SMU is hiring the father of one of Texas’ highest-ranked 2019 recruits to a support staff position.

Tyrone Maxey, the father of 2019 five-star guard Tyrese Maxey, has been hired as SMU’s director of recruiting, sources told PonyStampede.

Maxey’s title was most recently held by George Lynch, who left SMU earlier this summer. Maxey has coached high school basketball in the Dallas area for 17 years, 11 as a head coach and six as an assistant. He spent the last three years as an assistant coach at South Garland (Texas) High school, where Tyrese is entering his junior year. He played college basketball at Washington State from 1990 to 1992.

Tyrese Maxey is Scout’s No. 22 player in the 2019 class and the No. 19 player in the 247Sports composite rankings for 2019. In addition to SMU, he has offers from Arizona State, Baylor, Georgia Tech, LSU, Michigan State, Oklahoma, Oklahoma State, TCU, Texas, UCLA and West Virginia, among others. He spent last AAU season playing for RM5 Elite on the Nike EYBL circuit, on which he averaged 16.4 points in 21 games.

There is a rule that places restrictions on hiring individuals associated with a recruit. NCAA rules prohibit college teams from hiring an individual associated with a prospect (IAWP) to a support staff role within two years of that prospect’s enrollment in college.

NCAA Bylaw 11.4, which addresses the issue, states that, “In men’s basketball, during a two-year period before a prospective student-athlete’s anticipated enrollment and a two-year period after the prospective student athlete’s actual enrollment, an institution shall not employ (or enter into a contract for future employment) an individual associated with the prospective student-athlete in any athletics department non-coaching staff position.”

The NCAA's definition of an individual associated with a prospect “includes, but is not limited to, parents, legal guardians, handlers, personal trainers and coaches of men’s basketball prospects. An individual who meets that definition of an individual associated with a prospect retains that status during the enrollment of that prospect at that institution.”

Sources confirmed that SMU's hiring of Tyrone Maxey is not expected to prohibit Tyrese from signing with and enrolling at SMU if he chooses to do so.