Just a week after one piece of the Spartan men’s basketball coaching staff decided to stay put, another assistant soon might be leaving the MSU sidelines.

MSU assistant coach Mike Garland will interview for the head coaching job at Wisconsin-Green Bay today, Wisconsin-Green Bay Sports Information Director Brian Nicol said.

Garland, a teammate of MSU head coach Tom Izzo at Northern Michigan, has spent six seasons as an assistant on the Spartan bench. Prior to coaching the Spartans, Garland spent nine seasons coaching the varsity men’s basketball team at Belleville High.

Former MSU assistant and new University of Arkansas head coach Stan Heath left after the 2000-01 season to take the top job at Kent State, then Garland became one of the two assistant coaches allowed to handle off-campus recruiting.

Garland is the last of four candidates to interview for the post left vacant after the firing of Mike Heideman. Heideman had a 110-95 record in seven years at UW-Green Bay, but three-straight losing seasons cost him his job.

Marquette assistant Tod Kowalczyk, Hampton head coach Steve Merfeld and Division II’s University of the Incarnate Word head coach Al Grushkin are the other three finalists.

Nicol said Garland and the other finalists were chosen from an initial pool of more than 40 coaches.

Garland will spend today in various meetings, including an open forum with a panel of faculty members, community leaders and student-athletes.

Nicol said a final decision likely would be made “sooner than later” and was optimistic the final choice would come at least by the end of next week.

The final decision will be made by UW-Green Bay Director of Athletics Ken Bothof with input from the search and screening committee as well as panel members from the open forum.