Michigan State basketball loses key grad assistant to Greg Kampe and Oakland

Greg Kampe has finally beaten Tom Izzo. The Oakland head coach hired away a key Michigan State grad assistant who started his career with the Golden Grizzlies.

Michigan State had been home to former Oakland sharpshooter Blake Lampman for the past two years but he decided to go back to where his basketball career began.

This week, Lampman was hired by Kampe as an assistant coach and director of operations, ending his Michigan State coaching career after two solid seasons. He helped Michigan State win a Big Ten title in his first season with the Spartans in 2024-25 and they then won 27 games and made the Sweet 16 in 2025-26.

The now-former Michigan State grad assistant will head down the road to Oakland where he played five seasons and has appeared in more games than any other player in program history. He was known as a sharpshooter, although he didn’t get nearly the same attention and fanfare as Jack Gohlke who helped lead the Golden Grizzlies past Kentucky in the 2024 NCAA Tournament.

Lampman did have some decent games against Michigan State in his career so he’s remembered by Spartan fans not just as a grad manager but also a solid player.

Now he heads home to Oakland where he’s assuming a much larger role under Kampe. The Haslett, Mich., native’s career has officially come full circle and it hasn’t taken very long for him to land a job that takes a lot of former players a decade-plus to reach. For reference, he left Oakland in 2024 and was immediately hired by Izzo as a grad manager in 2024-25 and remained with the staff this past season before earning an assistant coach and director of operations role with his alma mater.

It’ll be easy to root for Lampman as his career as a coach progresses. Maybe he’ll be Oakland’s next head coach when Kampe retires and he’ll try his hand at (finally) beating Michigan State.

Blake Lampman was a favorite of the players

Judging by how Lampman was talked about by Izzo and some of the players over the past couple of seasons, it’s obvious that they really enjoyed working with him.

Izzo made a wise move by bringing him in to connect with the players right after his playing career at Oakland ended and he made some friendships with the guys on the roster. The vibes in the locker room have been at an all-time high over the past couple of years and while that may have something to do with roster changes, it’s also because the Spartans had a cohesive coaching staff. The recent staff additions like Saddi Washington, Raymar Morgan, Goran Suton, and Lampman have been great for the program.

How much did Lampman mean to the Spartans? Jeremy Fears weighed in, calling him his brother and congratulating him on his new job with his alma mater.

For the first time ever, Kampe has beaten Izzo and I can bet that Tom is happy for his coaching counterpart. There aren’t many better friendly coaching rivalries than Izzo vs. Kampe.

This year’s matchup should be fun.

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