Former Final Four team captain returns to Michigan State as assistant coach

EAST LANSING – One look was all it took for Tom Izzo to spot a leader.

The Michigan State Hall of Famer was on a recruiting trip to Sunrise Christian Academy in Kansas when he met Lourawls "Tum Tum" Nairn for the first time and watched him in the weight room.

"I offered him a scholarship right after that," Izzo recalled on Thursday. "He just was vibrant, he cared about people."

Nairn, who went on to become a three-year captain for the Spartans and served on Izzo's staff, will return to East Lansing but on the opposing bench. He's in his second season as an assistant at Bowling Green (1-2), which plays at Michigan State (2-1) on Saturday (6 p.m., BTN).

"It's always hard to go against an assistant coach but it will be hard to go against Tum because Tum's like a son to me," Izzo said. "I have a great appreciation for his journey."

Nairn, a native of Nassau, Bahamas, started at point guard as a freshman on the team that made the 2015 Final Four. He averaged 2.5 points and 3.0 assists in 137 career games with the Spartans.

"We love him, I love him," Izzo said. "He did a lot for me and it kind of makes you believe in humanity because he's such a good kid and a good person."

After graduating from Michigan State, Nairn spent the 2018-19 season as a player development coach with the Phoenix Suns before returning to East Lansing for two years as a graduate assistant. He served as the head coach back at Sunrise Christian for one season before joining Todd Simon's staff at Southern Utah and following him to Bowling Green last year.

"I'm really proud of Tum and what he's done," Izzo said of the early stops in his career. "Tum's going to be a great head coach someday, you watch. He gets it."

Nairn wasn't much of a scorer for the Spartans but the leadership he displayed translates to coaching. That was evident the first impression he made on Izzo.

"Tum had a few deficiencies like a lot of people do but when you really look at it, he started as a freshman on a Final Four team and gave us four great years of what he could do," Izzo said. "He wasn't entitled to anything, especially where he came from. That alone makes a good coach if you ask me."