Former TTU recruiting ace Ulric Maligi joining Beard’s Texas basketball staff
The coaching staff is starting to come together around the newly hired Texas basketball head coach Chris Beard just after the original report of his hire on the morning of April 1. The first notable addition to the Texas men’s hoops coaching staff under the direction of the former Texas Tech Red Raiders head coach Beard came on the night of April 1, with the now former Texas-Arlington Mavericks head coach Chris Ogden.
Another key addition to Beard’s coaching staff on the Forty Acres appears to have come on the morning of April 2. Former Texas Tech assistant coach and noted recruiting ace Ulric Maligi will reportedly (confirmed by multiple sources including Pete Thamel of Yahoo Sports on Twitter) join Beard’s coaching staff with the Longhorns.
Maligi was reportedly on the plane with Beard on his initial flight out to Austin after taking the Texas head coaching job back on April 1. That in combination with the reports confirmed by multiple sources shows that Beard looks to have his second notable addition to his coaching staff in place on the Forty Acres.
Sources: Texas Tech assistant coach Ulric Maligi is departing for Texas with coach Chris Beard. He's a prolific recruiter of Texas and has worked in the state since 2006, including stints at six different Texas colleges.
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) April 2, 2021
Maligi has a strong recruiting background and is a native of the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex. More specifically, he is native of Arlington, TX, which should be able to give the Longhorns a boost on the recruiting trail in this part of the state.
Background of new Texas basketball assistant Ulric Maligi
Prior to landing a job on staff with Beard and the Red Raiders two years back, Maligi had multiple noted stops in his college hoops coaching career. It all started for Maligi back with the UTA coaching staff in 2006, as an assistant on staff. He then bounced around across multiple stops, including with the Stephen F. Austin Lumberjacks and Houston Cougars in the years following his mid-2000s stop with UTA.
He was an assistant coach on staff with SFA and Houston through the end of the 2011-12 season. And then he got a big assistant job on staff with the SMU Mustangs, which lasted from 2012-2016. After his run at SMU ended, Maligi landed a job under head coach Billy Kennedy with the rival Texas A&M Aggies.
His role on staff with the Aggies lasted through the end of the 2017-18 season. Then he took the job on staff with Beard and the Red Raiders prior to their National Championship Game run during the 2018-19 campaign.
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Texas hired Beard back on April 1 to replace the now former head coach Shaka Smart. Back on March 26, Smart bolted from Austin to take the head coaching job with the Marquette Golden Eagles.