Experiences with Damian Lillard, well-regarded coaches shaped Arizona Wildcats assistant TJ Benson (2024)

Extending a playing career that passed through powerhouse Tempe Corona Del Sol, Arizona assistant coach TJ Benson first tore a meniscus at Mesa Community College and, before each of the 2006-07 and 2007-08 seasons at Weber State, broke his foot.

But by 2008-09, he was ready to go, a snakebitten but experienced fourth-year junior guard ready to contribute heavily in the Weber backcourt.

“Then Damian Lillard shows up,” says Benson’s dad, Tim, chuckling. “I said, `Hey, you’re gonna be a good coach someday. Life’s not fair.’ “

Relegated to a ninth-man role behind Lillard and leading scorer Kellen McCoy, Benson averaged 4.2 minutes over 22 games that season but helped those Wildcats go 15-1 in Big Sky play and reach the NIT.

Benson also had a chance to soak up knowledge from McCoy, his high-motored 5-6 roommate who became the Big Sky Player of the Year that season, and from Lillard, who became the Big Sky’s Freshman of the Year in 2008-09 before later becoming the league’s Player of the Year and an eight-time NBA All-Star.

“Playing with Dame was great,” TJ Benson said. “Amazing dude and work ethic. Knew he was special the moment he stepped foot on campus.”

After the 2008-09 season was over, Benson returned to his Arizona roots. Named a full UA assistant coach last week, Benson transferred to Grand Canyon to play under then-coach Russ Pennell, who had trained Benson earlier in his career before leading UA to the 2009 Sweet Sixteen as an interim head coach in the wake of Lute Olson’s retirement.

At GCU, Benson became a second-team all-PacWest player in the Division II conference, then played pro ball in Brazil before his father’s semi-joking vision began to come true.

“I didn’t really get a contract extension and didn’t know what I wanted to do,” Benson said.

That’s when Benson said then-Boise State assistant Jeff Linder, who had recruited Lillard for Weber State and coached Benson there as an assistant, “convinced me to take that jump into coaching” via a role with the Broncos.

From there, Benson was off. He spent the 2011-12 season as assistant director of basketball operations at Boise, then returned to GCU to spend seven seasons as an assistant coach and operations director.

While there, he also successfully recruited a Spokane-area guard named Liam Lloyd, whose father, Tommy, happened to be on the Gonzaga staff and eventually lured Benson to Spokane and then Tucson.

Coincidentally, just when Benson was promoted to a full-time assistant coach at Arizona last week, Liam officially joined the Wildcats as a walk-on guard following four scholarship seasons, two at GCU and the past two at NAU.

“With Liam now going to three of the four Division I schools in Arizona, it’s a pretty cool and special situation,” Benson said. “I don’t think there’s very many kids out there who can say that.”

Benson’s career can also answer a trivia question: He’s now worked under three branches of the Zag coaching tree: Former Gonzaga assistant Leon Rice at Boise State, Mark Few at Gonzaga and Lloyd, both at Gonzaga and Arizona.

Joining the Gonzaga staff in 2019 was particularly pivotal, Benson said.

“I was looking for a change and Tommy gave me a call and we talked through some stuff,” Benson said. “He basically said, `Hey, here’s a spot. I can’t guarantee you much’ but to me to go to Gonzaga and work with coach Few and Tommy, that was a no-brainer at the time. It kind of changed the trajectory of my career as a coach. I have a lot to thank him for.”

By the time Lloyd brought Benson with him to Arizona in 2021-22 as a special assistant, Benson already had worked with Pennell, Linder, Rice, Few and Lloyd – along with well-regarded high school coach Sam Duane, who mentored Benson at Corona Del Sol and now runs a similarly well-regarded program at Gilbert Perry.

Benson also had that playing experience at Weber State with Lillard and McCoy.

Those sort of influences are an extension of Tim Benson’s plan for TJ and younger brother Casey, the former Oregon and GCU guard who is now playing professionally in Belgium.

“The thing I did was I got them around the best,” said Tim, who partnered with Pennell in a Phoenix-area developmental club at one point. “I didn’t want to coach them but I always found the best people I could find. They’ve been around a whole bunch of good ones.”

TJ was coached to be a coach. So even though he was more of an operations director during Lloyd’s first three seasons at Arizona, players referred to him as a coach and Wildcat recruits often spoke of building a relationship with “TJ” as often as Lloyd or other UA coaches.

Thanks to NCAA rules that allowed him to substitute for former assistant coach Riccardo Fois when Fois spent summers with the Italian national team, Benson spent offseasons in a full coaching role, recruiting off-campus and coaching players in small-group workouts

When Fois became an assistant coach with the Sacramento Kings this summer, Lloyd opted to remodel his staff. He effectively replaced Benson’s special assistant spot with a role intended to handle the new landscape of college basketball, hiring Phoenix-based basketball executive Matt King as UA’s president of operations, a role that involves working with NIL and business strategy.

King “is an unbelievable hire for us,” Benson says. “I’m beyond excited about that one.”

Lloyd also elevated staffers Rem Bakamus and Ken Nakagawa to assistant coaches who will have a limited ability to recruit since the NCAA now allows two extra assistants to recruit off campus as long as no more than four are out at any one time.

Finally, Lloyd promoted Benson to a full assistant, meaning Benson could do year-round the same sort of things he had been doing in Fois’ place during the offseason.

As a full assistant, Benson will also be asked to scout opponents for up to a third of UA’s games, something he did at Grand Canyon but couldn’t do as a UA special assistant because he wasn’t allowed to instruct on the floor during the season.

Benson says the scouting piece will probably be the biggest adjustment. The other stuff, by now, he’s well-versed in.

“I’m just happy I’m going to be able to continue working with guys throughout the season because the moment Ricci came back, I wouldn’t be able to do it anymore,” Benson said. “With players you develop relationships, working with them every day in the gym or breaking down film. There’s a lot of factors that go into that. More than anything, I’m excited to able to be on the floor, working with our guys and our staff every single day.”