Arizona basketball coach Tommy Lloyd made outrageous history with victory over No. 2 Duke

It is protected to say that Tommy Lloyd’s tenure because the Arizona Wildcats males’s head basketball coach is off to a formidable begin. However after his staff’s highway victory over the No. 2 ranked Duke Blue Devils, it is also off to a historic begin as effectively.

Lloyd turned the primary coach in Division I historical past throughout the whole thing of faculty basketball to defeat a top-three-ranked opponent in every of their first three seasons, as OptaStats revealed. It is an unimaginable feat, which fits with out saying, nevertheless it additionally goes together with one other document Lloyd holds — his 61 wins over the first two seasons as a head coach surpassed former North Carolina coach Invoice Guthridge’s earlier high-water mark of 59 victories.

Wanting again on the previous two seasons, the Wildcats defeated the No. 2 ranked UCLA Bruins within the Pac-12 title recreation final yr. The yr prior, additionally they defeated UCLA when the Bruins had been ranked No. 3 within the nation, and for good measure, defeated the then-No. 4 ranked Michigan Wolverines earlier within the 2021-22 season as effectively.

It has been a stellar first two seasons for Lloyd, even with the upset loss to Princeton within the opening spherical of the NCAA match final season. The Wildcats posted a 33-4 document in his first season whereas going 18-2 in convention play, and proceeded to publish a 28-7 document final yr with a 14-6 document in convention play.