Can Arizona ward off a true blue blood in UNC and hold onto Tommy Lloyd?

You ever seen the video when the littlest fish gets eaten by the less petite fish, before that one gets eaten by the decently-sized fish, and then a shark comes in thinking it just cleaned house on everyone before the whale finishes things off?

That is the cycle of head coaching jobs in collegiate athletics, and you have to wonder if the University of Arizona is more of a shark or a whale with the news on Tuesday that the University of North Carolina firing Hubert Davis has led to Arizona’s Tommy Lloyd being the “front-runner” for the now-vacant job, per The Athletic’s Brendan Marks.

Before we even get through a third sentence in this thing, there’s an argument that Tucson is the better job at this point. And you’d have a great case.

Lloyd is printing out hyper-successful regular seasons right now, undeterred by a move to the Big 12, and is in his best year while doing so with a roster that is entirely his for the first time since arriving in 2021. He has set records with his win total of 146 and counting just five years in.

Why would he leave that certainty for more of an unknown?

This is where we get into the concept of “blue bloods.” It’s a term used to describe the absolute, top of the line programs in the country, dating back decades and decades with history. This is the likes of Kansas, UCLA, Duke, Indiana, UConn, Kentucky and of course North Carolina. There are other schools who have had plenty of consistency in the long term that could make a case, such as Florida, Villanova, Michigan State and of course Arizona.

Does that drop-off of historical pedigree and additional assets matter to someone like Lloyd?

He’s been able to recruit extraordinarily well without the high-end NIL package some of those blue bloods are armed with.

Last year’s class was No. 2 in the country and this year’s is already well-stocked with top-five overall prospect Caleb Holt and top-30 four-star wing Cameron Holmes. Lloyd’s also “the guy” for international recruiting, a more common tactic by other programs the last handful of years that Lloyd already has tremendous expertise in. The portal has been no issue, either, with former Tar Heel star Caleb Love previously becoming his foundational piece for two years when some were afraid to take a chance on the eclectic guard.

While I highly doubt Lloyd thinks like this, perhaps that extra push the UNC glitz and glamour provides is what he feels like he needs to snap out of his March Madness woes. Those continuing with a loss in the Sweet 16 or Elite Eight this weekend could be extra fuel on that dimly lit fire.

But North Carolina has been in an era of uncertainty since the start of the decade. Roy Williams retired, and while Davis made a national title game in 2022 and won 29 games two different seasons, he failed to meet the ultra-high expectations. The Tar Heels have ended the season ranked just once in the last seven seasons.

As is the case all the time with these types of things, it could come down to internal factors not made public. Does this get to the point of Lloyd speaking directly with North Carolina? Does he receive an official offer? How expensive is the offer? How high is Arizona willing to go to counter? Is Lloyd’s relationship with Arizona’s athletic director Desiree Reed-Francois as rocky as Marks’ reporting suggests? Or is that just third-party chatter from the UNC side of this?

There is an instinct to locally compare this situation to what Arizona State football recently went through with Kenny Dillingham. The core difference, however, is what Lloyd would be leaving as opposed to Dillingham.

Arizona deserves to think of itself as a blue blood. It has done all the hard work in the regular season and in recruiting to qualify with the rest over the last quarter-century. Its pedigree for developing professional talent over that time is undeniable and is up there with anyone besides Kentucky.

But Lloyd doesn’t look up in the rafters at McKale and see six national championships. He doesn’t get to take part in the best rivalry in college sports.

When he puts on his Arizona gear, the signature color isn’t one that is synonymous with the program. When he puts on his shoes, it’s Nike. It’s not the logo of the greatest ever, who the program produced.

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