Along the way, Nakagawa repaid the debt especially in opponent scouting and player development. He said working with Mathurin in 2021-22 and with center Motiejus Krivas last season were particularly rewarding because of how those players improved.
As a game scout, Nakagawa said UA’s 71-67 upset win at UConn early last season – a win that put the Wildcats prominently on the national radar – was something of “his baby” that the Wildcats took great care of.
“For the guys to execute that game plan like they did was awesome,” Nakagawa said, then adding with a laugh: “Luckily, it worked.”
On the side of his Gonzaga and Arizona stints, Nakagawa added more to his resume: He worked with the Japanese Basketball Association in 2017 and 2018, was on the Japanese coaching staff for the FIBA U19 World Cup in 2021 and joined the Uganda senior national team staff during the FIBA AfroBasket tournament in August 2025.
As an assistant coach in the G League, Nakagawa is expected to find player development and scouting both taking on a different look: G League teams make frequent roster moves, changing the players Nakagawa will be working with and the players he’ll be trying to stop.
“One of the challenges that I’m looking forward to is the instability in the roster for your own team and opponent’s team,” Nakagawa said. “That’s definitely a constant message that I got in talking to everybody throughout this process. It’s like `You’ve gotta be flexible and you gotta be open.’ “
If needed, Nakagawa has plenty of former Wildcat players to lean on: Joseph Blair, Matt Brase, Miles Simon, Reggie Geary and Jason Terry have all coached in the G League – while Isaiah Fox served on the Salt Lake Stars’ staff last season.