Reports: Texas Tech assistant Ulric Maligi joining Chris Beard at Texas

New Texas Longhorns head coach Chris Beard has a second assistant coach in place with former Texas Tech Red Raiders assistant Ulric Maligi (yur-rick mal-uh-ghee) joining Beard in Austin, according to a report from Chip Brown of Horns247, then confirmed by Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports.

Maligi’s name was quickly removed from the Texas Tech staff directory even before Beard was officially announced as the Texas head coach.

Former Longhorns player Chris Ogden, who coached under Beard for two seasons with the Red Raiders, has also joined the staff, leaving his head coaching position at UT-Arlington on Thursday.

Maligi’s addition provides a strong recruiter for Beard’s staff, as the 36-year-old assistant was instrumental in assembling Texas Tech’s best recruiting class in school history in 2020, a group that ranked No. 11 nationally and first in the Big 12, according to the 247Sports Composite team rankings. The group also included three transfers, led by former Georgetown guard Mac McClung, who led the team in scoring at 15.5 points per game.

Both ESPN and The Athletic recognized Maligi on “40 Under 40” lists of rising stars in college basketball after the 2019-20 season.

An Arlington native who graduated from Howard University, Maligi previously spent three seasons at Texas A&M, where he also had significant recruiting success, after spending a year working under John Lucas as a national scouting director. Maligi’s coaching career started as an assistant at UT-Arlington before stops at Stephen F. Austin, Houston, and SMU. So he has experience working with Larry Brown in addition to his familiarity with Lucas.

Maligi has recruited and/or coached 17 NBA players in his career as an assistant, including Emmanuel Mudiay, Shake Milton and Robert Williams.