Tom Izzo is reportedly interviewing former Michigan staffer Saddi Washington to fill the vacant assistant job with Michigan State basketball.
It’s been an interesting offseason for Michigan State basketball and Tom Izzo.
That got even more interesting on Monday as reports surfaced that the Hall of Fame head coach would be interviewing former Michigan assistant Saddi Washington for Mark Maontgomery’s position.
Montgomery accepted the head coaching job at Detroit Mercy last week and that left Izzo to look for a new assistant for the third time in the past few years. He’s had Mike Garland, Dwayne Stephens, and now Mark Montgomery either retire or get hired as head coaches. While his coaching tree is expanding, Izzo is looking to replace Montgomery with an assistant who has experience at the power conference level and who can recruit. Washington’s resume fits both of those requirements.
Washington began his career as an assistant at Romulus under current Alabama head coach Nate Oats. He then went on to be Greg Kampe’s associate head coach before accepting an assistant position from John Beilein. Washington was retained by Juwan Howard and was with the Wolverines for nearly a decade. While it felt like Howard and Washington had plenty of differences, it’s clear he’s one of the better assistants in the Big Ten.
The former Wolverine assistant learned what he knows from two current coaching stars (Kampe and Oats) as well as a Michigan legend (Beilein) and he was named the 2021 recruiter of the year by 247Sports.
Izzo has to be intrigued by the elite recruiting chops of Washington and the fact that he was trusted by his close colleagues (Beilein and Kampe).
Washington would be quite the hire to replace Montgomery and maybe he’s just what this program needs because he’s responsible for coaching some of the best bigs to come through Ann Arbor over the years. Michigan State basketball needs that.
Who says no to this hire?
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