Here’s the Friday “dirt”…

Not a well kept secret here, but multiple sources have reported that new SMU coach Larry Brown has hired Houston assistant Ulric Maligi. This is a no brainer hire, and something that has been floating around for the last week. Maligi has big time Texas connections – he is the former coach of the Dallas Mustangs and has been an assistant at UT-Arlington and Stephen F. Austin. He’s exactly the guy Brown needs to hit the road in Texas.

It sounds like St. Louis assistant Chris Harriman is involved with a spot on Tim Miles staff at Nebraska. He is a native of Australia who has been at SLU for the past three seasons. No word on what his official title would be at Nebraska. I’m getting conflicting reports on whether he would be an assistant, or have an operations role.

I have heard that Fairfield will hire Williams College assistant Kyle Koncz as the DBO. Koncz played at Williams when Fairfield head coach Sydney Johnson was the head coach there. Before his stint at Williams, he was an assistant coach at Lake Forest Academy (IL).

Another DBO hiring….I can confirm that NJIT assistant Kevin Tirone is going to join the URI staff as the DBO. He is a former Hoop Group staffer and a Jersey City resident with ties to Hurley. He had been on the NJIT staff since 2008. He also worked for Mike Rice as the DBO at Robert Morris for 2007-2008.

I mentioned earlier this week that former High Point assistant Mike Balado was involved at Florida International. I’ve now heard it’s a done deal and he’s been hired as an assistant by new FIU head coach Richard Pitino.