Owning the moment: When Arizona’s season was at stake, Tommy Lloyd let his players speak for themselves

Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd admits that it wasn’t his halftime speech that inspired the Wildcats’ dazzling second-half rally against Purdue.

He invited his players to do most of the talking when they entered the locker room trailing by seven and needing a strong second-half push to save their season.

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Once Arizona associate head coach Jack Murphy showed the players a few video clips of what had gone wrong in the first half, Lloyd told the Wildcats they were fine and encouraged them to “stay steady” and work their way back into the game. Then he told his players, “Guys, the coaching staff and I are going to leave right now. You guys have a few minutes to talk amongst yourself and figure this deal out. Let’s go kick their ass in the second half!”

The faith that Lloyd put in his players turned out to be exactly the right button to push. Arizona outscored a talented, experienced Purdue team by 22 points after halftime, pulling away for a 79-64 victory that ended the program’s 25-year Final Four drought and answered what few questions remained about these deep, formidable Wildcats.

Arizona Wildcats celebrate after defeating the Purdue Boilermakers to make the Final Four of the NCAA tournament. (Thearon W. Henderson/Getty Images)

(Thearon W. Henderson via Getty Images)

Previous highly touted Arizona teams have buckled under the weight of high expectations at this stage of the NCAA tournament. For a quarter century, the Wildcats have found every possible way to let opportunities to make the Final Four slip through their fingers.

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Twelve times since 2001, Arizona has reached the NCAA tournament’s second weekend. Five times, the Wildcats made the Elite Eight. Each trip ended in heartbreak, from a near miss against Kansas in 2003, to Illinois’ stunning 15-point comeback in 2005, to Jamelle Horne’s game-winning 3-pointer rimming out against UConn in 2011, to back-to-back narrow losses to Frank Kaminsky and Wisconsin in 2014 and 2015.

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Source link : https://sports.yahoo.com/mens-college-basketball/article/owning-the-moment-when-arizonas-season-was-at-stake-tommy-lloyd-let-his-players-speak-for-themselves-052920556.html

Author : Jeff Eisenberg

Publish date : 2026-03-29 05:29:00

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