NCAA Tournament: What Tommy Lloyd, Arizona players said after beating Purdue to clinch Final Four bid
SAN JOSE, CALIFORNIA - MARCH 28: Arizona Wildcats Head Coach Tommy Lloyd celebrates with fans after defeating the Purdue Boilermakers during the Elite Eight round game of the 2026 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament held at SAP Center on March 28, 2026 in San Jose, California. (Photo by Ben Solomon/NCAA Photos via Getty Images) | NCAA Photos via Getty Images SAN JOSE—Depending on what time they got up, Saturday morning and afternoon was full of stress and anxiety throughout Wildcat Nation. Not for Tommy Lloyd.
“I woke up this morning—this is a true story—and I thought, are we in the Sweet 16 or the Elite Eight? ,” Lloyd said. “The moment I thought that, I knew we were all right, because I knew we weren’t making too big of a deal out of this.
” Arizona is headed to its first Final Four since 2001 after beating Purdue in the West Region final. It trailed by seven at halftime before the team that has won a school-record 36 games showed up in the second half. “We got off to a good start,” Lloyd said.
“Then we didn’t play great, but I thought Purdue played really well the second part of that first half. In the locker room at halftime you have long halftimes. We’ve talked a lot about this with the guys, long halftimes, long time outs.
We can’t let that disrupt our rhythm. We have to be the team that comes out with the most effort out of a timeout, in these 3-minute time-outs or a 20-minute halftime. ” Arizona outscored the Boilermakers 48-26 in the second half.
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