Tommy Lloyd leads Arizona with his experience from coaching Gonzaga

February 22, 2022

Gonzaga and Arizona lead the Associated Press Top 25 rankings under great coaches. Led by Mark Few, Gonzaga sits at the throne of college basketball. Meanwhile, Tommy Lloyd led Arizona to occupy the second position with everything he learned during his time coaching the Gonzaga Bulldogs. In the team's history, the Gonzaga Bulldogs have made two trips to the national championship game and beaten the nation's best programs in nonconference play. Even with all their success, some people still believe that the Zags are overrated because they play in a weak conference. Some even think that the Zags' current success is because of Few's coaching systems. The former Gonzaga head coach has turned around Arizona's program and proves that the system he and Few created works just fine at the highest college basketball competition level. The Wildcats are currently leading the conference in the Pacific-12 and are ranked second in the latest Associated Press Top 25 poll. Few and Lloyd are both proud of how their teams are playing. "Weird, cool, awesome — I'm proud of those guys, they've got a great team," Lloyd said regarding his current and former team performance. "They're family and I think they're happy for us."

Both teams can win it all

The Zags are currently riding a dominating performance and have secured their 10th straight West Coast Conference title. They are averaging 27 differential points per game this season, which is the most in the conference since 1990. After losing to the Zags last week, Lorenzo Romar, the head coach of Pepperdine, stated that the team could win the whole thing. "They could win the whole thing," Romar praised the top-ranked team. "They have size, they have scoring ability, they can guard." Outstanding record is not Gonzaga's alone. The Arizona Wildcats are third in the country with an average of 84.8 points per game and are leading Division I with 20.4 assists. Moreover, Arizona also dominated the conference by leading with a two and a half-game lead over its rival Southern California.

Other conference races

In the Big 12, the race between the No. 5 Kansas and No. 10 Baylor will occur on Saturday. Depending on the result, it might affect the rankings. Kansas is currently leading the conference with a one-game lead over both the Bears and Texas Tech.The Jayhawks have a chance to extend their lead over the two teams with two weeks remaining in the regular season. They also have won five of their last six games. Since forward Tchamwa Tchatchoua suffered a season-ending knee injury during the game against Texas, the Bears have been trying to get used to playing without their usual starting forward. After beating the Texas Longhorns, the Bears lost at Texas Tech before winning at Oklahoma State in overtime. In the SEC, the rankings are moving after the third-ranked Auburn team dropped to number three in the poll following its loss to Florida. However, it still leads the SEC with a game in hand over Kentucky. In the Big East, the 8th-ranked Villanova Wildcats defeated the 11th-ranked Providence Friars 89-84. The victory kept the team in the race for the conference's top spot.

Jake
Jake Williams
Jake Williams is a sports gambling expert. He's been writing in the sports betting and DFS industry for over a decade. He specializes in MLB and NBA, along with College Basketball and College Football.