Michigan State Women’s Basketball: Former Spartan Candice M. Jackson named Director of Recruiting

The Michigan State Spartans women’s basketball team announced this afternoon that former player Candice M. Jackson has joined the staff as the director of recruiting. She was most recently an assistant coach at Buffalo.

Jackson will oversee Michigan State’s recruiting efforts with her portfolio of duties including organizing the summer calendar, recruiting visits and travel. The return to Michigan State also marks a homecoming in more than one way, as she is a native of Lansing, Michigan and three-time MVP at Lansing Everett High School.

In college, Jackson was a four-year letter winner at MSU from 2000-2004 under then head coach Joanne P. McCallie, serving as team captain in her junior and senior seasons. Those years also saw the Spartans receive back-to-back NCAA tournament berths. Jackson stayed on with the program as a graduate assistant for the 2004-2005 season after graduating with a bachelor’s degree in family community service in 2004. That season saw the Spartans advance to the national championship game in Indianapolis before falling 84-62 to Baylor.

Following her time as a graduate assistant, Jackson worked as an assistant coach at Richmond for four seasons (2005-2009), an assistant coach at Wake Forest for two seasons (2009-2011), an assistant coach at Duke for three seasons (2011-2014), which coincided with two Elite Eight appearances, was named the head coach at the College of Charleston for five seasons (2014-2019) and was an assistant coach at Buffalo for one season (2019-2020).

Coach Merchant offered the following remarks on Jackson’s hire:

“We are thrilled to welcome Candice back to the Spartan family in an official capacity. She brings a wealth of experience in her new role as director of recruiting. She has established herself as a well-respected recruiter and contributor in our profession. Her connections, recruitment of student-athletes in multiple regions of the country, past recruiting coordinator roles, head coaching experience as well as her engaging personality will serve us well in this new role on staff. We are thrilled to welcome Candice back home.”