INDIANAPOLIS – Amid the excitement of the Men’s Final Four, Tommy Lloyd quieted a fast-moving rumor: He will remain the coach of the Arizona men’s basketball team, he said Friday. 

“Arizona basketball needs to become a locomotive where everything surrounding it is pushing it forward,” Lloyd said. “It’s my opportunity right now to be the captain of the ship … putting everything we have behind our program.”

Leading the Wildcats to 36 wins and their first Final Four since 2001, Lloyd’s name has been a hot topic around head coach openings, especially the one in Chapel Hill. 

After North Carolina fired Hubert Davis on March 24, Lloyd’s name quickly jumped to one of the top targets to replace him. 

Reporters have asked Lloyd about the UNC job numerous times this week, but he kept his focus on the Wildcats’ Final Four game against Michigan Saturday. 

UNC reportedly offered Lloyd a top-two contract in college basketball, per CBS Sports’ Matt Norlander. But the Wildcats’ head man took less money to stay at Arizona with a five-year extension, where he will begin earning $7.2 million next season, making him the fifth-highest paid head coach in college basketball.

“I didn’t want to make this entire Final Four about that because I’m just a small part of something much bigger, but on that same note, I’d also like to let you know that North Carolina is an amazing place,” Lloyd said. “I mean, it’s a one of one. It’s an honor to even be considered for that job.

“The young kid, for me, the college basketball junkie watching those games at home, never would have thought something like that could have happened to somebody like me.”

Signing the extension ensures Arizona retains one of the best coaches in college basketball. Lloyd boasts a 148-35 record as coach of the Wildcats and will continue his push to bring a championship to Tucson for the first time since 1997.

Norlander also reported that Lloyd will no longer reporter to Arizona athletic director Desireé Reed-Francois, who praised Lloyd in a press release.”Tommy Lloyd is the best coach in college basketball, and we have a strong conviction in the future of Arizona Basketball under his leadership,” she said. “Our program’s success this season – winning championships, competing on the sport’s biggest stage and excelling academically – is a testament to the standard that he and his staff have established.”

This article first appeared on Cronkite News and is republished here under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.