Tommy Lloyd's surest shot: Arizona coach built a behemoth and bond through his lifelong Beastie Boys fandom Here's a little story I got to tell about one ball coach you know so well: Tommy Lloyd raps to CBS on his love of the Beastie Boys
By Matt Norlander Apr 3, 2026 at 11:23 am ET • 12 min read 
CBS Sports photo illustration INDIANAPOLIS — It's 9 p.m. two nights before the biggest game of Tommy Lloyd's life, and where do we find him? In the basement of Brothers Bar & Grill, donning a "BTFD" backward hat and scratching a beat on a turntable in front of some of his closest friends and family — as if he's the happiest kid at his birthday party.
But this is no birthday party. This is a celebration for Arizona basketball, which is making its first trip to the Final Four in 25 years and is back in Indianapolis for the Final Four for the first time since 1997, the year of the program's sole national title.
Practice, film, media obligations: They've all been fulfilled for the day. There's another heavy load of preparation and scouting coming all throughout Friday, and then one last crucial cram on Saturday before Arizona's mammoth meetup with fellow No. 1 seed Michigan. It could be one of the best national semifinal matchups ever.
But for a few hours, Lloyd's hitting pause on all of that.
Pass the mic: Lloyd grabs it and offers a quick toast, which wraps with a succinct note, "I love all you guys, I love being the coach at Arizona, and let's find a way to kick some ass on Saturday."
Then the beat hits, courtesy of none other than one of the most accomplished and famous DJs in the world, Mix Master Mike, who proceeds to put on an hour-long set. For a few moments, Lloyd hops behind the mixer and playfully plays along; 25-year-old Tommy Lloyd would've never thought a scene like this could one day be possible. There will be a lot of Final Four parties held across this city this week, but only one of them featured someone who's toured the world and collaborated with one of the most accomplished and beloved hip-hop groups of all time: Beastie Boys.
Mike Schwartz flew in from Las Vegas to do this for his good friend Tommy. The room is dotted with family and friends of the program. Newly minted Hall-of-Famer Mark Few stops by, as does Colorado coach Tad Boyle and many others.
This is the Lloyd Way, and a snapshot of how he's been able to smoothly and coolly build up one of the best programs in college basketball. Work hard, play hard, find your friends and always soak in the moment. You've gotta fight for your right.
Mix Master Mike is sure to drop in a number of Beastie Boys drops as the night goes along. It's a special evening for Lloyd, who has built out the winningest start to a college head coaching career in history. He's won 148 games through his first five seasons (comfortably the most ever) and coached the Wildcats to more victories vs. ranked teams (35) in his first five years than any coach in history.
A lot of things drive a person to this kind of success, but Lloyd doesn't want to talk about those things.
He wants to talk tunes, man.
Because if you ask the 51-year-old what made him who he is, the answer, as much as anything else, comes back to the Bea! Stie! Boys!
"Some things that you feel like are the soundtrack of your life, and they've been there for all your memories. They have for me," Lloyd told CBS Sports.
"There are two things that just bring a smile to Tommy's face instantly," Arizona associate head coach Jack Murphy said, "anything to do with family, especially his grandchildren, or anytime the Beastie Boys are brought up."
Lloyd can be resistant to talking about himself too much, but the guard immediately comes down when it comes to the man's go-to tunes. Here's how one of the best coaches in college basketball found himself through music and, more specifically, three bad brothers you know so well.
Rhymin' and hoopin'
It's the late 1980s, and a rambunctious teenager with limbs like twigs is shooting hoops by himself in his driveway in Kelso, Washington, mere miles from the Oregon border. Up in the second-floor bedroom window, a boombox is blaring a cassette of "Licensed to Ill," the groundbreaking debut Beastie Boys record. Young Tommy can play "Brass Monkey," "Paul Revere" and "She's Crafty" as loud as he wants; there's not a neighbor within 300 yards of the Lloyd family home.
"In the country, the sticks," Lloyd said, thinking back on the first album he ever loved. "I would listen to it all the time."
The Beasties were Lloyd's first musical love, and nothing's changed since. The NYC trio's punky appeal to a lanky kid in Kelso was similarly felt for millions across the country in the 1980s. Diehard Arizona fans know the nod to his fandom that is the unofficial start to every Wildcats home game, when "(You Gotta) Fight for Your Right (To Party!)" is played on the loudspeaker as he emerges from the locker room and walks onto the floor.
The coach you see with a quick smile and oft-carefree attitude, that's an energy and personality that's always been there through the joy of the game, the joy of life, a West Coast upbringing that was defined at its edges by a love of music. (Lloyd has the Beasties firmly as his No. 1 and Beck a clear No. 2, but also ranks U2, Tom Petty, INXS and Coldplay amongst his favorites.)
"I was a hooper, you know, I've always loved sports, but I always had that side of me that grew up in Washington, that with the grunge kind of deal, we were into that kind of stuff," Lloyd said. "I wasn't just a jock. I think that always made us feel like we were a little different, you know. And maybe cool."
Tommy Lloyd during his high school years in Kelson, Washington. Tommy Lloyd Lloyd grew obsessed, as most of us do with our first favorite bands during those critical, formative years. He first saw them on Aug. 9, 1992, at the Salem Armory in Salem, Oregon.
"Just this grimy armory, probably 5,000 people and total general mission on the floor," he said. "I hadn't been any crazy moshes or anything in my life, and me and like four or five buddies, I think it was almost like a spiritual experience for us that night, just how awesome the show was and our eyes were opened. It was kind of their comeback (after "Paul's Boutique"), and we felt like we were on the front end of it."
"Paul's Boutique" came out when Lloyd was in middle school. He still owns the blue cassette he got more than 35 years ago, in addition to a collector's edition on vinyl that was gifted to him two years ago and is kept under plastic wrap.
Throughout high school and college, Lloyd saw the Boys in Seattle, at Key Arena; at Kistap County Fairgrounds in Bremerton, Washington; at the Rose Garden, in Portland; at Golden Gate Park, in San Francisco; and at the Gorge Amphitheater in Washington for Lollapalooza on back-to-back nights in 1994, when the Beasties co-headlined with Smashing Pumpkins.
Lloyd may well be the only college coach who "lived on the streets" for two days in '90s just to see his favorite band. That's exactly what he did in 1996 when Lloyd paid his way to see the Hall of Fame rap trio at the Tibetan Freedom Concert in San Francisco.
"I was working for my dad's construction company, and so I was making some union money, had a few bucks in my pocket," he said. "And they were playing this Tibetan Freedom concert in Golden Gate Park. And I went down, bought two tickets, but I couldn't find anybody to go with me because all my friends had summer jobs. So I bought a plane ticket and I went by myself. And when I got there, I couldn't get a hotel room. Every hotel in the city was sold out. So I literally, it was like my walkabout. I lived two days on the streets in San Francisco, and, like, slept on a bus and stuff. That was amazing, just to see 100,000 people, a mass of people. A great experience."
Lloyd's also spent more than a few nights sleeping in the campgrounds at the Gorge, cleansing himself in the nearby Columbia River.
"Probably taken years off my life," he joked.
The moment that sealed his fandom for good came on Sept. 1, 1994. In a previous conversation years ago, Lloyd recalled the second night of that trip: "The Beasties played second. So, Smashing Pumpkins is up there, literally getting booed off the stage by Beastie Boys fans. Beastie Boys chants going crazy, 30,000 fans, and (the Pumpkins) weren't too happy. And that day, one of our high school buddies was working security and he got us so we could stand on stage behind Money Mark.
"I could see where the Beasties were getting ready to walk up the stage, and I remember before coming up there, Ad-Rock smashing a Heineken right before he goes on stage," Lloyd said. "It's toward the end of the show, and they're playing Sabotage, and there's that one part in Sabotage where it kind of stops. And literally every single light turned off. And you're out in the middle of nowhere. So it's pitch black.
"And then MCA comes back with that bass line — and there's still no light in the whole place but you hear this bass line behind it — and then they have the part where they hit every instrument and Ad-Rock's screaming into the microphone at the top of his lungs and every light in the whole place went on and I was like, 'OH. MY. GOD.' It was 30,000 people going crazy, and I was like, 'Wow, that was a drug.'"
Lloyd and Mix Master Mike during Arizona's Red and Blue scrimmage in October. Arizona Athletics Mix Master Mike, what'cha got to say?
Though the Beasties formed as a threesome and their legacy most prominently revolves around the nucleus of Adam Yauch (MCA), Adam Horovitz (Ad-Rock) and Michael Diamond (Mike D), they brought one of the best DJs in the world into the fold beginning with 1998's "Hello Nasty."
"Mix Master Mike" Schwartz was a prominent fixture in the second half of the Beasties' timeline, boosting the Beastie Boys' live shows in the process. Schwartz has won three DMC World DJ championships and is regarded as one of the best DJs ever.
"I grew up watching Jimi Hendrix, John Bonham, John Paul Jones, Eddie Van Halen, Miles Davis, that's the cloth I'm cut from," Schwartz told CBS Sports.
He's a huge basketball fan, too. Lloyd linked up with Schwartz for the first time in 2023, and they've since developed a genuine friendship. Back in November, literally minutes before the tipoff of Arizona's season-opening win against reigning national champion Florida, Lloyd was chopping it up in the locker room with Mix Master Mike.
"I'm a big college basketball fan," Schwartz said. "I knew about Gonzaga, and I knew he built that culture to what it is now."
Soon after they met, Schwartz invited Lloyd over to his home and studio in Vegas so he could, in Mix Master Mike's words, "really show you what I do … a total, personal master class."
He gave him a full-on tutorial of what it means to be a DJ and how to work the turntables. Lloyd was in awe of it all, a kid in a candy store.
"As soon as we met in person, it was like, Oh, wow. Coach is like my other self. Same mentality, same spirit, same curiosity, chasing the same dream," Schwartz said. "He chose to seek Yoda, and he wanted to learn the ways of music manipulation from the best in the world."
And Schwartz instantly signed up for Arizona fandom in the process. On Thursday night, he wore his customized Mix Master Mike Arizona jersey. He texts Lloyd before and after every game. When Arizona beat Arkansas and Purdue in the West Regional. Schwartz was at the games and celebrated on the floor with the team after the Elite Eight win.
From left: Mix Master Mike, associate head coach Jack Murphy and Tommy Lloyd after Arizona's win over Purdue in the Elite Eight. Jack Murphy The bond has given Lloyd something he never could have expected. A friendship that has been a fun and fulfilling counterbalance to the high pressures that come with running one of the biggest programs in college basketball. Mix Master Mike's developed a new fan base in the past few years as a result.
"It was pretty organic, the way it happened," Schwartz said. "The beauty of this whole thing is there's never been a relationship like this between a coach and a music artist. It's pretty profound. It's two guys that are basically built the same but in different professions. We're both never satisfied and chasing greatness is permanently etched in our DNA."
Last fall, after Arizona's Red and Blue preseason scrimmage and festivities, Lloyd and Schwartz (who performed at Arizona's home arena that weekend) hung out deep into the night at Lloyd's house and watched "Awesome; I F---in' Shot That!" the 2006 fan-made and Beasties-produced documentary isn't on any streaming service. Lloyd's owned the DVD for 20 years and pulled it out for an impromptu watch.
"We watched that from start to finish. It was unbelievable to watch it with him," Lloyd said.
As fun and rewarding for a diehard fan as maybe almost any win he's ever been a part of.
MIXMASTERMIKE · MMM BEASTIE BOYS CHANNEL XMSIRIUS MIX feat: Unreleased MCA/MMM Track LEAVE A COMMENT!"The love for music and the love for winning, it's embedded in us, and we just love this shit," Schwartz said. "I cherish that we're together and that we can inspire each other."
Schwartz turns 56 on Saturday and has a show that night in Montana, so he won't be able to be at the game. But should Arizona win, he's hopping on a plane and headed back to Indy for Monday night's title game.
"I feel as though our staff's spiritual leader is Mix Master Mike," Murphy said. (Murphy's Bob Dylan fandom surpasses Lloyd's; he's seen Dylan 51 times, but that's another story for another day.)
Lloyd still hasn't met his two musical heroes — Mike D or Ad-Rock; MCA tragically died in 2012 — but Schwartz said he thinks that's not too far off in the future.
"That is definitely in the cards, that's not really far-fetched. I can really make that happen," Schwartz said. "The guys are big sports heads, especially big New York Knicks fans. … And I know, and I know Coach would be really thrilled, and I'd love to make that happen."
Lloyd's never even asked for that, but should the opportunity present itself eventually — and he'd try his best to be cooler than a cucumber in a bowl of hot sauce — that event would vault up his personal list of biggest lifetime moments. Probably pretty damn close to bringing Arizona to the brink of a championship.
"I've been able to do this with Mix, but if I ever got to meet Mike D or Ad-Rock, I would thank them for bringing so much joy to my life and just being there all the time when they didn't know it," Lloyd said. "What I think is crazy cool, to think that those guys doing what they love has this compound effect and a ripple effect on others. I really enjoyed watching them evolve, yeah, because I was probably evolving at the same time."
Be true to yourself, and you never will fall. Lloyd took a Beastie Boys lyric and made it a personal mantra. Now that hook has Arizona two wins away from a national championship.
Join the Conversation comments
