Arizona has two of its three coaching spots filled already as Tommy Lloyd previously announced that he would retain associate head coach Jack Murphy and assistant Jason Terry now that he is taking over the Wildcats. Wednesday a few more spots on the staff were filled as UA announced the addition of three more people who will help support Lloyd in his first head coaching role.
TJ Benson, Ken Nakagawa and Rem Bakamus will join the Wildcats in various roles on Lloyd's staff.
Benson will return home to Arizona where he will become the Wildcats' new recruiting coordinator and special assistant to Lloyd after previously serving as the coordinator of basketball administration at Gonzaga.
The Tempe native helped with game scheduling and day-to-day operations of the program while with the Bulldogs. Prior to his time at Gonzaga, Benson was on staff at Grand Canyon University where he was both an assistant coach and director of operations over seven seasons at the school.
Benson played at both GCU and Weber State before beginning a brief professional career in Brazil.
“TJ and I worked together the last two seasons at Gonzaga, but we have had a strong relationship prior to that, going back to his time as an assistant at GCU," Lloyd said in a statement Wednesday. "He was a great asset to the program at Gonzaga and I’m thrilled he is joining our staff here at Arizona. He has a wide range of experience and is from the state of Arizona so it’s great that he is able to come back home and help our program.”
Nakagawa is another new Arizona staff member with West Coast and Gonzaga ties. He was part of the Bulldogs' program for the last five seasons and will now take over as UA's new director of advanced scouting. The first two years he was in Spokane were spent as a graduate assistant before he moved into the role of video coordinator over the last three seasons.
Prior to his time in Spokane, the new UA staff member was with former Gonzaga head coach Dan Monson at Long Beach State from 2011-16. Nakagawa was a student manager and graduate assistant for that program.
“Ken was an integral part of the Gonzaga program the last five seasons as a graduate assistant and video coordinator,” Lloyd said. “He works as hard as anyone in our program and I’m happy to have him with us in Tucson.”
Bakamus is a Washington native was a member of the Gonzaga basketball team as a walk-on player for five seasons starting in 2012. Since his graduation from Gonzaga he has spent the last three seasons as a graduate assistant at Baylor where he helped play a part in developing several standout guards for the Bears.
He will join the Wildcats as the new director of player development in his first full-time college basketball role.
“Rem brings a ton of energy and excitement to everything he does,” said Lloyd. “From being a walk-on at Gonzaga to helping Baylor win a national title this past season, he knows how to impact winning. He will be an outstanding resource for our players because he has a great ability to relate to them on a personal level and I look forward to watching him continue to grow in this role.”
The Wildcats still have not officially announced the third and final assistant for Lloyd's coaching staff after previously announcing the decisions to retain Murphy and Terry.
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