungry, and I think all those things kind of came together and it was kind of just a really cool deal and it was a ton of fun and I enjoyed that experience immensually, and I feel like we're kind of in the middle of our own journey similar this year. You know, I don't know how it's going to turn out, but it's kind of playing out and it has a real good feel to it. Tommy, you said my favorite word, and that's culture.
And you had that at Gonzaga, you were able to establish it early at Arizona. You think about the New England Patriots. You know, if you're a player and you go there, there's a culture. There was here with the Cardinals. It seemed like the middle of last season, a culture building, and then the team didn't play well down the stretch, lost early in the playoffs, and then this year with all the injuries, especially to you know, the starting quarterback
Kyler Murray, it just never got going. And here the Cardinals are just four wins on the season. How do you establish a culture and hold guys accountable? Especially these days, it feels like the more college coaches I talked to, whether it's college basketball, college football, it's a lot harder to do that. I just had the Sugar Bowl and Alabama and meeting with Nick Saban and listening to coach Saban detail how the players basically are in charge of
the culture, but that still stems from the coach. The coach obviously sets that standard first. So what's the key in your mind to that? I mean, I think the biggest thing is you have to treat people really well, and if you say something, you got to try to do it, and you know they're just has to be that accountability. And then then what coach Saban is right one hundred pers and agree with them, is you have to have your players authentically want to contribute to the culture.
For one just might be in great people to really enjoying their teammate successes. I mean, I always tell our guys when we get to a point where you can put your teammate success above your own individual success. Now we're getting somewhere, you know. And then that doesn't mean you don't want to be successful yourself. But like, you know, in the game of basketball, you're gonna have good games, you're gonna have bad games, and you know this guy
is gonna get hot on that certain day. Can you enjoy that when your teammate has that moment in the sun? And uh, And because I think if you do, it creates good karma, good culture, and then what comes around goes around. And uh, you know, I mean, I mean, I don't have a cookbook for it. You know, I'm still learning myself to be honest with you. But like, but but the biggest thing I think we try to do and then I try to do, is I just
try to I try to treat guys good. I let them know I love them and and and part of loving him is me want them to be good. So in order for them to be good, I got to push them, you know a little bit. And then and then I and then I just I want them to fall in love with this place so they want to
contribute to it. And I think when you do that, you start kind of you kind of you know, creates its own momentum a little bit, and it does become kind of a player driven, you know, player driven deal where the coach has some influence too, for sure, but but better Yeah, and then it's fun. It's fun to be a part of that every single day. I mean, I actually I actually love that part of it. Well, you guys have won seventh straight. You got wins over Tennessee,
Indiana and then over the weekend Arizona State. You mentioned Ben Mathurin, who's having a great year with the Pacers, certainly part of the Rookie of the Year discussion. You lose him, you lose Coloco, yet you guys are still number five in the country. Do you feel like you have a good sense of what the identity of this
year's team is and is it similar to last year's team. Well, they're probably going to be some similarities, for sure, just just in how we play, how we want to move the ball, maybe some of the you know, defensive schemes and stuff like that. But but you know, I mean, I think you'd be quite honest, and I mean I piled our guys this, so it's not a surprising obviously we have some talented, good players, but I don't think
we have the same ceiling we had last year. But but that doesn't mean we can't be as good or better, you know, And and basketball it's literally comes down to just trying to find a way to win the next game and not not getting too far ahead of yourself and what do you got to do to win the next game? And I think as long as we could stay you know, in that path and locked in on that, you know, I also think our team has a pretty
high floor, you know. I mean, I think consistently we can play pretty well because we have guys that play with great effort and they play together. And I think we have a pretty solid scheme. So you know, I mean, do we have a been matter and that can go catch lobs about the rim or a coloco. No, But you know, Umar Bottlo's doing it his own way. Jis Tabellis has gotten better, Kurt Cresa has gotten better. Um
you know, Pella Larson's just rock solid. And and so you know that we bring in a transfer like Courtney Rainey who has experience and is hungry to be successful. So I think we got a good mix of guys and hey, on any given night, I feel like we can play with anybody. You know. No, now that doesn't mean we can't get beat by a lot of teams either, but uh, but but all in all, I like where we're at, and you know, but Dave, you know you're
around coaches enough. I like where we're at. But Thursday night, you know, after our game, I might not I might not have that same feeling for a little bit. So you're always fighting, fighting to win the next one. Well, I'm sure Arizona hands that are listening want to know what it's like to coach kurk Cresa. First, I just love the story and we tell it Bill and I
tell it probably every broadcast. But the fact that he wears number twenty five his first name, Kerr is on the back of his jersey because his dad was a huge Steve Kerr fan, so he wears the same number kur Cresa does that Steve Kerr did. But the fact that Kirk Crease's dad didn't know that he actually played at Arizona is the thing I find most interesting about. There's a huge Kirk Creasa man, but he didn't know he played in Arizona he's got a big personality. What's
it like to be around him? What's it like to coach him? Well, it's awesome. I mean, you know, I get asked that question a lot, and I tell he was It's easy to coach him because he's really competitive. He's got he's got an incredible spirit and energy, and he wants to win. And when I tell him something, for the most party does it. You know, So coaching him, you know, is not bad. Now you just have to harness, you know, some of the extras that come with it.
And but he's maturing, and you know, I mean, he'd had a couple of technical fouls, you know, in a couple of games in our own I just told him, knock it off, right, we don't need that, you know. And one of them, you know, he thought his teammate got bound. He was sticking up his teammate and all this stuff. And you know, the Tennessee game, he had one on the bench. He was on the bench. We I think we'd made a big play and he kind of got a little too far from the bench and
they teat him up. So you know, he bet he got great spirit, great energy. He's fun to be around. Every day. And you know, I mean, I'm sure you know fans on the other teams that he drives crazy. If he was on their team, they would love him as much as we do. You talked about earlier to bellas his improvement. Ballo and Creasa. Here's three guys part of the core of your team, and they're players from overseas. And it's remarkable over the last two decades how many players.
I mean, you think of the NBA, the two time reigning MVP, uh nicolea yokich, Uh, you think of Jannis Luca, there's so many. Basketball now is as much about the players that are from outside of the United States as those that are born in American And you were a big part of that at Gonzaga and at Arizona. When do you remember that changing and why do you think that you in particular have been really successful identifying players
outside the United States that can play well. I mean, the game has definitely become global, and you know, I think you can on a trace it back to the Dream Team in ninety two. Um, you know, they kind of made basketball burst on the scene, and you know you're there. Now that's all over the world, and you know, in China, it's in Africa, they're seeing this dream team
because they were just a phenom, you know. And then you know Europe and then there's all these big guys that you know, and the rest of the world's playing football are soccer, and there's these all these big guys that like, wet, we need something else, and so they kind of got exposed to a sport where maybe they could be successful and and they just you know, more so more guys started playing it. I think that's kind
of what happened. And then you know, when we're sitting up there in little old Gonzega, you know, back in the day, and when I was young, in my twenties, and I'd love traveling, and i'd actually, you know, played very low level overseas a little bit when I was done with college, and I remember some member of coach few just said, hey, you know, maybe you could help us out and identify some you know, international players, you know, because you know, you're you're in the five oh nine
up there in eastern Washington. I mean, it's a great place for high school basketball, very good coaches, but but not my great individual talent players. You know, there's just Division one ball players, you know, every school. So we had to think outside the box. So it's the old deal, like you know, uh, necessity the mother of invention, you know, so you have to kind of think different to be different.
And so we started I started spending a bunch of time over there, and it really opened up my eyes to you know, not only hey, can we go over here maybe maybe get better players that can really you know, accentuate the talent on our team. Then then maybe if we just recruit all American kids, you know, we get
we're fishing in other waters or others weren't fishing. But then almost as important for me, it's just started showing me another way at playing and the game is being coached different, you know, because all those kids that grew up in America, you know, when you grew up in high school basketball, you know, you're probably at some point you're you played on the line up the line defense. You know, your your coach taught you Bobby Knight's motion offense.
Then you learned flex offense, you know. And in Europe they were doing a little bit of that, but they were doing this thing with these ball screens and movements, and they just they just didn't have the same restrictions
or limitations. Maybe that all of the American kids have learned basketball under so because they saw the game different and so um so, I just think the combination of going over there looking for players, falling in love with international basketball, falling in love with traveling, and it kind of all just came together and it's been obviously a huge component of my career. And I can't ever imagine being on a team where we don't have some international guys.
You know, that doesn't mean to say that we don't love American players, because we do, and American players do really well in our system. And if you watch how the NBA's being played, well, I mean there's there's a ton of flow to that game. Now that's much more of a European system than maybe, you know, how the NBA was ten or fifteen years ago. So the game's
definitely changing. Favorite place to travel meaning you know, you got to go recruit a player, but you also would love to extend your trip a little bit so you enjoy some vacation time. The list is long. You know. The place that we've kind of enjoyed a little bit is you know, last summer, the under seventeen World Championships were in Malaga, Spain and the south of Spain Maliga, Tourmalinas, Tourmalinos Marbea. You go down there in you know, July
and August. Man, it's a spectacular So really really enjoyed that and definitely want to get back there someday kind of you maybe maybe the next spot, and it's nice being over there and you know, off the beaten path and no one knows who you are, and so yeah, we definitely enjoy that for sure. So I'm a little OCD. We we go to Italy pretty much every summer, and I feel like I have to see everything there before I can move on. But it sounds like you're telling
me I'm missed. Everybody keeps telling me I'm missing out, and they always mentioned a different part of Europe and I had not even thought about the area of Spain that you just mentioned. No, No, for sure. I mean, it's beautiful there and the reason I've kind of fell in love with that place. One of the reasons is when I was recruiting Deamonte Sabonis, that was where he was raised, so that was kind of where I first
got exposed to Malaga Spain Italy. Now you know, all my staff, I got this crazy Italian guy Ricardo voice, and he's Italian. I mean, they're full on. But he's from Sardinia. So have you been to Sardinia? No I have not. Oh my goodness. Okay, well, so Sardinia is like, okay, it's you know, it's it's world class. It's uh I guess I tell people. You know, they got these unbelievable white sand beaches there, so you know Sardinia is. It's an island. You have Sardinian and course together are sitting
out there in the Mediterranean between France and Italy. Yea, so it would be above the soccer ball, the soccer ball in the boot right yep. So you're out in the middle of the water. And uh, I tell people, it's like going to the Caribbean because you have the white sand beaches, these beautiful water, I mean where you can see crystal clear. Um, it's like going to the Caribbean. But you have Italian food, you know. For for so it's it's a it's a great combination for a vacation.
Like if you haven't been to Sardinia, the next time you go to Italy, if you don't go, you're doing it wrong. All right, No, I'm down. I'm writing it down right now because it's funny. We've been trying to. Look. We went to Matara last year, which is in the southeast portion of the country. I don't know if you saw the new James Bond movie, but they film that whole opening scene there and it's it's an incredible city. It's like the third oldest city in the world, but
they've turned it into like this spectacular tourist area. But anyway, we've been talking about going to Sicily. Now I gotta add Sardinia though. Um, yeah done. All right, Well, I'm gonna next time I see you or your assistant, I gotta get some some restaurant recommendations, some hotel recommendations before before I let you go. Um, you you kind of ras me from time to time, and how my beard makes me look a lot older than I am. I am curious how you do it? Man, You're I think
you're only I'm fifty. I think you're only a couple of years younger than me. But what's the secret other than just having hair, which I don't have. Well, hey, hey, I'm beending I'm beenning the top. I can. My wife has been telling me for years. When she's looking down from the stands she can see and I'm like, And when I see it on TV, I'm like, who's that? That's not me? Um, so that's happening. I don't know.
Maybe I just got lucky with some good genetics and and and to be honest with you, I know this beers. These beards are in vogue now. All you guys are you know, you all fashion with your beer or something. I don't grow a good beard. I don't. I mean, I think I can do the mustache a key thing, but like, I don't know, I don't know if that's who I am. I definitely don't. I'm a little patchy on the sides. So it is it pickle ball that keeps you as lively and asn't good as shape as
you are? Because I know you play pickleball. I don't know if I'm in good shape. Uh, you know, it depends on I participate in pickleball, and then depending on the level, because trust me, I have I'm used to being the fourth best player on the court. And for those you know, there's only four players on the court. So um. You know, my pickleball partners that are good. You know, they call me the common denominator because usually whoever my partner loses, So I got that going for me.
But my other partners that I play with it aren't so good, you know. I mean, yeah, I like getting after those guys a little bit. We actually just finished up right before we did this. We got a good group to place here at Arizona Jet Fish, Chip Hadler, baseball coach Dave heat you're athletic ricker students out there. You know, Jack Murphy on my staff and we go out and then our tennis coaches are all really good, so we play at them a lot. So we have a ton of fun. I want to ask you one
more about Jack Murphy, but just on pickleball. You know, that's it's like exploding. There's a pro team here in Arizona called the Azy Drive, our Arizona Drive and Larry Fitzgerald and Devin Booker part owners. So they're obviously investing in something that has caught fire, and they, I guess expected to continue to explode. I've never played it. If they if they need a player for free to get my number, I don't know, I don't know if I'm the guy kind of guy they're looking for to play,
but I love, Oh you need to play? I mean, do you ever play a little bit of tennant? Uh? Yeah, when I was a kid. Yeah, I think you look. Listen, what's nice about pickleball is you can go out and play a few times and kind of pick up a little bit of the game. Obviously there's some strategy to it, but but you don't have to be great to like to enjoy it right away. And it's like like golf
a little bit. You get one or two good hits, you know, all of a sudden you think you're pretty good, you know, and you might only have two or three good hits the day, but you remember those and you want to go back and kind to recreate him. So it's a ton of fun. So last one and then I will let you go. But it's this the tag to the story. I'll say for after you answer the question, what was your first impression of Bill Walton? I have to imagine, because I know Bill and I did a
Gonzaga game when you were there. It was when Washington played there, maybe five or six years ago. But obviously now last year and we've got you guys coming up a bunch here, Bill and I'll be doing the games. What was your first impression of Bill Well? First off, I always love go Walton as a basketball player, and uh, you know, he was an amazing talent. I mean, people have no idea he literally is one of the best players of all time when healthy, Um, no question, I think, yeah,
no question, argument easy, yeah. And I don't think people I don't think people realize that now because he has to become a he is a character, but he's become a little bit as good character on as a broadcasting and people, you know, they they love him. Maybe he annoys him. Whatever. I'll just say this when I when that guy, I think that game you guys did in Washington, he requested to have breakfast with me. I'm all right,
So I went down. He and I had to breakfast as a small cafe and you know, and you probably ate with him quite a few times. And the first thing is he wants hot water with just lemon, you know, and then he wants to order a burrito and he was like he had this argument with the Wakers. No, I don't want the breedle too big. I want a small breed on She's like, well, sur we pre make our burritos and like, we don't know, I want a small breedocas I don't. We're not going to waste any
food here. And he was adamant and so they had to make him his own special small burrito so there was no wasted food. But throughout our conversation that day, this is the people don't realize about Bill. He took five pages of handwritten notes in a very large curse of writing, and you know from my parents' names to their birthday, the what they did, and just really like introduce you and and he's genuinely in the conversation and
he's genuinely interested in you. And I just tell people this, if you don't like Bill Walton, you don't like good people, because he's one of the greatest human beings I've ever met. And he's a tremendous guy, and he's one hundred percent genuine. He doesn't have a mean bone in his body. In the world needs more people like go Walton, love it, love it. I mean, you're so right. If you can't get along with Bill, then you're the one with the problem. He so he and I will eat together after games.
He will always offer to buy. He will not eat with me before because he does not want to see me or talk to me until the game starts, because in his mind, Wilhem his teammate. As soon as we are in the arena and we're getting close to broadcasting in a way, I'm the opponent, I'm I'm kareem to him. Yeah, like seriously, he said that, like it's he gets really competitive and so he but afterwards, yes, and you got to dinner. He doesn't drink. He always asked for for
hot water, soup and salmon. That's usually regardless of where we go. I'm surprised about the burrito he must have been. I don't know if he's gone low carb or what. But uh but it was maybe limited options. And you know, we have a good relationship with Bill because you know, Luke play here. Yeah, and Jack Murphy's Luke Walton is one of his best friends, you know, who's on my staff.
And then and then he and this, he had this romance with our old Sid are are he's still in Sid here but not it's a bast much Matt Inser. Oh yeah, those two they go in the summer they go to dead concerts and the whole deal, and uh, you know, to me, that just shows how good of a guy Bill is. Like Bill has really become genuinely great friends with Matt Inser and they're probably, you know, thirty five years age difference and you know, from different worlds.
But Bills just he loves people, and I think that's just something that has been lost on a lot of this world these days. So I'll tell you the Jack Murphy story and I'll let you go because I've kept you longer than I said I would. I appreciate the time. So we're doing an Arizona UCLA game about four years ago. It is me, Bill and Richard Jefferson is doing the game with us. Richard, who played at Arizona, played in the NBA for a long time and now does games.
I just did a game with him a couple of weeks ago for ESPN and rich For people that may not know, Richard Jefferson and Luke Walton are best friends, and Richard basically is an adopted Walton. He's more like Bill than Luke is. I don't know the other boys, the other three sons, but his personnel he's very similar to Bill, and when Richard was playing in the NBA, Richard still lived at Bill's house. He was making ten million dollars a year and living on Bill's couch until Laurie,
Bill's wife kicked him out of the house. So we're calling this game. Sean Miller gets teed up and ejected from the game, and now Jack Murphy, who was the associate head coach now is coaching the game. And Richard goes, yeah, and Jack used to live at Bill's house too, And I didn't know that story, but apparently Jack Murphy was in charge of waking Luke and Richard up in the morning to make sure they went to their workouts to
get ready for the NBA draft. So anyway, there's the story. Yeah, I'm sure Luke and Richard were probably doing nothing event full the night before and probably would probably would have woke up on their own with an alarm clock that I had Jack there just in face. I'm sure it's exactly right. Tommy, Hey, this was great, Thanks so much. Congratulations on all your success to date, and I know there's a long way to go this season, but you
guys are off to a great start. Can't wait to watch you guys in person here against the organ schools and UCLA a couple of times here in the near future. Thanks for your time, man, Yeah, thanks to you next week. Really enjoyable conversation with Tommy Lloyd. Great personality. You can see why he's been such a good recruiter. Just easy going, easy to get along with, doesn't take himself too seriously, always giving credit to the players and Mark Few, who
he was with for two decades atkin Zaga. Loved the story about Bill Walton too, and the fact that Bill called him wanted to have breakfast, and that is something about Bill that not many people realize. He is a copious note taker and he wants to know everything about the person so that he can help humanize coaches and players to the audience, which is a big part of
our jobs as broadcasters. Arizona right now fifth in the country and without question, a contender not just for the PACTWEL title, but for the national championship in twenty twenty three. We are presented by bet MGM, official sports betting partner of the Arizona Cardinals, and by Hila River Resorts and Casinos. Check us out on Twitter at pashpod and Please tell us what you think by going to your podcast platform, rate us, review us, let us know if there're any
guests you'd like to hear from in the future. Thanks again to Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd, and thanks to you for listening to another edition of the Dave Pash Podcast
