By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
           
In the strangest possible year, with game postponements, cancellations, a three-week COVID pause and an NCAA Tournament in a bubble, Aditya "AD" Malhotra had to have a Plan A, B and C.
           
"You didn't know until the last minute which one it was going to be," said Malhotra, Director of Basketball Operations for Baylor's national championship team, "but you had to have all three. I like to be prepared. I would have had everything prepared in August. But, we were still guessing all the way up till the NCAA Tournament what it was going to be like."
           
Able to remain flexible through it all, "AD did an unbelievable job not only doing his job but all the extras required during a COVID year," Baylor coach Scott Drew said, "and he made it seem as seamless and routine as he possibly could."
           
Former Baylor trainer David Chandler, who handled the travel logistics before Malhotra assumed the operations role in 2019, said he "could not have done it, particularly during this pandemic."
           
"One of the reasons why is because you have to be so flexible, and that's just not my nature," Chandler said. "I like to plan things way in advance. People don't realize how much work that is – moving people, setting up every meal, every hotel room, every practice, every bus, every airplane. That's a big deal. AD is just so thorough, so good at everything he does. He communicates with folks really, really well, and he's just ideal for that position. He is probably 100 times better at that than I ever was."
           
Chandler, who left athletics for a Baylor development role after the 2018-19 basketball season, actually prepped Malhotra for his new position by "passing things on slowly, slowly, slowly."

"One day, he was in my office talking about what we were going to do for the Italy trip," Malhotra said, "and then the next day, he was like, 'Hey, I'm going to go be with my grandkids.' I'm so happy that he gets to be in Denver and be with his grandkids and still work for Baylor, because he's unbelievable."
           
This was not the exact path that Malhotra planned as a business major at Baylor, studying Sports Sponsorship and Sales.
           
Born in Abu Dhabi, where his dad worked in the oil industry, AD moved to Toronto, Canada, when he was 5 years old and then the family moved to Houston, Texas, two years later.
           
"(in Abu Dhabi), I was into soccer and basketball wasn't really a thing," he said. "When we moved to Toronto, the Raptors were just getting big, so that became my favorite thing. My first two years in Houston, the Rockets won their NBA championships, so that was a big deal.

"My parents didn't understand my obsession. My room was covered with newspaper clippings and pictures. I would put a towel over the TV and stay up late at night and watch the Rockets games, watch Akeem Olajuwon. Basketball became a love."

AD felt like that was "taken away from me" when he had a fallout with the basketball coach at Clements High School and stopped playing the sport he loved.

"It was like there was a big loss in my life, and that's probably where I struggled the most. I felt like there was nothing left," he said. But, that was when his lacrosse coach and Student Life leader "brought me to Christ."



"He told me, 'Man, there is something more for you,''' said Malhotra, who played football and lacrosse at Clements.

Planning on going to Texas A&M initially, AD stopped at Baylor just to check it out and fell in love with the campus.

Enrolling at Baylor in 2002, he didn't think "coaching would be a thing," so AD went with more the business side of it in the Sports Sponsorship and Sales degree plan. Following graduation, he got a five-month internship with the San Francisco 49ers as a marketing intern.

"It was a big organization, but it was such a small group of people that worked together," Malhotra said, "where you knew every player, you ate together, you worked out together. It was just all in one small facility in Santa Clara, so it was a cool experience. But, I was spending $1,000 on a 300 square-foot studio, so it just wasn't realistic."

Moving back to Waco, he took a job in Baylor Athletics marketing and did some work with the "B" Association. But, playing in a noon pick-up basketball game at the McLane Student Life Center, he got the bug to get into coaching.

Getting a referral from then-Baylor assistant coach Matt Driscoll, AD took a coaching fellowship at Greenhill School in Dallas and started out with the junior varsity girls' basketball team.

With head basketball coach Jay Andrews mentoring him, Malhotra became the JV boys' assistant coach and then the head coach and eventually Andrews' assistant coach for the boys' varsity team.

"He ended up taking me under his wing," AD said. "I was at Greenhill for six years, and we had a couple players that (Baylor assistant coach Jerome Tang) started recruiting. I came down for a couple practices, and they were like, 'Hey, if you ever want to be a graduate assistant, just let us know.'''

Married by that time with a new house "and a good income," Malhotra said he was "content coaching high school basketball, and I knew I would be a head coach." But, his wife, Megan, encouraged him to apply and "see what happens."

Accepted into Baylor's sport management grad program, he got a full-ride scholarship and a monthly stipend for teaching a couple classes. Drew also gave him a grad assistant position with the basketball team.



When their house in Dallas sold within 24 hours, "we were like, 'That's got to be God working,''' AD said. "And then my wife got a job in Waco two weeks later. They actually came and offered her a job that she hadn't really been looking for. It was amazing how everything just worked out."

After two years as a GA, when the Bears made the first back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances in program history, Malhotra was encouraged by Tang and then-Baylor assistant Grant McCasland to stay on staff and a new role was created as special assistant to the head coach.

"I was just grateful that Coach Drew gave me that opportunity to be here," he said. "At the time, I was doing a lot of recruiting graphics, connecting with coaches and recruiting visits, helping them a ton with all of that. And the role just kind of evolved. All of our GAs do scout with one of our assistants, and Coach Tang was like, 'You're going to keep doing scouts with me as long as you're here.' I got to do a lot of the film study, a lot of the extra breakdown stuff that we do."

Drew said Malhotra has "taken on more and more of a leadership role" over the last eight years, transitioning to Director of Basketball Operations two years ago.

"When you first hire someone, they do what you tell them, they do what's required," Drew said. "After a couple years, they're initiating and they're bringing everything to you and they're making everything better. He's extremely organized, very diligent and efficient in everything he does."

While he still wants to get into a full-time coaching role at some point, AD said his goal is to "be a star in whatever role I'm given."

"If this is the role I'm given, I'm going to try to do my best," he said. "I've tried to invest just as much though into this. We're kind of moving more towards individualizing things for our players and making things a little bit more flexible for our guys. Everything DC (Chandler) did helped make that a little smoother and maybe take it to another level."

AD and his wife, Megan, have a 6-year-old daughter, Milo, and a 2-year-old son, Aden.

"I try to get them involved and bring them to as many things as possible, have players over at our house," he said. "My high school coach, Jay Andrews, and Coach Drew always preached that your family has to be involved. And just watching other guys like Grant McCasland do the same thing with their families, that's really import."

Former Baylor player Ishmail Wainright developed a strong bond with Milo, "and she will forever be grateful for that relationship," AD said. "The guys are great. We've been blessed with so many guys that you could trust them to watch your kids."