Arizona wrapped up the Pac-12 title last week and finished the regular season three games over second-place finisher UCLA. Tuesday, Arizona first-year head coach Tommy Lloyd became the third coach in the Pac-12 over the last five years to win the conference coach of the year award as league voters decided him as the 2021-2022 John R. Wooden Coach of the Year.

Lloyd took over a Wildcats program that finished the 2020-21 season at 17-9, finishing fifth in the Pac-12 and missing the NCAA tournament due to self-imposed sanctions eliminating the team from postseason games.

With most of the roster back from the previous season, the Wildcats took massive strides in individual numbers and went from 75.4 points a game to 84.7 points a game with a margin of victory of 18 points.

Lloyd has his Wildcats team in play for a No. 1 seed in the NCAA tournament, which Arizona hasn't held since the 2013-14 season when it fell to Wisconsin in the Elite Eight.

An Arizona coach has now won the league's top coaching award for the 11th time as Lloyd joins Lute Olson and Sean Miller as the Wildcats head coaches to earn the honor. Olson won the award seven times during his legendary career in Tucson while Miller was tabbed as the league's best coach on three occasions as UA's head coach.

Lloyd is also a candidate for the Naismith Coach of the Year award with the semifinalists set to be revealed later this week.

The former Gonzaga assistant has put together one of the best starts to a coaching career in college basketball history. Lloyd's 28 wins so far this season put him among the top 10 in NCAA history for a coach in his first year plus he is second in the Pac-12 in the same category.

Lloyd is the eighth coach in the league to win the Pac-12 Coach of the Year award in his first season. Arizona is the first team to reach 18 wins in conference play.

Arizona will start the Pac-12 tournament on Thursday at noon with the top-seeded Wildcats awaiting the winner of the ASU-Stanford game set to take place Wednesday in Las Vegas.

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