Another Wildcat will be participating in the FIBA U19 World Cup starting this weekend.
Arizona's director of advanced scouting, Ken Nakagawa, has joined the Japan U19 team in Latvia to help with coaching and video scouting during the tournament from July 3-11.
Nakagawa, an aspiring coach who followed Tommy Lloyd from Gonzaga to Arizona this spring, is a dual US/Japan citizen who broke into the Zags' program while helping translate for Rui Hachimura during his freshman season. Nakagawa has also worked as an intern and assistant video coordinator for the Japanese Basketball Association.
Nakagawa's presence means five U19 participants will have Arizona ties, including four players: Azuolas Tubelis of Lithuania, Bennedict Mathurin of Canada, Oumar Ballo of Mali and former UA wing Tibet Gorener of Turkey.
UA wing Tautvilas Tubelis went to camp with the Lithuania U19 team but was not named to its final 12-player roster.
TCU avoided a postseason ban after the NCAA finished a case involving former assistant coach Corey Barker. Barker was charged with taking $6,000 from agent Christian Dawkins as part of the federal investigation into college basketball, but the NCAA ruled the case was only a "Level I mitigated" case for the school and a "Level I aggravated" for Barker.
That meant the penalty matrix did not mandate a postseason ban for Barker but it did allow the NCAA to issue a five-year show-cause penalty for Barker. That's a potential issue immediately, since Barker is now coaching at New Mexico State.
UA's pending infractions case is different in that then-UA assistant coach Bookr Richardson admitted to taking $20,000 in bribes as part of the same scheme and that was only one of four Level I charges against Arizona's basketball program. In addition, UA's case is being handled by the Independent Accountability Resolution Process, which has yet to finish any cases.
