After days of speculation, the Michigan men’s basketball team’s longest-tenured coach isn’t going anywhere.

Saddi Washington, who emerged as a candidate in Western Michigan’s head-coaching search for the second time in three years, has turned down his alma mater, the Maize and Blue Review confirmed Wednesday afternoon. Tony Paul of The Detroit News first reported the news.

Washington just wrapped up his sixth season as an assistant coach in Ann Arbor. Prior to the Wolverines, he spent a decade at Oakland — where he earned a promotion to associate head coach — and a season at Romulus High School. He has helped guide seven teams to the NCAA Tournament, including five consecutive Sweet Sixteen appearances at Michigan. He is the lone holdover on the Wolverines’ staff from the John Beilein era, and he played an instrumental role in the program’s smooth coaching change in 2019.

A Lansing native, Washington starred at Western Michigan from 1994-98. He ranks sixth all time on the school’s leading scorer list and he was inducted into the Broncos’ Hall of Fame in 2010.

Washington is expected to sign a contract extension with the Wolverines in the near future, and TMBR confirmed Juwan Howard has offered a pay raise. Washington signed a contract with a $330,000 base salary when Howard was hired in 2019 as part of the new staff’s $1.155 million annual pool.

During Howard’s five-game suspension to end the regular season, Washington made a strong impression in an expanded coaching role. Though associate head coach Phil Martelli assumed the formal acting head coach title, Washington and fellow assistant Howard Eisley took on more responsibility in Howard’s absence. Each of them impressed a 45-year coaching veteran in Martelli, who emphatically declared America witnessed two future head coaches in action.

But for Washington, that day won’t come this year.

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