Michigan State Basketball: Tom Izzo provides update on assistant search

Michigan State basketball coach Tom Izzo provided an update on his search for an assistant coach who’d replace Dwayne Stephens.

Tom Izzo has been without a full coaching staff for nearly two months now and Michigan State basketball fans are hoping for some sort of news on that front.

Dwayne Stephens was hired as Western Michigan’s next head coach in early April and Izzo was tasked with replacing him while still trying to manage his roster. It’s been a long two months for just about everyone as the Spartans have watched Julius Marble transfer from the program, Gabe Brown and Marcus Bingham Jr. both announce they wouldn’t be back for fifth years, and Max Christie decided to go the one-and-done route.

All of these losses only came with a couple of instances of good news such as Carson Cooper committing, although he’ll likely redshirt, and Joey Hauser announcing his return.

Michigan State still has open scholarships and a vacancy at the assistant coaching spot heading into the month of June, but Izzo has said that he is close to making his hire and he’s down to three candidates who are all part of the MSU family.

It’s good to hear that he’s working on making this move by the start of the summer and it makes sense that he hadn’t made it already because one of his former players just tragically passed away.

There are a handful of coaches who fit this description of “part of the family” and the most likely, in my opinion, are Chris Fowler, Maurice Joseph, Thomas Kelley, Tom Crean, and Tum Tum Nairn.

Personally, I think all of those guys would be plus recruiters and would help Izzo adjust to the transfer portal and NIL era of college athletics. I believe one of them will officially join the staff as Stephens’ replacement this weekend.