Arizona, Tommy Lloyd agree to five-year contract extension

You can officially cross Tommy Lloyd off the list as a potential candidate at North Carolina. During his Final Four media opportunity on Friday, Lloyd announced that he has agreed to a five-year contract extension with Arizona.

Soon after, ESPN’s Pete Thamel reported the terms of the deal. Lloyd’s five-year deal will start next season at nearly $7.2 million, and will average $7.5 million over the life of the deal. Along with this, the deal also includes significant bonues and additional commitment to staff salary pool.

Per CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander, North Carolina offered to make Lloyd a top-two highest-paid coach in college basketball. He, however, is staying in Tucson.

“I’m happy to announce I’m staying at Arizona,” Lloyd said. “We’ve been able to get some things done the past couple of days. I really appreciate President (Suresh) Garimella, (CFO) John Arnold, and (Athletic Director) Desireé (Reed-Francois) for showing a real commitment to our program.

“Arizona Basketball… you know what it means to me. When I say it’s a special place, that always comes from the bottom of my heart. I didn’t want to make this entire Final Four about that, because I’m just a small part of something much bigger.”

Tommy Lloyd compliments North Carolina program after declining job

As soon as UNC parted ways with head coach Hubert Davis last week, Lloyd emerged as one of the leading candidates for the job. After announcing his extension with Arizona, Lloyd spoke highly of the Carolina program.

“I’d also like to let you know that North Carolina is an amazing place. It’s a one of one,” Lloyd said. “It’s an honor to even be considered for that job. The young kid, the college basketball junkie, watching those games from home never thought something like that could happen to somebody like me. North Carolina is a first class organization, and I appreciate them for how they’ve handled this.”

Across his five-season tenure with the program, Lloyd has blossomed into one of the best coaches in all of college basketball. He has Arizona back in the Final Four for the first time since 2001, and has the Wildcats on the verge of their first National Championship since 1997.

North Carolina remains in the midst of an outside search for a head coach for the first time since it poached Roy Williams from Kansas prior to the 2003-04 season. Whoever UNC brings in to lead the program into its next era will face lofty expectations, as the program has employed just five head coaches since 1961.

Two of those five head coaches, Dean Smith and the aforementioned Williams, are in the Basketball Hall of Fame.