ÃÛÌÒÓ°ÏñAV

There, just about 20 minutes south of the University of Oregon campus, Norm Few grew entrenched as a Presbyterian minister for 54 years.

“Usually ministers move every five years or eight years, or whatever. The congregation gets tired of them,� Gonzaga coach Mark Few said of his father, grinning. “Fifty-four years. When I was younger, I would have never admitted it, but as you get older, you're like, 'You know, we tend to mimic who we admire.'�

Mark Few has been at Gonzaga for 37 years, the last 27 as head coach. Lloyd joined him for his first 22 years as the Zags’ head coach, then took over Arizona for the last five — and agreed to a new $37.5 million deal for another five last Friday, a day before Few was formally introduced as a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame.

On the podium with other Hall of Fame inductees Saturday, Few was asked if he had an inkling Lloyd would stay at Arizona.

“Apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,� he said.

Mark didn't fall far from Norm. And Lloyd hasn't fallen far from Few so far.

The pattern is established. Like Few, even as a Gonzaga assistant and now as Arizona’s head coach, Lloyd has turned away from possibilities elsewhere.

“Tommy knew how we felt at Gonzaga,� Few said, when asked why he never left Spokane. “I would always tell everyone, 'Don’t mess with happy.' I was completely happy and content at Gonzaga. Always have been.

“I think Tommy’s seen that. He’s seen the life that we’ve had up there and he’s got that going in Tucson.�

Lloyd’s attachment to Tucson and Arizona basketball culture is pretty easy to see, pretty much anytime he grabs a microphone after a big win, thanking fans for their support, imploring them to “BTFD� or inviting them to a DJ party. Or when he said at the Final Four, he related to middle-aged fans who wear Arizona jerseys and "haven't shaved in a few days."

Or, as he did after the Wildcats reached the Final Four in San Jose on March 28, referring to former coach Lute Olson as “the good-looking guy with white hair looking down� on the Wildcats.

Lloyd's regard for Few has always been obvious, too.

Lloyd acknowledged that again last week, while also possibly foreshadowing his own decision to stay at Arizona, when he was asked if it felt “inevitable� that Michigan coach Dusty May was going to move to a high-major program after he reached the 2023 Final Four with Florida Atlantic and also beat Arizona the next season with the Owls.

“I don't know,� Lloyd said. “Maybe he could have been Mark Few. I mean, it’s not bad — the guy just got in the Hall of Fame staying at one place.�

In previous interviews, Lloyd has said he was also prepared to stay at Gonzaga pretty much forever. He said in 2023 that he jokingly figured he might even be the Zags’ version of Bill Guthridge, who served as Dean Smith’s assistant at North Carolina for 30 years before taking over as head coach for another three years.

Lloyd even had it written into his Gonzaga contract that he was the coach-in-waiting should Few ever retire.

“I thought I was never leaving Gonzaga and I was totally OK with that,� Lloyd said. Guthridge “was Dean Smith's right-hand man. (So the thought was) I'll be Mark Few’s right hand man and maybe get a few years to be the head coach at the end of my career. I would have been happy with it.�

Lloyd finally broke that thought when he agreed to take over Arizona’s program in April 2021, saying it was the only job he would leave Gonzaga for.

While the decision meant Lloyd would actually have to move, doing so essentially elevated the statures of both Few and Lloyd.

“I think it was brilliant on (Arizona's) part, but at that time, that wasn't happening,� Few said. “Assistants usually didn't get those really high-level jobs, and certainly not usually ones from Gonzaga. So it was a great validation of our program.�

And even though the move separated Lloyd and Few physically, it did not affect their friendship.

So when tension grew over Lloyd's future once his name was linked with the North Carolina opening, with differences in belief over what resources should be devoted to the men's basketball program, Few said they discussed all that, too.

“We talk about everything, man. We been together for 20 years,� Few said. “We've been talking through the whole tournament. We always talk. I just knew they had to get things better at Arizona, make it right.�

All things considered, Lloyd was happy.

“I knew he wasn't going to leave,� Few said. “What he’s taken over and kept going there is no surprise.�