Maurice Joseph emerging as Michigan State basketball assistant candidate

Maurice Joseph is reportedly emerging as a candidate to replace Dwayne Stephens as Michigan State basketball’s assistant coach.

It’s been about a month since Michigan State basketball lost Dwayne Stephens to Western Michigan as the long-time assistant accepted his first head coaching job down the road.

Tom Izzo admitted that he needed to find an assistant replacement that will help him get acclimated to the transfer portal and he wanted someone who could elevate the staff. For weeks, there was speculation about who he should target, but everything has been quiet on that front recently.

A new name has emerged in the potential search for a head coach on Monday as Adam Nelson of Daily Dirt reported that Maurice Joseph, a former Spartan player, actually turned down the head coaching position at Fairleigh Dickinson because he’s “involved” in the vacant assistant coaching position search at Michigan State.

Joseph was the head coach at George Washington from 2016-19 and an assistant at Fairleigh Dickinson in 2019-20. He was an assistant at George Mason in 2020-21 and then Richmond in 2021-22. He played basketball at Michigan State from 2005-07 and transferred to Vermont to end his career.

While he wasn’t the best head coach, going 44-57 over three years with George Washington, he is a strong assistant who has good recruiting connections. He’d bring young blood to the staff.

Plus, it wouldn’t hurt to add another younger coach who can relate to the players and everything they experience while playing under Izzo.

Izzo has some big decisions to make this offseason with the transfer portal and the assistant coach opening, so we’ll see how he handles these. It’s a big offseason in East Lansing.