Tom Izzo is filling Dwayne Stephens’ spot on Michigan State basketball’s coaching staff with one of Stephens’ assistant coaches — former MSU guard and, more recently, MSU graduate manager Thomas Kelley, who spent the last four years at Western Michigan.
Kelley takes the place of Stephens, who left MSU in April after 19 seasons to become WMU’s head coach. Stephens had retained Kelley on his staff at WMU.
Kelley, 45, worked under three different WMU head coaches over four seasons in Kalamazoo, after being hired by Steve Hawkins in 2018. Following Hawkins’ dismissal in 2020, Kelley stayed on at WMU and worked for Hawkins’ longtime assistant, Clayton Bates, after Bates was promoted to the head job at the beginning of pandemic.