New Arizona coach Tommy Lloyd hires trio with Gonzaga connections

Tommy Lloyd tapped into his Gonzaga connections for three additions to his new staff at Arizona.

Lloyd, the former GU assistant hired as the Wildcats head coach two weeks ago, will be joined in Tucson by TJ Benson, Rem Bakamus and Ken Nakagawa, the Pac-12 school announced.

Benson has been named special assistant to the head coach/recruiting coordinator. The Tempe, Arizona, native spent the past two years as Gonzaga’s coordinator of basketball administration. His duties at GU including scheduling.

Bakamus, a popular walk-on guard from 2013-17 at Gonzaga, will be Arizona’s director of player development. He spent the past three seasons at Baylor as a graduate assistant coach.

Nakagawa has been hired as director of advanced scouting for the Wildcats. He was at Gonzaga for five seasons, first as a graduate assistant and then as video coordinator the past three years.

Gonzaga has yet to fill Lloyd’s position. Lloyd has one opening for a full-time assistant coach after retaining Jack Murphy and Jason Terry from Arizona’s previous staff.

Benson, who played at Weber State and Grand Canyon, was on Grand Canyon’s staff for seven seasons before coming to Gonzaga.

“He was a great asset to the program at Gonzaga and I’m thrilled he is joining our staff here,” Lloyd said in an Arizona release. “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.”

Bakamus was in his first season at Baylor when Gonzaga thumped the Bears in the second round of the 2019 NCAA Tournament. His final season with the Bears culminated with an 86-70 win over the Zags in the title game earlier this month.

“Rem brings a ton of energy and excitement to everything he does,” Lloyd said. “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.”

Nakagawa was a manager and graduate assistant at Long Beach State for former Gonzaga coach Dan Monson from 2011-16.

“Ken was an integral part of the Gonzaga program the last five seasons,” Lloyd said. “He works as hard as anyone in our program and I’m happy to have him with us in Tucson.”

Former Gonzaga center Oumar Ballo announced recently he will transfer to Arizona.