TUCSON — Arizona basketball coach Tommy Lloyd is keeping his team focused on their upcoming Final Four matchup against Michigan, despite speculation about his future and the magnitude of the program's biggest week in 25 years.
Since returning to Tucson, Lloyd said the team feels like they have returned to normalcy.
"You've got to be authentic to who you have been as a person and as a coach and who your team has been. And so me, we're just going to go and we're going to be ourselves. And we're gonna prepare like we always do," Tommy Lloyd said.
This is Lloyd's first trip to the Final Four as a head coach.
He previously went twice as an assistant coach at Gonzaga.
Now, he will lead the Wildcats on college basketball's biggest stage amid speculation that the University of North Carolina wants to pry him away from McKale Center.
"People are going to speculate all they want, guys. This team has my full focus. Nothing — nothing, I promise you, nothing is knocking me off that path. And, you guys might call them distractions because you're distracted. That doesn't mean I'm distracted or we're distracted," Lloyd said.
Freshman Koa Peat is also remaining focused. Peat earned most outstanding player honors in the West Region after averaging nearly 18 points and seven rebounds in the tournament.
"Koa has a fearlessness, and a belief in himself that's special, and, you know, I really think he goes into these games feeling like he's an important piece to us winning," Lloyd said.
Lloyd said Peat's mindset is exactly what Arizona needs heading into Saturday's matchup against Michigan.
"This isn't a field trip, you know, this is a business trip, and we need to treat it as such. And then, you know, we've worked really hard at talking about and understanding what it is to be in the moment. And we're gonna double down on what we've done," Lloyd said.
