Following up on a rumor from earlier today…

Amir Abdur-Rahim, regarded as one of the top rising stars among coaches in collegiate basketball, joins the Texas A&M men’s basketball staff as an assistant coach, head coach Billy Kennedy announced Thursday.

“I’m happy to add Amir to our staff,” Kennedy said. “He’s spent eight years with me as a player and a coach, so that familiarity with each other is going to help our program. He has strong recruiting ties throughout SEC country and brings a wealth of experience, not only as a coach and a player, but with his contacts in the NBA. His ability to relate to players on multiple levels will be a huge asset to our program.”

Abdur-Rahim comes to Aggieland with strong ties to Kennedy, having played under the now-Texas A&M head coach during his collegiate playing career at Southeastern Louisiana and coaching alongside Kennedy at Murray State. He brings an impressive resume of player development and strong recruiting ties across the Southeast, particularly the Atlanta metro area.

“I’m unbelievably excited to be joining the Texas A&M program,” Abdur-Rahim said. “I’ve had a chance to visit with several people who have been at Texas A&M before and they all spoke so highly about the university and the community.”

A native of Atlanta, Abdur-Rahim comes to Texas A&M from the College of Charleston where he served on Doug Wojcik’s staff the last two seasons. He joined the Cougars’ staff as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator for the 2012-13 season before being promoted to Associate Head Coach last spring.

As CofC’s recruiting coordinator, Abdur-Rahim was the driving force behind the Cougars’ solid 2013-14 signing class, comprised of two players from Orlando, one player from Atlanta and one player from Memphis.

During the 2012-13 campaign, the Cougars’ final in the Southern Conference, Charleston put together a 24-11 campaign that saw them go 14-4 in league play and fall just short of an NCAA Tournament berth with a loss to Davidson in the SoCon Tournament Final. The Panthers accepted the 11th post-season tournament appearance in school history, playing in the College Basketball Invitational.

“I’m so appreciative of this opportunity, but more than anything I’m excited to get there, get going and get to know the guys,” Abdur-Rahim added. “The student-athletes really are the life blood of what we do. If you develop a great relationship with them and they know that you’re in it to help them and make them better people as well as better basketball players I think they work that much harder for you.”

Prior to joining the staff in Charleston, Abdur-Rahim spent the 2011-12 season as director of player development under head coach Brian Gregory at Georgia Tech.

For three seasons from 2008-11, Abdur-Rahim served as an assistant coach under Kennedy at Murray State, helping the Racers post a 73-26 record, win two Ohio Valley Conference championship titles and participate in the NCAA Tournament in 2010 and Postseason NIT in 2011.

Abdur-Rahim spent two seasons as a graduate assistant at Murray State, before briefly taking a position at his alma mater, Wheeler High School, in Marietta, Ga. As he began the school year there in 2008, he received a call from Kennedy to come back to MSU and he accepted.

As a player, Abdur-Rahim enjoyed an outstanding four-year career at Southeastern Louisianan from 2001-04 and was a large part in building the Lions’ program. He was a three-time All-Southland Conference selection, led the team in scoring three-straight seasons and finished as the school’s seventh all-time scorer with 1,282 points. More importantly, Abdur-Rahim helped turn around a program that had a 7-20 record to one that went 20-9 and won a regular-season conference title in only three years.

He earned his bachelor’s degree in general business from Southeastern Louisiana in 2004 and his master’s degree in organizational communication from Murray State in 2008. Abdur-Rahim is one of 13 children in his family and is the younger brother of former NBA All-Star and current Director of Player Personnel for the Sacramento Kings, Shareef Abdur-Rahim. He is happily married to the former Arianne Buchanan.

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