Michigan State's Tom Izzo Has 'Always Been a Mentor' for Saddi Washington

Michigan State men's basketball made a huge move adding former Michigan assistant coach Saddi Washington to its coaching staff last week.

Washington, who has many years of vital coaching experience, also has some strong ties to the Spartans. His father, Stan Washington, was a star forward for Michigan State back in the 1960s. Saddi is also a native of Lansing.

When Saddi was announced as the Spartans' new assistant coach, he wasn't just joining a new program, he was coming home.

"I mean, it's wild because when I was going through this transitional period and Coach Iz [Tom Izzo] and I first started talking about it, I kind of said like, 'Hey, coach, this can't happen because of some obvious reasons that I understand; however, if it can, then I would love to be able to come home,'" Saddi said when he joined "The Drive with Jack" on Friday. "This whole process, really, has been a thing of relational equity. This is over 30 years of relationship that I've had with Coach Iz, and he's known me since I was 14, 15 years old. He's always been a mentor to me throughout my coaching career. So, any coaching opportunities that I even considered, I would always call him, and lo and behold, now, it was here in East Lansing. So, I mean, it's a full-circle moment, and yeah, I'm just excited that everything has come to fruition."

Saddi has had to face Tom Izzo-coached teams for much of his coaching career, whether it have been his time coaching at Oakland or for the Wolverines.

"It's almost kind of been like an 18-year on-the-job training in getting prepared to come back home," Saddi said. "But always, you knew that it was going to be a dog fight. Tough-minded team, they wanted to play fast, out-rebound you, out-tough you. And that's kind of the staple of a Tom Izzo team. And, now, being able to work for him, well that's, in a lot of ways, that's the easy part. I mean, you got a Hall-of-Fame coach who's had a tremendous amount of success in building young men and having championships and, more importantly, growing and sustaining quality relationships has been awesome for me trying to really get dialed back in with former Spartan Dawgs and alum."

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