Texas assistant basketball coach makes jump to new Big-12 school

Texas Longhorns assistant basketball coach Ulric Maligi is leaving Texas after one season to join new head coach Jerome Tang at Kansas State, On3’s Inside Texas reported. The 37-year old coach made the jump from Texas Tech to the Forty Acres alongside Chris Beard last offseason after serving as an assistant for two years with the Red Raiders.

Maligi now has 15 years of coaching experience, and has become a top-notch recruiter thanks to some deep ties to the Dallas area. His career began at UT-Arlington in 2006-07 before moving on to Stephen F. Austin from 2007-10. He then heading to Houston from 2010-12 and after three seasons at SMU from 2012-15, Maligi made the jump to high-major basketball with Texas A&M from 2016-19 before teaming up with Beard for the last three seasons at Texas and Texas Tech.

Maligi played a major role in Texas Tech securing a top-10 recruiting class in 2020. The class, highlighted by Micah Peavy, a Jordan Brand All-American, also included some of the top transfers in Division I, including Mac McClung (Georgetown) and Marcus Santos-Silva (VCU).

Now that Maligi is joining the Kansas State program to work under long-time friend Tang, who has been a vital part of Baylor’s rise, serving as an assistant under head coach Scott Drew, Kansas State’s program rebuild might be shorter than expected following the resignation of former head coach Bruce Weber.

Tang spent 19 seasons at Baylor under head coach Scott Drew before getting his first chance to lead a program at Kansas State. Before joining the Baylor staff nearly two decades ago, he won four state championships in Texas with Heritage Christian.

The Big 12 rival takes over a Kansas State program which finished the 2021-22 season 14-17 overall and 6-12 in the conference. The Wildcats have finished in the bottom two spots of the conference in each of the past three seasons after making their last NCAA Tournament in 2019.