Boonie Bites: Kenny Lofton Talks U of A Basketball and His Collegiate Career

I started watching U of A and I love these guys.

You got, I mean, the way they move up and down the court,

you got all these freshmen that are,

that are just studs already.

So I've kind of gotten into U of A,

had Tommy on really was impressed with Tommy Lloyd.

He's just, he's a cool guy and he's fun and I was,

I was telling him, I said, you know, I'm amazed.

That's most of these college coaches, they're wacko.

They're running up and down the court.

I said, you've got some boys to you, Tommy.

And he goes, yeah, I want, you know,

I don't want to let my team see me.

If I'm sweating, I don't want them to sweat, you know,

it's, so, so I, I was really impressed,

got to know him a little bit.

You played for Lou Doulson.

Yes.

And I saw the other day, Tommy, after a victory,

he, he paid tribute to the great Lou Doulson.

And that was cool to see.

But tell me what makes that Arizona,

that U of A, Arizona basketball program.

So special, a lot of you alumni are coming back all the time.

Um, you know, the thing about it is,

people, we try to get people to understand that

Lou Doulson, he became a father figure

to a lot of, a lot of players.

And he had that teaching mindset, you know,

he was always teaching throughout the game.

And he was going down, down the bench

and explaining to players certain situations

as it goes on.

And you will see during the game,

he'll walk down to the bench and start coaching

and explaining to guys certain situations

what's going on in the game to explain to them.

And that's what he did pretty much throughout.

He was a teacher of the game.

And we learned a lot from him, you know,

from being in the game, but also using that

as going forward as, as, as, as men.

It went from Olsen to Sean Miller and now to, to Tommy Lloyd.

Um, and it seems like a lot of, of you guys are around.

I see in the crowd watching the games, you know,

from Kurt, a Tolbert, to Matt Mulebach, Luke Walton.

So it's kind of 30, 40 years of Arizona basketball.

Are you, are you guys tight like the alumni,

like your generation versus maybe a generation 10 years

of the heavy or you guys kind of,

do you know each other just because you have that one thing

in common?

Yeah, we do.

We, um, we have a, we have a, a text thread throughout.

Yeah, we have the kind of a group of the 88 boys.

And then we have a group with the, the Wildcat Bros.

So pretty much most of the guys who were in the loot era,

we get in a, a, a, a text thread and we chop it up

all the time and something's going on with certain players

or certain people who in the group, we talk about it

and we discuss it and we try to, you know, we try to see

what guys need and we try to help out and whatever we can.

And, you know, we have, like I said, Sean Elliott, you know,

he's, he wanted to go.

I talked to him, he wanted to try to go to the games,

but he's, he's doing the, uh, the Spurs game.

So for him to try to squeeze in and, and get those games in

this kind of tough.

And then every year Steve Kerr sets up a trip where guys

go to San Francisco and he have a lot of the guys show up

and he just take them to the games and guys go out fishing,

golfing, but he tries to keep that camaraderie going on

and that's awesome what Steve does.

What do you think of, well, first of all,

this current modern college atmosphere with the new rules

and all that with the overturn of rosters.

How tough do you think that is to keep a winner on the court

with all the overturn you see?

It's different than when me and you were in college.

It's a different atmosphere with the, with the money

and the, the portal and all that stuff.

Today's modern game, how tough is it to keep a winning group?

Because you never know who's coming or going.

Well, you know, that's the toughest part about college nowadays.

You got to start scouting some of these kids

probably in sophomore, junior and senior year of high school

to try to figure out your and all these different schools,

the rotation and with the portal and with the pan artist guys,

the problem is these schools have to figure out

how much money they're going to have to, you know,

to build up to be able to get certain players again

for one year and that's what's going on.

It's year to year and that's why I said you have to start

when these kids are sophomore, junior so you can figure out

how you're going to squeeze these kids into your rotation

if they're going to want to come to your school knowing

they're probably going to be one and done.

So that's the tough part.

Before when I play, you know, guys go,

you might have a guy go out of senior year or whatever,

but I mean, junior year, but usually all the guys stay four years,

they develop as men, they develop as players.

But now I think a lot of these players get to the NBA

and they don't, I mean, I look at in other sports as well,

they don't know the game as well

because they don't get a chance to learn the game

because I feel college teaches you a lot about the game,

per se, and it teaches you a lot about life per se.

And if a lot of these kids can come out

and learn in the game, understanding the game,

but also again, life, because you get into these situations

where some of these kids that come up

and they start doing some stuff that they shouldn't be doing.

And if you had that, because once you get into a lot of these kids

come from high school, they go straight to college

and they're often college to the pros.

You got to learn, you got to live a little,

you got to understand what this life is,

you've been out on your own going out there.

You know, and that's the thing is that you,

in college teaches you a whole lot.

You're out on your own, you see life experiences,

you see a lot of kids, people from all over the world

come to your college and understanding that hey,

this is how life is going to be from this point forward.

You're on your own, life, but then guys coming to all this money

and a whole lot of things change.

When they say money changes people, it really does.

You know, that's a great point, Kenny,

because I always thought, you know, we go to college

and this is back, you know, in the late 80s,

when you and me were in the pack six at the time,

six pack, no pack 10 pack 10.

But for the baseball was a six pack.

Oh, yeah, but you know what?

I came out of high school and you know, hard to believe,

but as an 18 year old man, I was as brash as you could be

and I thought I was the greatest player on earth

and how could you not draft me higher?

I went to the University of Southern California

and you know what, like you said,

it teaches you about life.

It's kind of a soft landing in college

between, and now I'm talking baseball

between high school and pro ball,

because pro ball is no joke.

All of a sudden, you're 18 and you're at mommy's house

and mommy's making your meals and mommy's doing your laundry

and then all of a sudden, you're often bloyed,

playing 142 games with a wood bat

and you've never been away from home before

and you're old for 16 and guess what?

You're going back to your apartment

that you're rooming with five different guys.

Yeah.

And you don't know what to do.

And I thought, at the time, I was ready to go.

College is the best thing that could have happened to me

because you know, I was away,

but I was still 45 minutes from mom

and mom would bring me a meal and do some laundry for me

and I had a chance to live life a little bit, grow up

and know what it's like to be on my own

and after I went home for four, going home to myself,

I didn't have mom and dad there to kind of cuddle me.

So I think you're right, there's a lot of life lessons

you turn in from a young man to a grown man

in those college years and I think it's important.

I'm sure as much as, I'm sure you hear this all the time

from parents, people you meet asking Kenny Lofton

for advice, what about my son?

And I always tell these guys, you know what,

there's very few, very few guys that are ready

at 18 years old to go professional.

I said, not only do they have to be physically mature

beyond their years, but they have to be psychologically mature

beyond their years to handle that sort of life.

College is always that soft landing.

You're in a...