Saddi Washington (born July 30, 1975) is an American

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

coach and former player. He is the current men's

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

assistant coach for the

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

basketball team. He played

Western Michigan West Michigan and Western Michigan are terms for an arbitrary region in the U.S. state of Michigan's Lower Peninsula. Most narrowly it refers to the Grand Rapids- Muskegon-Holland area, and more broadly to most of the region along the Lower Pen ...

. Before becoming a collegiate assistant coach, he was a volunteer coach at

Romulus Senior High School Romulus Senior High School or Romulus High School is the public high school in the city of Romulus, Michigan in Metro Detroit. History In 2013 Inkster High School closed due to the closure of the Inkster School District. Students in the Ink ...

under current

Alabama (We dare defend our rights) , anthem = "Alabama (state song), Alabama" , image_map = Alabama in United States.svg , seat = Montgomery, Alabama, Montgomery , LargestCity = Huntsville, Alabama, Huntsville , LargestCounty = Baldwin County, Al ...

head coach

Nate Oats Nathanael Justin Oats (born October 13, 1974) is an American basketball coach, currently the head basketball coach at the University of Alabama. Prior to Alabama he was the head coach at the University at Buffalo. Education and playing career Oa ...

Playing career

Washington attended Sexton High School, where he was a four-year letter winner in basketball and track, receiving all-state recognition in both sports in 1993. Following his high school career, he went on to start at Western Michigan. In 1994, he made the

Mid-American Conference The Mid-American Conference (MAC) is a National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I collegiate athletic conference with a membership base in the Great Lakes region that stretches from Western New York to Illinois. Nine of the twel ...

(MAC) All-Freshman team after scoring 14 points per game. He was a two-time All-MAC recipient in his career, including a first-team selection in 1998. He graduated with a double major in business management and marketing. After graduation, Washington signed with the

Utah Jazz The Utah Jazz are an American professional basketball team based in Salt Lake City. The Jazz compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference (NBA), Western Conference, Northwest Division (NBA), ...

and attended training camp in 1998. He attended training camps with Utah (1998 and 1999), the

Denver Nuggets The Denver Nuggets are an American professional basketball team based in Denver. The Nuggets compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Western Conference Northwest Division. The team was founded as the D ...

(2001) and the

Atlanta Hawks The Atlanta Hawks are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta. The Hawks compete in the National Basketball Association (NBA) as a member of the league's Eastern Conference (NBA), Eastern Conference Southeast Division (NBA), Sou ...

(2004). Washington, however, never played a regular season game in the

National Basketball Association The National Basketball Association (NBA) is a professional basketball league in North America. The league is composed of 30 teams (29 in the United States and 1 in Canada) and is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United S ...

Coaching career

Early years

Washington started his coaching career by volunteering at

under current

head coach

. The team went 18–8 in 2005 with an 8–4 conference record. The season was lackluster compared to the previous season, where they had won a state championship.

College assistant coach

Oakland

In 2006, Washington joined longtime

Oakland Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...

head coach

Greg Kampe Greg Charles Kampe (born December 9, 1955) is an American college basketball coach and the current head men's basketball coach at Oakland University. He guided the Golden Grizzlies to their first NCAA Division I tournament and tournament win in ...

's basketball staff as an assistant. The team had a winning season every year from the year he got there, 2006, to 2012. On September 3, 2013, Washington was promoted to Associate Head Coach. From 2013 to 2015, the team improved on every single year.

Michigan

On May 4, 2016, Washington was announced as a new assistant coach on the Michigan basketball staff under former head coach

John Beilein John Patrick Beilein ( ; born February 5, 1953) is an American professional basketball coach who currently serves as the Senior Player Development Advisor for the Detroit Pistons of the National Basketball Association (NBA). Before being hired b ...

. He was responsible for coaching the big men, including

Moritz Wagner Moritz Wagner may refer to: * Moritz Wagner (basketball) (born 1997), German professional basketball player * Moritz Wagner (naturalist) Moritz Wagner (Bayreuth, 3 October 1813 – Munich, 31 May 1887) was a German explorer, collector, geographer ...

and D. J. Wilson whom both became NBA first-round picks. He was retained under new head coach

Juwan Howard Juwan Antonio Howard (born February 7, 1973) is an American former professional basketball player and current head coach of the Michigan Wolverines men's team. A one-time All-Star and one-time All-NBA power forward, he began his NBA career ...

in 2019. In December 2020, Washington became the top ranked recruiter in the class of 2021 according to 247Sports Composite ranking for his involvement in the recruitment of five-star

signees

Moussa Diabaté Moussa Diabaté (born 21 January 2002) is a French professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Clippers of the National Basketball Association (NBA), on a two-way contract with the Ontario Clippers of the NBA G League. He played college bas ...

and

Caleb Houstan Caleb Michael David Houstan (born January 9, 2003) is a Canadian professional basketball player for the Orlando Magic of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He played college basketball for the Michigan Wolverines. Houstan was a consensus f ...

, along with four-star in-state Top100 Kobe Bufkin and Top100 point guard Frankie Collins.

Personal life

He is married to Channon Washington and has two children, Sidney and Caleb. Sidney is a member of the University of Pittsburgh Panthers women's gymnastics team.

References

External links

Michigan Wolverines profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Washington, Saddi Living people 1975 births American men's basketball coaches American men's basketball players Basketball coaches from Michigan Basketball players from Michigan High school basketball coaches in Michigan Michigan Wolverines men's basketball coaches Oakland Golden Grizzlies men's basketball coaches Sportspeople from Lansing, Michigan Western Michigan Broncos men's basketball players