Tom Izzo has gotten pretty good mileage out of his assistant coaches over the years as longevity feels like a strong suit for the Michigan State head coach. He builds really good relationships and friendships with his coaches and that usually means they stick around for a while.
Izzo has lost several assistants to head coaching jobs or their alma mater (Dane Fife) over the years, and after losing Dwayne Stephens about five years ago, Mike Garland four years ago, and Mark Montgomery a couple of offseasons ago, the Hall of Famer could lose one more.
With Stephens getting fired at Western Michigan, there's a job opening in Kalamazoo that one Michigan State assistant has reportedly been showing serious interest in.
According to Tony Paul of The Detroit News, Western Michigan had pursued Saddi Washington twice while he was with the Michigan Wolverines but he turned the Broncos away both times. Now, after two seasons with Michigan State, he is reportedly "definitely" interested in the job.
If he were to leave for the Western Michigan job, I wouldn't be all that shocked to see Stephens return to East Lansing as an assistant. That would essentially be a trade with Western.
Saddi Washington would be missed
Washington has been a nice addition to the staff by Izzo following the Montgomery departure for Detroit Mercy, but he's more than earned the recognition he's getting. He may be realizing that it's now or never for a head coaching job in the state that he grew up in and spent his entire coaching career in. The move would make a ton of sense.
When it was announced that Izzo was hiring a former Michigan assistant coach under John Beilein and Juwan Howard, it was met with mixed reactions. Obviously he's a good coach but he came from the enemy and that's what he'd been known as.
Fans quickly got over that and Saddi was welcomed with open arms and aided Michigan State's Big Ten title season a year ago. He also helped Michigan State get to the Elite Eight and he just feels like a really good players coach, judging by all the interactions that are shown between him and his team on social media.
There's no word about Western's interest in Washington this time around, especially since the last Michigan State assistant didn't exactly work out, but he'd be a great candidate.