Tom Izzo had a familiar face in the crowd, cheering him and his Michigan State basketball team on at the Big Ten Tournament over the weekend.
Former assistant coach Dwayne Stephens was in Chicago for the quarterfinal matchup between Michigan State and UCLA. In case you hadn’t already heard, Stephens was fired by Western Michigan following the end of the Broncos’ season last week and everyone kind of assumed that Izzo would take him back under his wing.
It looks like that has already started as Izzo said that he’s going to try and get Stephens to join the team for the NCAA Tournament run.
Stephens also gives Michigan State a major advantage in round one.
Izzo said he is going to try and get former MSU assistant/fired WMU coach Dwayne Stephens to come along the with the Spartans during the NCAA run. Coached NDSU's Markhi Strickland the past 2 years.
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) March 16, 2026
Stephens coached North Dakota State’s Markhi Strickland who is actually the Bison’s third-leading scorer. Fortunately for the Spartans, however, the former WMU guard doesn’t shoot threes (he’s 0-for-1 on the season).
Plus Stephens is a fantastic assistant coach which is why he was hired away from Michigan State by Western Michigan in the first place. He unfortunately didn’t pan out in Kalamazoo.
This would be a great move by Izzo.
Could Dwayne Stephens re-join the Michigan State staff?
When I heard the news about Stephens and Western Michigan, my first thought was: when is Izzo going to bring him back? It feels like that’s already starting by Izzo trying to bring him along for an NCAA Tournament run. This could be Izzo acclimating the team with Stephens.
There’s a chance that Michigan State could lose an assistant to a new job this offseason and in that case, Stephens would be the perfect re-addition to the staff.
Stephens used to work closely with Michigan State’s bigs and he coached guys like Xavier Tillman, Jaren Jackson Jr., Nick Ward, and Adreian Payne, to name a few. He developed some really good Michigan State bigs, and that high basketball IQ would be more than welcomed back for a potential Final Four run.
Michigan State will benefit from having Stephens around because it gives the Spartans another perspective on game-planning and he can help with Strickland and that first-round matchup.
I like this move.