There's about to be a Michigan State basketball reunion in Kalamazoo next season.
After his playing days ended, Thomas Kithier joined the Utah Jazz staff a couple of years ago and that has seemingly done enough to convince former Michigan State assistant, and current Western Michigan head coach, Dwayne Stephens that he's ready to be a collegiate assistant coach.
On Tuesday, Western Michigan announced that Kithier would be joining the coaching staff as an assistant under his former coach.
Not only is Kithier joining a familiar face with Stephens as the head coach, associate head coach Chris Fowler was also on the staff in East Lansing during his three years there.
Obviously the familiarity of Stephens coaching Kithier played a role in this hire, but so did the fact that he's a high basketball IQ guy who spent some time with an NBA franchise on their staff. He's learned some of the ins and outs of coaching and while he still has plenty of learning and growing to do, this is a great start for him if he plans on pursuing a future head coaching job.
Kithier played three years at Michigan State from 2018-21 and he averaged just 2.3 points and 2.3 rebounds per game while playing just 9.6 minutes per game. He never truly lived up to his expectations (along with Foster Loyer), but he transferred for his final season for Valparaiso where he averaged a career-best 10.1 points and 6.6 rebounds per game.
Now Kithier will attempt to help Stephens turn the Western Michigan basketball program around. The former Michigan State assistant is just 32-63 in three years there, but is 18-18 in conference play over the past two seasons.
Nowhere to go but up from here.