Evan Manning brings basketball pedigree, familiarity with Tommy Lloyd to Arizona operations role

Because Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd has never lost a full-time basketball-oriented staffer since he took over the Wildcats in 2021, he doesn’t usually have job openings.

So when Evan Manning called to seek his help finding work last spring, as an assistant coach on an Army staff who was not retained, Lloyd had to get creative.

Manning had grown up in the game as the son of former Kansas and NBA star Danny Manning, played as a walk-on at Kansas, worked under Lloyd as a graduate assistant at Gonzaga, and last season gained Division I assistant coaching experience under Jimmy Allen, who was fired by Army after last season.

Lloyd heard him out. Then basically told Manning to hang on.

“I reached out to him and asked if he knew of anything in the business, if he could help me out,” Manning said. “He knew that there might be a chance to get hired at Arizona. He thought something could happen.”

Eventually, it did. Over the summer, UA administrators approved Manning for a $60,000 salary – roughly one-sixth of what UA assistant coaches make – to become UA’s director of basketball operations. In the role, Manning has taken some duties from special assistant TJ Benson while adding others that include teaching UA players of the program’s history and culture.

He joined the Wildcats just after they returned from a Middle East exhibition trip in late August.

“I just felt we needed a little bit more support internally and Evan’s a really talented guy who’s obviously been around basketball his whole life and been at really high levels,” Lloyd said. “He’s a great asset to the program.”

Benson cheered the move, which allows him to focus more on off-floor coaching efforts and on-campus recruiting.

“When I heard about it, I was like, ‘Do it, no-brainer,’ because I knew that it was going to make my life easier,” Benson said. “That’s speaking from my standpoint, but I know how he’s helping our entire program right now. He was a big-time addition.”

NCAA rules allow five staffers to help the head coach with on-floor duties, which at UA has been full-time assistants Jack Murphy, Steve Robinson and Riccardo Fois, plus player development director Rem Bakamus and scouting director Ken Nakagawa.

But Lloyd and his staffers routinely say everyone does a little of everything. Besides, coaching and recruiting also happen off the floor, as do scouting and analytics.

“I think we’re all pretty multifaceted and talented with our coaching resumes,” said Benson, who was an assistant coach at Grand Canyon. “At the end of the day, we’re all involved with a lot of different things where people probably are like, ‘Well, why is he doing that? Or why is he helping with this?’ But it’s just how our staff made up. And we don’t have any egos in all of it.”

Benson has had a particularly easy time working with Manning, whom he calls a good friend. The two bonded at Gonzaga in 2020-21, when Benson was the coordinator for basketball administration and Manning was a graduate assistant.

The Zags raced to the national title game that season, which was marked by largely empty stands and COVID protocols.

“He’s a great dude, comes from a great family, been around a lot of high-level basketball,” Benson said. “The year that we were together in Spokane was a crazy one, the COVID NCAA Tournament bubble year. We were around each other a lot.”

Also in 2020-21, Manning was assigned to work with Lloyd on his scouting assignments – and to help work with a long-term project named Oumar Ballo, a 7-foot freshman who played sparingly that season.

Then, during a second season at Gonzaga in 2021-22 and last season at Army, Manning watched from afar how Ballo turned into an All-Pac-12 player.

“He’s been great to work with and to see his growth has been awesome,” Manning said. “Coach Lloyd has said it for a long time – he’s known how good Oumar can be. When I got to work with him there, you could definitely see the potential.

“It’s just that at Gonzaga, he was behind a couple of All-Americans, so he just needed that opportunity. I think coming here probably changed his life, to be honest, because he’s gotten to be a very big part of a very good team. That growth has been awesome to see.”

While Manning didn’t bring any Arizona experience to the job, he grew up appreciating a similar basketball culture at Kansas. That’s helped him explain Wildcats history to players the way Lloyd wants to.

Evan lived in the Phoenix area as a young child when his dad played for the Suns. But the family often spent offseasons in Kansas, where Danny was known for leading the Jayhawks to the 1988 title, and later moved there when Danny retired and began a coaching career.

“People always ask me questions about” Kansas in 1988, Evan said. “And I’ve heard a lot about the ’88 team at Arizona because of that. People talk about it a good amount. It’s pretty cool, especially for my family. That was an important time.”

That same year, of course, was known at Arizona as the one where the Wildcats emerged as a national power under Lute Olson, creating the sort of legacy that Lloyd has been speaking to his players about.

Now Lloyd doesn’t have to do all the talking.

“It’s coach Lloyd’s vision and we’re helping him out where we can,” Manning said. “You’ve gotta know the history of the place to appreciate it, especially in the day and age where kids can transfer pretty easily.

“There might not be as much loyalty as there was 20 years ago, but if you can kind of set your anchor, guys appreciate what they have and where they’re at. I think it goes a long way.”

Maybe Manning sets his anchor into Arizona, too. He said he’s interested in being an assistant coach again but also that he wants to be part of a winning program, and that working under Lloyd means you’re treated like an assistant coach anyway.

So it is possible that Lloyd may still not have a vacancy anytime soon.

“The familiarity with coach Lloyd and what he’s building here is really what made me want to come to Arizona,” Manning said. “I think the biggest thing is who you work with and who you work for, and I don’t think there’s a better person to coach under than coach Lloyd.”