In March Madness, assistant coaches are unsung heroes

SAN DIEGO — You would have missed them in the three-second cutaway on CBS’s NCAA Tournament selection show. The cameras, naturally, focus on the players, who write the storylines of March in between black lines. In Arizona’s case, those players sat at a table on the patio of Union Public House, dutifully applauding when their name was announced as the No.

1 seed atop the West Region. For them, this was a moment of earned recognition. For three men in the back of the crowd, it was a starting gun.

These are Arizona’s assistant coaches, and each was tasked with a potential first-weekend opponent. Ken Nakagawa had Long Island, Jack Murphy had Utah State and TJ Benson had Villanova. With fresh assignments in hand, the three men slipped out of the watch party, back toward their offices.

“The preparation starts the moment you know who you play,” Benson told The Republic. In the delicate alchemy of a deep March run, the assistant coaches’ role is rarely celebrated before an audience of millions on national broadcasts. But behind the closed doors of Marriott ballrooms and distant practice gyms, they set the stage for those performances.