Speaker 1: Everybody, and welcome to another edition of the Dave Pash Podcast.
Speaker 1: I'm your host ESPN and Arizona Cardinals broadcaster Dave Pash. Well,
Speaker 1: as we've done from time to time over the first
Speaker 1: year and a half of this podcast, we step outside
Speaker 1: the Cardinals and the National Football League to talk primarily
Speaker 1: college basketball where Arizona Wildcats head basketball coach Tommy Lloyd.
Speaker 1: Tommy's in his second year as the head coach of Arizona.
Speaker 1: He was the APE Coach of the Year last year.
Speaker 1: He is the third ever to be named coach of
Speaker 1: the Year in his first season as a head coach.
Speaker 1: He was a Gonzaga as an assistant for twenty years
Speaker 1: before taking over for Sean Miller in Tucson a year ago.
Speaker 1: He led the Wildcats to a Pac twelve regular season
Speaker 1: and conference tournament title and a number one seed had
Speaker 1: a trip to the Sweet sixteen. Arizona currently is fifth
Speaker 1: in the country and just one loss on the season.
Speaker 1: We'll talk with Tommy about Arizona basketball twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1: We'll also talk about his experience at Gonzaga, how working
Speaker 1: with Mark Few and building a culture there prepared him
Speaker 1: for the job with the Wildcats. We'll also ask him
Speaker 1: about the first time he met Hall of Famer and
Speaker 1: my partner on ESPN broadcast, Bill Walton. He and I
Speaker 1: had breakfasens a small cafe, and the first thing is
Speaker 1: he wants hot water with his eleven and then he
Speaker 1: wants to order a Brita. He had this argument with
Speaker 1: the Wakers evening. I want a small brito and we're
Speaker 1: not going to waste any food here. We'll talk a
Speaker 1: little football with Tommy. We'll talk pickleball as well with
Speaker 1: Tommy Lloyd, and much more coming up. We are presented
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Speaker 1: all right, time for our conversation now with Arizona basketball
Speaker 1: coach Tommy Lloyd. So, Tommy, I've had on a lot
Speaker 1: of number of guests, wide variety of guests, not just Cardinals,
Speaker 1: even though this is primarily a football podcast. I had
Speaker 1: Bobby Hurley on recently, Mark Jackson, Damian Lillard, mcel bridges. So,
Speaker 1: first of all, do you have an NFL team? Are
Speaker 1: you an NFL fan? I'm sure probably this time of
Speaker 1: year you're not paying a ton of attention to it,
Speaker 1: But how much of the NFL do you like and watch? Well,
Speaker 1: first off, all those names you mentioned are much bigger
Speaker 1: basketball guys than me, So geez, quite an a steamed group.
Speaker 1: But uh, yeah, I know I love football. I mean
Speaker 1: I grew up. My wife's frustrated me sometimes that I
Speaker 1: did grow up. I told her I was raising the
Speaker 1: Church of the NFL, and you know, just had two
Speaker 1: services at ten and one every Sunday because I grew up,
Speaker 1: you know, in the Northwest. So I mean, man, I
Speaker 1: loved it, and I grew up I was a huge
Speaker 1: Rams fan. I was just forever the Rams, I mean
Speaker 1: from Pat Hayden, h you know, Wendell Tyler, Nolan Cromwell,
Speaker 1: you know, then then on Eric Dickerson, Jim Everett. Man.
Speaker 1: I love those guys. So that was my team, and
Speaker 1: then kind of grew out of it, became a little
Speaker 1: bit more local and and you know, got starting to
Speaker 1: following the Seahawks a little bit. And uh yeah, I
Speaker 1: went to a few games over the years, and even
Speaker 1: snuck up to a Cardinals game this year. I got
Speaker 1: up there and and it was a pretty cool experience.
Speaker 1: Which one was it was it the win I hope
Speaker 1: against New Orleans or was it one of the laws?
Speaker 1: It wasn't. It wasn't New Orleans until my gosh, and
Speaker 1: and and I had to get out of there, started
Speaker 1: to get back to introduce something. Oh who was it
Speaker 1: against U early season game or mid October game? I
Speaker 1: have to look at the schedule and here and racked
Speaker 1: my brain. But uh, but it was. It was a
Speaker 1: cool experience. And you know, I hadn't been in that dome. Well, actually,
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I've been in that dome for you know,
Speaker 1: they have a recruit him in there for high school
Speaker 1: called Section seventh, which is really cool. I mean, this
Speaker 1: group puts on this event in there, and they bring
Speaker 1: teams from all over the country, high school teams, and
Speaker 1: they literally put like twenty basketball courts on the on
Speaker 1: the floor, on the on the football floor there, and uh,
Speaker 1: and it's pretty cool in the dome. But but then,
Speaker 1: the only other time I was in there was twenty
Speaker 1: seventeen in the Final four when Gonzaga lost in North Carolina. Yeah, finally, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that was an unbelievable game, unbelievable tournament. Probably felt a
Speaker 1: lot different right watching a football game there as opposed
Speaker 1: to watching a basketball game. Yeah, that's the stadium, no question,
Speaker 1: But it's so big. It's so big, you know, and
Speaker 1: you know, playing in those domes and basketball it's almost
Speaker 1: like a surreal experience because you go out there and
Speaker 1: it's it's like it's like, is this hum of this
Speaker 1: noise you're you're in You're like when the crowd yells
Speaker 1: and doesn't get to you for a second, you know.
Speaker 1: So it's a kind of a bizarre feeling. Speaking of Gonzaga,
Speaker 1: I'm sure most people are aware of your history being
Speaker 1: a Gonzaga for as long as you were from two
Speaker 1: thousand and two twenty one. And I know you've been
Speaker 1: asked this a lot, but maybe in this setting you
Speaker 1: can elaborate a little bit more since we have time.
Speaker 1: But how how similar is your approach been to building
Speaker 1: Arizona basketball to what Mark feud did? Obviously you're a
Speaker 1: big part of that, with getting Gonzaga to being a
Speaker 1: national power every single year. Well, there's probably a lot
Speaker 1: of similarities, and probably so many that I don't even realize,
Speaker 1: you know how many there are, and just how we
Speaker 1: conduct ourselves and you know, obviously, I mean I learned
Speaker 1: a lot by observing and being a part of it.
Speaker 1: And one of the great experiences of my young coaching
Speaker 1: career was, you know, Fewey gave me the opper to
Speaker 1: contribute and to be a part of it, you know.
Speaker 1: And I wasn't a bystander. I mean you were. You
Speaker 1: were thrown in the middle of it. And then and
Speaker 1: if you said something, you better be able to back
Speaker 1: it up. And if you brought an idea to the table,
Speaker 1: you better be able to argue for it. And uh,
Speaker 1: you know, and if it works or didn't work, you know,
Speaker 1: he didn't always hold it against there and so then
Speaker 1: you get confidence to come back with the next idea.
Speaker 1: But I'm sure there's a ton of similarities, you know.
Speaker 1: And uh, you know that being said, you know, I
Speaker 1: honestly don't watch them that much, you know. I mean
Speaker 1: obviously as we're busy doing our own thing and when
Speaker 1: I catch them on TV, because I love those guys
Speaker 1: or you know, over the time, but like I don't,
Speaker 1: I try not to go out of my way because
Speaker 1: what I don't want to do is I don't want
Speaker 1: to compare what we're doing to what they're doing because
Speaker 1: both programs are have different players and you know, and
Speaker 1: and I think as a as a coach, you have
Speaker 1: to be authentic to your team and take your team
Speaker 1: on its own journey. And I got to be running
Speaker 1: things you know that I think are going to work
Speaker 1: for Arizona basketball, and I say, oh, hey, I saw that,
Speaker 1: you know, Gonzaga ran this or this other team ran,
Speaker 1: and maybe we could do it too, you know. So
Speaker 1: I kind of, especially last year, I really kind of
Speaker 1: just stayed one hundred percent focused on our own team,
Speaker 1: and I think that helped me kind of eventually help
Speaker 1: us kind of create our own identity. You mentioned last
Speaker 1: year obviously, you win the Pac twelve, you win the
Speaker 1: Pac twelve tournament, you're a number one seed, You win
Speaker 1: a p Coach of the Year, only the third ever
Speaker 1: to do it in his first season as a head coach.
Speaker 1: Why do you think that you guys had as much
Speaker 1: success as you did last year? I know that most
Speaker 1: people outside of your building probably did not see that coming.
Speaker 1: I think you guys were picked fourth preseason last year
Speaker 1: in the conference, and you guys were at the top
Speaker 1: of the standings, on top of the rankings, I should say,
Speaker 1: nationally for a good part of the year. Yeah, I mean,
Speaker 1: I think I'll add to that. I mean, I don't
Speaker 1: think we saw it coming, But I also don't think
Speaker 1: we said any limitations on ourselves. I mean one started happening,
Speaker 1: like we embraced it and we were like, hey, let's
Speaker 1: be a great team, and we're on this journey day
Speaker 1: to day, game the game, Um, you know, and I
Speaker 1: just think last year it was it was just kind
Speaker 1: of a collision of a lot of things happening at
Speaker 1: the right time. You know, they had a few younger players.
Speaker 1: You know that that kind of stayed over, you know,
Speaker 1: from from the Shawn's last team you know, Ben Matter
Speaker 1: and Christian Coloco, Dave and Terry to Zoous develop Skirt Crista.
Speaker 1: I mean, who are who were good players, but they
Speaker 1: were young and and but but they got from experience
Speaker 1: because you know, they kind of they had a really
Speaker 1: young team the year before, so they got to play
Speaker 1: and they got to kind of experience and struggle, and
Speaker 1: so they had a little bit of an idea what
Speaker 1: college basketball is about. And then I came in and
Speaker 1: so they were kind of ready to blossom, and we
Speaker 1: really poured into them that offseason. I mean like we
Speaker 1: we really went like, you know, hey, we're gonna hammer
Speaker 1: home player development because you know, I'm fighting to build
Speaker 1: a culture and establish how I'm hoping our program will be.
Speaker 1: And I want our program to be about great kids
Speaker 1: who worked hard and want to get better. And so
Speaker 1: I really wanted to establish that that first year. And
Speaker 1: and man, it's just you know, everyone got significantly better
Speaker 1: and that was huge. And then we were able to
Speaker 1: recruit a few key pieces that really really fit well,
Speaker 1: you know, justin Tire who had a great season, a
Speaker 1: Pella Larson who had a great season, you know, and
Speaker 1: so everything just kind of kind of came together, and
Speaker 1: then I think you put on top of that that
Speaker 1: team didn't get to play in the NCAA Tournament because
Speaker 1: the Arizona had self imposed a postseason band, you know,
Speaker 1: I think would have been with two thousand and twenty
Speaker 1: twenty one season, so they weren't allowed to go to
Speaker 1: the postseason. So they were hungry, and I think all
Speaker 1: those things kind of came together and it was kind
Speaker 1: of just a really cool deal and it was a
Speaker 1: ton of fun and I enjoyed that experience immensually, and
Speaker 1: I feel like we're kind of in the middle of
Speaker 1: our own journey similar this year. You know, I don't
Speaker 1: know how it's going to turn out, but it's kind
Speaker 1: of playing out and it has a real good feel
Speaker 1: to it. Tommy, you said my favorite word, and that's culture.
Speaker 1: And you had that at Gonzaga, you were able to
Speaker 1: establish it early at Arizona. You think about the New
Speaker 1: England Patriots. You know, if you're a player and you
Speaker 1: go there, there's a culture. There was here with the Cardinals.
Speaker 1: It seemed like the middle of last season, a culture building,
Speaker 1: and then the team didn't play well down the stretch,
Speaker 1: lost early in the playoffs, and then this year with
Speaker 1: all the injuries, especially to you know, the starting quarterback
Speaker 1: Kyler Murray, it just never got going. And here the
Speaker 1: Cardinals are just four wins on the season. How do
Speaker 1: you establish a culture and hold guys accountable? Especially these days,
Speaker 1: it feels like the more college coaches I talked to,
Speaker 1: whether it's college basketball, college football, it's a lot harder
Speaker 1: to do that. I just had the Sugar Bowl and
Speaker 1: Alabama and meeting with Nick Saban and listening to coach
Speaker 1: Saban detail how the players basically are in charge of
Speaker 1: the culture, but that still stems from the coach. The
Speaker 1: coach obviously sets that standard first. So what's the key
Speaker 1: in your mind to that? I mean, I think the
Speaker 1: biggest thing is you have to treat people really well,
Speaker 1: and if you say something, you got to try to
Speaker 1: do it, and you know they're just has to be
Speaker 1: that accountability. And then then what coach Saban is right
Speaker 1: one hundred pers and agree with them, is you have
Speaker 1: to have your players authentically want to contribute to the culture.
Speaker 1: For one just might be in great people to really
Speaker 1: enjoying their teammate successes. I mean, I always tell our
Speaker 1: guys when we get to a point where you can
Speaker 1: put your teammate success above your own individual success. Now
Speaker 1: we're getting somewhere, you know. And then that doesn't mean
Speaker 1: you don't want to be successful yourself. But like, you know,
Speaker 1: in the game of basketball, you're gonna have good games,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have bad games, and you know this guy
Speaker 1: is gonna get hot on that certain day. Can you
Speaker 1: enjoy that when your teammate has that moment in the sun?
Speaker 1: And uh, And because I think if you do, it
Speaker 1: creates good karma, good culture, and then what comes around
Speaker 1: goes around. And uh, you know, I mean, I mean,
Speaker 1: I don't have a cookbook for it. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: still learning myself to be honest with you. But like,
Speaker 1: but but the biggest thing I think we try to
Speaker 1: do and then I try to do, is I just
Speaker 1: try to I try to treat guys good. I let
Speaker 1: them know I love them and and and part of
Speaker 1: loving him is me want them to be good. So
Speaker 1: in order for them to be good, I got to
Speaker 1: push them, you know a little bit. And then and
Speaker 1: then I and then I just I want them to
Speaker 1: fall in love with this place so they want to
Speaker 1: contribute to it. And I think when you do that,
Speaker 1: you start kind of you kind of you know, creates
Speaker 1: its own momentum a little bit, and it does become
Speaker 1: kind of a player driven, you know, player driven deal
Speaker 1: where the coach has some influence too, for sure, but
Speaker 1: but better Yeah, and then it's fun. It's fun to
Speaker 1: be a part of that every single day. I mean,
Speaker 1: I actually I actually love that part of it. Well,
Speaker 1: you guys have won seventh straight. You got wins over Tennessee,
Speaker 1: Indiana and then over the weekend Arizona State. You mentioned
Speaker 1: Ben Mathurin, who's having a great year with the Pacers,
Speaker 1: certainly part of the Rookie of the Year discussion. You
Speaker 1: lose him, you lose Coloco, yet you guys are still
Speaker 1: number five in the country. Do you feel like you
Speaker 1: have a good sense of what the identity of this
Speaker 1: year's team is and is it similar to last year's team. Well,
Speaker 1: they're probably going to be some similarities, for sure, just
Speaker 1: just in how we play, how we want to move
Speaker 1: the ball, maybe some of the you know, defensive schemes
Speaker 1: and stuff like that. But but you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: I think you'd be quite honest, and I mean I
Speaker 1: piled our guys this, so it's not a surprising obviously
Speaker 1: we have some talented, good players, but I don't think
Speaker 1: we have the same ceiling we had last year. But
Speaker 1: but that doesn't mean we can't be as good or better,
Speaker 1: you know, And and basketball it's literally comes down to
Speaker 1: just trying to find a way to win the next
Speaker 1: game and not not getting too far ahead of yourself
Speaker 1: and what do you got to do to win the
Speaker 1: next game? And I think as long as we could
Speaker 1: stay you know, in that path and locked in on that,
Speaker 1: you know, I also think our team has a pretty
Speaker 1: high floor, you know. I mean, I think consistently we
Speaker 1: can play pretty well because we have guys that play
Speaker 1: with great effort and they play together. And I think
Speaker 1: we have a pretty solid scheme. So you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: do we have a been matter and that can go
Speaker 1: catch lobs about the rim or a coloco. No, But
Speaker 1: you know, Umar Bottlo's doing it his own way. Jis
Speaker 1: Tabellis has gotten better, Kurt Cresa has gotten better. Um
Speaker 1: you know, Pella Larson's just rock solid. And and so
Speaker 1: you know that we bring in a transfer like Courtney
Speaker 1: Rainey who has experience and is hungry to be successful.
Speaker 1: So I think we got a good mix of guys
Speaker 1: and hey, on any given night, I feel like we
Speaker 1: can play with anybody. You know. No, now that doesn't
Speaker 1: mean we can't get beat by a lot of teams either,
Speaker 1: but uh, but but all in all, I like where
Speaker 1: we're at, and you know, but Dave, you know you're
Speaker 1: around coaches enough. I like where we're at. But Thursday night,
Speaker 1: you know, after our game, I might not I might
Speaker 1: not have that same feeling for a little bit. So
Speaker 1: you're always fighting, fighting to win the next one. Well,
Speaker 1: I'm sure Arizona hands that are listening want to know
Speaker 1: what it's like to coach kurk Cresa. First, I just
Speaker 1: love the story and we tell it Bill and I
Speaker 1: tell it probably every broadcast. But the fact that he
Speaker 1: wears number twenty five his first name, Kerr is on
Speaker 1: the back of his jersey because his dad was a
Speaker 1: huge Steve Kerr fan, so he wears the same number
Speaker 1: kur Cresa does that Steve Kerr did. But the fact
Speaker 1: that Kirk Crease's dad didn't know that he actually played
Speaker 1: at Arizona is the thing I find most interesting about.
Speaker 1: There's a huge Kirk Creasa man, but he didn't know
Speaker 1: he played in Arizona he's got a big personality. What's
Speaker 1: it like to be around him? What's it like to
Speaker 1: coach him? Well, it's awesome. I mean, you know, I
Speaker 1: get asked that question a lot, and I tell he
Speaker 1: was It's easy to coach him because he's really competitive.
Speaker 1: He's got he's got an incredible spirit and energy, and
Speaker 1: he wants to win. And when I tell him something,
Speaker 1: for the most party does it. You know, So coaching him,
Speaker 1: you know, is not bad. Now you just have to harness,
Speaker 1: you know, some of the extras that come with it.
Speaker 1: And but he's maturing, and you know, I mean, he'd
Speaker 1: had a couple of technical fouls, you know, in a
Speaker 1: couple of games in our own I just told him,
Speaker 1: knock it off, right, we don't need that, you know.
Speaker 1: And one of them, you know, he thought his teammate
Speaker 1: got bound. He was sticking up his teammate and all
Speaker 1: this stuff. And you know, the Tennessee game, he had
Speaker 1: one on the bench. He was on the bench. We
Speaker 1: I think we'd made a big play and he kind
Speaker 1: of got a little too far from the bench and
Speaker 1: they teat him up. So you know, he bet he
Speaker 1: got great spirit, great energy. He's fun to be around.
Speaker 1: Every day. And you know, I mean, I'm sure you
Speaker 1: know fans on the other teams that he drives crazy.
Speaker 1: If he was on their team, they would love him
Speaker 1: as much as we do. You talked about earlier to
Speaker 1: bellas his improvement. Ballo and Creasa. Here's three guys part
Speaker 1: of the core of your team, and they're players from overseas.
Speaker 1: And it's remarkable over the last two decades how many players.
Speaker 1: I mean, you think of the NBA, the two time
Speaker 1: reigning MVP, uh nicolea yokich, Uh, you think of Jannis Luca,
Speaker 1: there's so many. Basketball now is as much about the
Speaker 1: players that are from outside of the United States as
Speaker 1: those that are born in American And you were a
Speaker 1: big part of that at Gonzaga and at Arizona. When
Speaker 1: do you remember that changing and why do you think
Speaker 1: that you in particular have been really successful identifying players
Speaker 1: outside the United States that can play well. I mean,
Speaker 1: the game has definitely become global, and you know, I
Speaker 1: think you can on a trace it back to the
Speaker 1: Dream Team in ninety two. Um, you know, they kind
Speaker 1: of made basketball burst on the scene, and you know
Speaker 1: you're there. Now that's all over the world, and you know,
Speaker 1: in China, it's in Africa, they're seeing this dream team
Speaker 1: because they were just a phenom, you know. And then
Speaker 1: you know Europe and then there's all these big guys
Speaker 1: that you know, and the rest of the world's playing
Speaker 1: football are soccer, and there's these all these big guys
Speaker 1: that like, wet, we need something else, and so they
Speaker 1: kind of got exposed to a sport where maybe they
Speaker 1: could be successful and and they just you know, more
Speaker 1: so more guys started playing it. I think that's kind
Speaker 1: of what happened. And then you know, when we're sitting
Speaker 1: up there in little old Gonzega, you know, back in
Speaker 1: the day, and when I was young, in my twenties,
Speaker 1: and I'd love traveling, and i'd actually, you know, played
Speaker 1: very low level overseas a little bit when I was
Speaker 1: done with college, and I remember some member of coach
Speaker 1: few just said, hey, you know, maybe you could help
Speaker 1: us out and identify some you know, international players, you know,
Speaker 1: because you know, you're you're in the five oh nine
Speaker 1: up there in eastern Washington. I mean, it's a great
Speaker 1: place for high school basketball, very good coaches, but but
Speaker 1: not my great individual talent players. You know, there's just
Speaker 1: Division one ball players, you know, every school. So we
Speaker 1: had to think outside the box. So it's the old deal,
Speaker 1: like you know, uh, necessity the mother of invention, you know,
Speaker 1: so you have to kind of think different to be different.
Speaker 1: And so we started I started spending a bunch of
Speaker 1: time over there, and it really opened up my eyes
Speaker 1: to you know, not only hey, can we go over
Speaker 1: here maybe maybe get better players that can really you know,
Speaker 1: accentuate the talent on our team. Then then maybe if
Speaker 1: we just recruit all American kids, you know, we get
Speaker 1: we're fishing in other waters or others weren't fishing. But
Speaker 1: then almost as important for me, it's just started showing
Speaker 1: me another way at playing and the game is being
Speaker 1: coached different, you know, because all those kids that grew
Speaker 1: up in America, you know, when you grew up in
Speaker 1: high school basketball, you know, you're probably at some point
Speaker 1: you're you played on the line up the line defense.
Speaker 1: You know, your your coach taught you Bobby Knight's motion offense.
Speaker 1: Then you learned flex offense, you know. And in Europe
Speaker 1: they were doing a little bit of that, but they
Speaker 1: were doing this thing with these ball screens and movements,
Speaker 1: and they just they just didn't have the same restrictions
Speaker 1: or limitations. Maybe that all of the American kids have
Speaker 1: learned basketball under so because they saw the game different
Speaker 1: and so um so, I just think the combination of
Speaker 1: going over there looking for players, falling in love with
Speaker 1: international basketball, falling in love with traveling, and it kind
Speaker 1: of all just came together and it's been obviously a
Speaker 1: huge component of my career. And I can't ever imagine
Speaker 1: being on a team where we don't have some international guys.
Speaker 1: You know, that doesn't mean to say that we don't
Speaker 1: love American players, because we do, and American players do
Speaker 1: really well in our system. And if you watch how
Speaker 1: the NBA's being played, well, I mean there's there's a
Speaker 1: ton of flow to that game. Now that's much more
Speaker 1: of a European system than maybe, you know, how the
Speaker 1: NBA was ten or fifteen years ago. So the game's
Speaker 1: definitely changing. Favorite place to travel meaning you know, you
Speaker 1: got to go recruit a player, but you also would
Speaker 1: love to extend your trip a little bit so you
Speaker 1: enjoy some vacation time. The list is long. You know.
Speaker 1: The place that we've kind of enjoyed a little bit
Speaker 1: is you know, last summer, the under seventeen World Championships
Speaker 1: were in Malaga, Spain and the south of Spain Maliga, Tourmalinas,
Speaker 1: Tourmalinos Marbea. You go down there in you know, July
Speaker 1: and August. Man, it's a spectacular So really really enjoyed
Speaker 1: that and definitely want to get back there someday kind
Speaker 1: of you maybe maybe the next spot, and it's nice
Speaker 1: being over there and you know, off the beaten path
Speaker 1: and no one knows who you are, and so yeah,
Speaker 1: we definitely enjoy that for sure. So I'm a little OCD.
Speaker 1: We we go to Italy pretty much every summer, and
Speaker 1: I feel like I have to see everything there before
Speaker 1: I can move on. But it sounds like you're telling
Speaker 1: me I'm missed. Everybody keeps telling me I'm missing out,
Speaker 1: and they always mentioned a different part of Europe and
Speaker 1: I had not even thought about the area of Spain
Speaker 1: that you just mentioned. No, No, for sure. I mean,
Speaker 1: it's beautiful there and the reason I've kind of fell
Speaker 1: in love with that place. One of the reasons is
Speaker 1: when I was recruiting Deamonte Sabonis, that was where he
Speaker 1: was raised, so that was kind of where I first
Speaker 1: got exposed to Malaga Spain Italy. Now you know, all
Speaker 1: my staff, I got this crazy Italian guy Ricardo voice,
Speaker 1: and he's Italian. I mean, they're full on. But he's
Speaker 1: from Sardinia. So have you been to Sardinia? No I
Speaker 1: have not. Oh my goodness. Okay, well, so Sardinia is like, okay,
Speaker 1: it's you know, it's it's world class. It's uh I
Speaker 1: guess I tell people. You know, they got these unbelievable
Speaker 1: white sand beaches there, so you know Sardinia is. It's
Speaker 1: an island. You have Sardinian and course together are sitting
Speaker 1: out there in the Mediterranean between France and Italy. Yea,
Speaker 1: so it would be above the soccer ball, the soccer
Speaker 1: ball in the boot right yep. So you're out in
Speaker 1: the middle of the water. And uh, I tell people,
Speaker 1: it's like going to the Caribbean because you have the
Speaker 1: white sand beaches, these beautiful water, I mean where you
Speaker 1: can see crystal clear. Um, it's like going to the Caribbean.
Speaker 1: But you have Italian food, you know. For for so
Speaker 1: it's it's a it's a great combination for a vacation.
Speaker 1: Like if you haven't been to Sardinia, the next time
Speaker 1: you go to Italy, if you don't go, you're doing
Speaker 1: it wrong. All right, No, I'm down. I'm writing it
Speaker 1: down right now because it's funny. We've been trying to. Look.
Speaker 1: We went to Matara last year, which is in the
Speaker 1: southeast portion of the country. I don't know if you
Speaker 1: saw the new James Bond movie, but they film that
Speaker 1: whole opening scene there and it's it's an incredible city.
Speaker 1: It's like the third oldest city in the world, but
Speaker 1: they've turned it into like this spectacular tourist area. But anyway,
Speaker 1: we've been talking about going to Sicily. Now I gotta
Speaker 1: add Sardinia though. Um, yeah done. All right, Well, I'm
Speaker 1: gonna next time I see you or your assistant, I
Speaker 1: gotta get some some restaurant recommendations, some hotel recommendations before
Speaker 1: before I let you go. Um, you you kind of
Speaker 1: ras me from time to time, and how my beard
Speaker 1: makes me look a lot older than I am. I
Speaker 1: am curious how you do it? Man, You're I think
Speaker 1: you're only I'm fifty. I think you're only a couple
Speaker 1: of years younger than me. But what's the secret other
Speaker 1: than just having hair, which I don't have. Well, hey, hey,
Speaker 1: I'm beending I'm beenning the top. I can. My wife
Speaker 1: has been telling me for years. When she's looking down
Speaker 1: from the stands she can see and I'm like, And
Speaker 1: when I see it on TV, I'm like, who's that?
Speaker 1: That's not me? Um, so that's happening. I don't know.
Speaker 1: Maybe I just got lucky with some good genetics and
Speaker 1: and and to be honest with you, I know this beers.
Speaker 1: These beards are in vogue now. All you guys are
Speaker 1: you know, you all fashion with your beer or something.
Speaker 1: I don't grow a good beard. I don't. I mean,
Speaker 1: I think I can do the mustache a key thing,
Speaker 1: but like, I don't know, I don't know if that's
Speaker 1: who I am. I definitely don't. I'm a little patchy
Speaker 1: on the sides. So it is it pickle ball that
Speaker 1: keeps you as lively and asn't good as shape as
Speaker 1: you are? Because I know you play pickleball. I don't
Speaker 1: know if I'm in good shape. Uh, you know, it
Speaker 1: depends on I participate in pickleball, and then depending on
Speaker 1: the level, because trust me, I have I'm used to
Speaker 1: being the fourth best player on the court. And for
Speaker 1: those you know, there's only four players on the court.
Speaker 1: So um. You know, my pickleball partners that are good.
Speaker 1: You know, they call me the common denominator because usually
Speaker 1: whoever my partner loses, So I got that going for me.
Speaker 1: But my other partners that I play with it aren't
Speaker 1: so good, you know. I mean, yeah, I like getting
Speaker 1: after those guys a little bit. We actually just finished
Speaker 1: up right before we did this. We got a good
Speaker 1: group to place here at Arizona Jet Fish, Chip Hadler,
Speaker 1: baseball coach Dave heat you're athletic ricker students out there.
Speaker 1: You know, Jack Murphy on my staff and we go
Speaker 1: out and then our tennis coaches are all really good,
Speaker 1: so we play at them a lot. So we have
Speaker 1: a ton of fun. I want to ask you one
Speaker 1: more about Jack Murphy, but just on pickleball. You know,
Speaker 1: that's it's like exploding. There's a pro team here in
Speaker 1: Arizona called the Azy Drive, our Arizona Drive and Larry
Speaker 1: Fitzgerald and Devin Booker part owners. So they're obviously investing
Speaker 1: in something that has caught fire, and they, I guess
Speaker 1: expected to continue to explode. I've never played it. If
Speaker 1: they if they need a player for free to get
Speaker 1: my number, I don't know, I don't know if I'm
Speaker 1: the guy kind of guy they're looking for to play,
Speaker 1: but I love, Oh you need to play? I mean,
Speaker 1: do you ever play a little bit of tennant? Uh? Yeah,
Speaker 1: when I was a kid. Yeah, I think you look. Listen,
Speaker 1: what's nice about pickleball is you can go out and
Speaker 1: play a few times and kind of pick up a
Speaker 1: little bit of the game. Obviously there's some strategy to it,
Speaker 1: but but you don't have to be great to like
Speaker 1: to enjoy it right away. And it's like like golf
Speaker 1: a little bit. You get one or two good hits,
Speaker 1: you know, all of a sudden you think you're pretty good,
Speaker 1: you know, and you might only have two or three
Speaker 1: good hits the day, but you remember those and you
Speaker 1: want to go back and kind to recreate him. So
Speaker 1: it's a ton of fun. So last one and then
Speaker 1: I will let you go. But it's this the tag
Speaker 1: to the story. I'll say for after you answer the question,
Speaker 1: what was your first impression of Bill Walton? I have
Speaker 1: to imagine, because I know Bill and I did a
Speaker 1: Gonzaga game when you were there. It was when Washington
Speaker 1: played there, maybe five or six years ago. But obviously
Speaker 1: now last year and we've got you guys coming up
Speaker 1: a bunch here, Bill and I'll be doing the games.
Speaker 1: What was your first impression of Bill Well? First off,
Speaker 1: I always love go Walton as a basketball player, and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, he was an amazing talent. I mean, people
Speaker 1: have no idea he literally is one of the best
Speaker 1: players of all time when healthy, Um, no question, I think, yeah,
Speaker 1: no question, argument easy, yeah. And I don't think people
Speaker 1: I don't think people realize that now because he has
Speaker 1: to become a he is a character, but he's become
Speaker 1: a little bit as good character on as a broadcasting
Speaker 1: and people, you know, they they love him. Maybe he
Speaker 1: annoys him. Whatever. I'll just say this when I when
Speaker 1: that guy, I think that game you guys did in Washington,
Speaker 1: he requested to have breakfast with me. I'm all right,
Speaker 1: So I went down. He and I had to breakfast
Speaker 1: as a small cafe and you know, and you probably
Speaker 1: ate with him quite a few times. And the first
Speaker 1: thing is he wants hot water with just lemon, you know,
Speaker 1: and then he wants to order a burrito and he
Speaker 1: was like he had this argument with the Wakers. No,
Speaker 1: I don't want the breedle too big. I want a
Speaker 1: small breed on She's like, well, sur we pre make
Speaker 1: our burritos and like, we don't know, I want a
Speaker 1: small breedocas I don't. We're not going to waste any
Speaker 1: food here. And he was adamant and so they had
Speaker 1: to make him his own special small burrito so there
Speaker 1: was no wasted food. But throughout our conversation that day,
Speaker 1: this is the people don't realize about Bill. He took
Speaker 1: five pages of handwritten notes in a very large curse
Speaker 1: of writing, and you know from my parents' names to
Speaker 1: their birthday, the what they did, and just really like
Speaker 1: introduce you and and he's genuinely in the conversation and
Speaker 1: he's genuinely interested in you. And I just tell people this,
Speaker 1: if you don't like Bill Walton, you don't like good people,
Speaker 1: because he's one of the greatest human beings I've ever met.
Speaker 1: And he's a tremendous guy, and he's one hundred percent genuine.
Speaker 1: He doesn't have a mean bone in his body. In
Speaker 1: the world needs more people like go Walton, love it,
Speaker 1: love it. I mean, you're so right. If you can't
Speaker 1: get along with Bill, then you're the one with the problem.
Speaker 1: He so he and I will eat together after games.
Speaker 1: He will always offer to buy. He will not eat
Speaker 1: with me before because he does not want to see
Speaker 1: me or talk to me until the game starts, because
Speaker 1: in his mind, Wilhem his teammate. As soon as we
Speaker 1: are in the arena and we're getting close to broadcasting
Speaker 1: in a way, I'm the opponent, I'm I'm kareem to him. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like seriously, he said that, like it's he gets really
Speaker 1: competitive and so he but afterwards, yes, and you got
Speaker 1: to dinner. He doesn't drink. He always asked for for
Speaker 1: hot water, soup and salmon. That's usually regardless of where
Speaker 1: we go. I'm surprised about the burrito he must have been.
Speaker 1: I don't know if he's gone low carb or what.
Speaker 1: But uh but it was maybe limited options. And you know,
Speaker 1: we have a good relationship with Bill because you know,
Speaker 1: Luke play here. Yeah, and Jack Murphy's Luke Walton is
Speaker 1: one of his best friends, you know, who's on my staff.
Speaker 1: And then and then he and this, he had this
Speaker 1: romance with our old Sid are are he's still in
Speaker 1: Sid here but not it's a bast much Matt Inser.
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, those two they go in the summer they
Speaker 1: go to dead concerts and the whole deal, and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, to me, that just shows how good of
Speaker 1: a guy Bill is. Like Bill has really become genuinely
Speaker 1: great friends with Matt Inser and they're probably, you know,
Speaker 1: thirty five years age difference and you know, from different worlds.
Speaker 1: But Bills just he loves people, and I think that's
Speaker 1: just something that has been lost on a lot of
Speaker 1: this world these days. So I'll tell you the Jack
Speaker 1: Murphy story and I'll let you go because I've kept
Speaker 1: you longer than I said I would. I appreciate the time.
Speaker 1: So we're doing an Arizona UCLA game about four years ago.
Speaker 1: It is me, Bill and Richard Jefferson is doing the
Speaker 1: game with us. Richard, who played at Arizona, played in
Speaker 1: the NBA for a long time and now does games.
Speaker 1: I just did a game with him a couple of
Speaker 1: weeks ago for ESPN and rich For people that may
Speaker 1: not know, Richard Jefferson and Luke Walton are best friends,
Speaker 1: and Richard basically is an adopted Walton. He's more like
Speaker 1: Bill than Luke is. I don't know the other boys,
Speaker 1: the other three sons, but his personnel he's very similar
Speaker 1: to Bill, and when Richard was playing in the NBA,
Speaker 1: Richard still lived at Bill's house. He was making ten
Speaker 1: million dollars a year and living on Bill's couch until Laurie,
Speaker 1: Bill's wife kicked him out of the house. So we're
Speaker 1: calling this game. Sean Miller gets teed up and ejected
Speaker 1: from the game, and now Jack Murphy, who was the
Speaker 1: associate head coach now is coaching the game. And Richard goes, yeah,
Speaker 1: and Jack used to live at Bill's house too, And
Speaker 1: I didn't know that story, but apparently Jack Murphy was
Speaker 1: in charge of waking Luke and Richard up in the
Speaker 1: morning to make sure they went to their workouts to
Speaker 1: get ready for the NBA draft. So anyway, there's the story. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm sure Luke and Richard were probably doing nothing event
Speaker 1: full the night before and probably would probably would have
Speaker 1: woke up on their own with an alarm clock that
Speaker 1: I had Jack there just in face. I'm sure it's
Speaker 1: exactly right. Tommy, Hey, this was great, Thanks so much.
Speaker 1: Congratulations on all your success to date, and I know
Speaker 1: there's a long way to go this season, but you
Speaker 1: guys are off to a great start. Can't wait to
Speaker 1: watch you guys in person here against the organ schools
Speaker 1: and UCLA a couple of times here in the near future.
Speaker 1: Thanks for your time, man, Yeah, thanks to you next week.
Speaker 1: Really enjoyable conversation with Tommy Lloyd. Great personality. You can
Speaker 1: see why he's been such a good recruiter. Just easy going,
Speaker 1: easy to get along with, doesn't take himself too seriously,
Speaker 1: always giving credit to the players and Mark Few, who
Speaker 1: he was with for two decades atkin Zaga. Loved the
Speaker 1: story about Bill Walton too, and the fact that Bill
Speaker 1: called him wanted to have breakfast, and that is something
Speaker 1: about Bill that not many people realize. He is a
Speaker 1: copious note taker and he wants to know everything about
Speaker 1: the person so that he can help humanize coaches and
Speaker 1: players to the audience, which is a big part of
Speaker 1: our jobs as broadcasters. Arizona right now fifth in the
Speaker 1: country and without question, a contender not just for the
Speaker 1: PACTWEL title, but for the national championship in twenty twenty three.
Speaker 1: We are presented by bet MGM, official sports betting partner
Speaker 1: of the Arizona Cardinals, and by Hila River Resorts and Casinos.
Speaker 1: Check us out on Twitter at pashpod and Please tell
Speaker 1: us what you think by going to your podcast platform,
Speaker 1: rate us, review us, let us know if there're any
Speaker 1: guests you'd like to hear from in the future. Thanks
Speaker 1: again to Arizona head coach Tommy Lloyd, and thanks to
Speaker 1: you for listening to another edition of the Dave Pash
Speaker 1: Podcast