INDIANAPOLIS – While the City of Tucson has been longing for a Final Four since 2001, there aren’t many folks inside the building that understand the magnitude of what the Wildcats have accomplished this season. In fact, none of the players on the UA’s roster were even alive the last time the Wildcats made it to the Final Four. The same can’t be said for Arizona athletic trainer Justin Kokoskie.
“That’s why they had me slap the board,” said Kokoskie in San Jose, who started with the program in 2002 and has been to now six Elite 8s, but never reached the Final Four until now.
Putting Arizona’s name on that bracket was a career-defining moment for Kokoskie. For Arizona’s roster however, it was just an other day at the office.
“These guys are so young, they have no idea what they just did.”
Kokoskie says players like Brayden Burries fall into that camp. With no ties to Arizona or Tucson, the Elite 8 was just another game for the freshman. Players like Koa Peat, also known as Mr. Arizona, may understand the gravity of the moment being from State 48.
Then there’s the third category. Former players like Grant Weitman, a Tucson native and the grandson of UA legendary coach Lute Olson, know just how special a milestone like this is for the community.
“Grant Weitman’s here pacing the hotel, his family, he knows. I mean, he’s in tears today.”
So like Weitman and the Tucson community, after 23 years of keeping Arizona’s student athletes healthy so they can compete at the highest level, the fear, anxiety, and nerves that Kokoskie carries is deeper than just another loss.
“I just saw this fear in our fans today. I saw the pressure, the anxiety,” said Kokoskie in the locker room in San Jose. “I came in at halftime, and all I’m thinking is [Frank] Kaminsky, [Sam] Dekker. I’m thinking of Kirk Hinrich. I’m thinking of Illinois game. I’m thinking of, you name it. I mean, Lute Olson crossed my mind, I’m like, ‘come on, coach, help us through this.’ That’s the stuff I’m thinking of and these guys just they weren’t born for some of those, Kemba Walker.”
But the curse has been broken. The Arizona Wildcats are still dancing and are back in the Final Four for the first time in a quarter century. Lute may have crossed Kokoskie’s mind, but he fully acknowledges that this is Tommy Lloyd‘s team now.
“I’m telling you, there’s not a better coach, there’s not a better husband, father, grandfather, than this guy. I mean, he is all about culture and it’s who he is, personality wise. He treats, whether you’re the number one star on the team, or you’re me, the athletic trainer, he treats us all the same.”
“The dude’s a rock star. He knows how important this is to Tucson as well, which I’m super proud of. Tommy embraced the heritage of Arizona. There’s no one he respects more than Lute Olson and what Lute built here. And as he kept saying what he says, I’m just the caretaker, you know. But we know this is Tommy Lloyd. This is his team, you know, he built this.”
For Tommy Lloyd, it’s that caretaker mentality and appreciation for everyone in the locker room that has allowed him and the Arizona Wildcats to climb to the highest summit in college basketball in just five years.
“When I got there, rather than clean house, I wanted to find people that had been there and knew Arizona better than I did that were around the program, that knew the stories, because I didn’t want to come in and just scrub Arizona basketball and make it about me, because it’s not,” said Lloyd in Indianapolis ahead of the Final Four.
“I felt my best way to serve the program was learn about it, and those guys have been great teachers for me.”
“[I’m happy for] J-Rock because J-Rock has been around since the early 2000s. We were beginning to think he was the curse. So to overcome that and to find out that he’s not the curse is a really good thing.”
Tucson and Wildcat Nation can take a collective sigh of relief now that Arizona is in the Final Four. But Justin Kokoskie, Tommy Lloyd, and the entire locker room would agree, the job’s not finished.
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