
Arizona’s Tommy Lloyd and No. 3 Iowa State’s T. J. Otzelberger will coach against each other Monday night at McKale Center after starting at their respective programs in 2021-22 and each achieving a high level of success.
Lloyd, 50, recently matched his former mentor at Gonzaga, Mark Few, reaching 100 career wins the fastest among active head coaches, accomplishing the feat in 126 games.
Lloyd is now 101-26 after Saturday’s 78-63 victory for Arizona (13-6, 7-1 Big 12) over visiting Colorado.
Otzelberger, 47, is 87-37 at Iowa State and 186-100 overall in nine years with previous stops at South Dakota State and UNLV. He has never coached against Arizona (South Dakota State visited McKale Center in 2019-20, a season after he left to UNLV).
The Cyclones (17-2, 7-1) are coming off a 76-61 win at Arizona State on Saturday after outscoring the Sun Devils 43-21 in the second half following a 40-33 halftime deficit.
Arizona also overcame a struggle in the first half against Colorado, leading 33-31 before pulling away in the second half.
“I’m not going to make it as if our season hinges on Monday, but obviously it’s a great opportunity for our program,” said Lloyd, whose team started 4-5 this season before winning nine of the last 10 games. “We can’t even think about winning the Big 12, not yet. You’ve got to earn that right.”
Arizona’s play has improved because of reserve role players such as guard Anthony Dell’Orso and post player Henri Veesaar stepping up at opportune times.
KJ Lewis, one of the top sixth men in the nation, has also played well in key stretches, averaging 10.1 points and 4.1 rebounds a game. He also is among the team’s top three in steals (29) and blocked shots (12).
Veesaar is averaging 10.2 points and 4.2 rebounds over the last five games, including a 19-point and seven-rebound performance in a win over visiting Baylor two weeks ago.
Dell’Orso, a transfer from Campbell, had 20 points off a career-high six made 3-pointers in the win over Colorado.
“I’ve told Delly all along, ‘You’ve got to stay locked in and ready because there’s gonna be nights where I need you to be our leading scorer,’” Lloyd said.
Curtis Jones, a senior guard, had a career-high 33 points, seven rebounds and three steals to lead the Cyclones in their win over Arizona State. Jones is averaging 18.6 points and 4.6 rebounds a game.
Joshua Jefferson, a senior forward, contributed a 13-point, 10-rebound effort with four steals.
Jones scored the last five points in Iowa State’s closing 19-3 run against the Sun Devils after scoring 18 points in the first half to keep the Cyclones in the game.
“I feel like I’m always looking to be that aggressive at all times, whether we’re struggling or not,” Jones said.
Iowa State and Arizona have only one day in between games after most of the Big 12 season has allowed at least two days to prepare for the next opponent.
“It’s a short prep, so this is also another preparation of what it’s going to look like in March (for the NCAA tournament),” Lloyd said. “We’ve got a really, really, really good team coming in on Monday, a top-five team, and it’s going to be a really good challenge for us to see where we’re at.”
Otzelberger deemphasized the schedule being similar to the quick turnaround in March Madness.
“That’s not really how we look at it as much,” Otzelberger said. “We just look at it as this is the job that we have in front of us, and we need to prepare for this opportunity.”
Expect Iowa State fans to be heard at McKale Center, which was not sold out until Sunday afternoon.
The Cyclones’ faithful were very vocal in the game at Arizona State, prompting Bobby Hurley to say his team had a “home-neutral advantage.”
Arizona State’s arena holds 14,198 and the official attendance was 12,762.
It was estimated by those reporting on the game that at least half of the fans cheered for Iowa State. That means in the neighborhood of 6,000 Cyclone fans were in attendance.
“There are times we felt like we had a crowd advantage as the game wore on,” Otzelberger said. “It gives our guys all the confidence, energy in the world to keep pushing forward. So, we have a lot of gratitude to our fanbase, how they support us coming out here. And it was definitely a positive impact on the game for us.”
One other note: Arizona athletic director Desireé Reed-Francois hired Otzelberger at UNLV when she was the AD there. She also hired Kevin Kruger after Otzelberger left for Iowa State in 2021.
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon. He became an educator in 2016 and is presently a special education teacher at Sunnyside High School in the Sunnyside Unified School District.













