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The Texas Longhorns haven’t officially announced Texas Tech Red Raiders head coach Chris Beard as the replacement for Shaka Smart yet, but Beard’s staff is already coming together — according to a report from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, UT-Arlington Mavericks head coach Chris Ogden will serve as an assistant to Beard.
The hire was quickly confirmed by Odgen himself.
Chris Ogden confirms he's joining Chris Beard in Austin. One of Beard's closest friends.
— Kirk Bohls (@kbohls) April 1, 2021
Like Beard, Ogden is a Texas Ex, playing for Rick Barnes from 1999 to 2003 and serving as the team’s captain during the 2002-03 season when the Longhorns made the Final Four. When Ogden graduated, he was the program’s all-time winningest player.
After serving as a student assistant for one year, Ogden served in administrative roles supervising film exchange, administering summer camps, and assisting in internal operations before joining the bench as an assistant for Barnes in 2008. When Barnes was fired in 2015, Odgen spent a season at Tennessee before accepting a job on Beard’s staff at Texas Tech for two seasons.
In 2018, Odgen was hired as the UT-Arlington head coach, where he went 44-47 in three seasons, including tying for a second-place finish in the Sun Belt Conference in his first year and finishing third this season.