Dane Fife leaves IU staff

[str8baller]

6 minutes ago, Golfman25 said:

They didn't say Fife doesn't contribute, just that he isn't liked.  How many coaches are actually "liked."  This is probably more animosity between coaches than anything.  

This was the quote I responded to, 

“Fife did some less than stellar things as has been rumored and hence is no longer an assistant for the Hoosiers and he was not doing a good job at IU, especially with recruiting” 

 

Guess I should’ve said does not “do a good job” instead of “contribute.” Does that change the substance of the conversation for you?  
 

Agree on being liked. Billy Joe Shaver once wrote, “it’s nice to be important, but more important to be nice.” But he didn’t win any dang Div 1 basketball games, so I’m not sure those words are universal. 

[str8baller]

1 hour ago, Uspshoosier said:

Dwayne Stephens  was and had been the lead assistant for Izzo since 2012(associate head coach) He was Izzos right hand man.  He finally got his first head coaching job this year at Western Michigan.   

Good to know.  
 

Of course, that makes the claims of Fife being disliked and poor at his job even a little more hard to believe, unless the claim is Izzo is such a bad manager he can’t stomach booting an underperforming run-of-the-mill assistant. 

[Uspshoosier]

11 minutes ago, str8baller said:

Good to know.  
 

Of course, that makes the claims of Fife being disliked and poor at his job even a little more hard to believe, unless the claim is Izzo is such a bad manager he can’t stomach booting an underperforming run-of-the-mill assistant. 

Couple things can be true.   Fife was a good assistant for Michigan St for over 10 years.     Fife didn’t work out at IU.   Easy to see throughout the year that things were not working out with him and Woody.   You lose a heads coaches trust hard to earn it back and at the end of day it’s the head coaches team and decisions 

[Golfman25]

Just now, str8baller said:

This was the quote I responded to, 

“Fife did some less than stellar things as has been rumored and hence is no longer an assistant for the Hoosiers and he was not doing a good job at IU, especially with recruiting” 

 

Guess I should’ve said does not “do a good job” instead of “contribute.” Does that change the substance of the conversation for you?  
 

Agree on being liked. Billy Joe Shaver once wrote, “it’s nice to be important, but more important to be nice.” But he didn’t win any dang Div 1 basketball games, so I’m not sure those words are universal. 

I think the biggest issue was his public dislike for the NIL situation college athletics finds itself in.  And frankly the way things are going in this wild wild west atmosphere, it's tough to argue he's wrong.  And granted for a college assistant who has to recruit that's a tough attitude to keep.  We really need an Xs and Os guy.  Not sure if he did any of that.    

[Hoosierfan2017]

If Fife didn’t go to IU two decades ago no one would care about Woody firing him. IU didn’t give him some assistant coach special sauce. His boss didn’t like him and he wasn’t doing well at his job. That combination will get you fired about anywhere. 

[Stuhoo]

52 minutes ago, HoosierAloha said:

Sometimes you need a disruptor mentally on your team, staff, place of work, or message board. It can be a hell of a ride but oftentimes the end result is much better than anticipated. I guess the status quo is okay for many.

Fife's flavor of disruptor was apparently to rant about politics and anti-NIL, even when told not to by his boss.

That is not part of the "sometimes" you are referring to I would expect.

[RaceToTheTop]

5 minutes ago, Stuhoo said:

Fife's flavor of disruptor was apparently to rant about politics and anti-NIL, even when told not to.

That is not part of the "sometimes" you are referring to I would expect.

That and to give an offer he specifically was told not to give.

[Stuhoo]

2 minutes ago, RaceToTheTop said:

That and to give an offer he specifically was told not to give.

That too.

Roshown McLeod part deaux.

[Southside]

[IUHoosierJoe]

5 hours ago, HoosierAloha said:

Sometimes you need a disruptor mentally on your team, staff, place of work, or message board. It can be a hell of a ride but oftentimes the end result is much better than anticipated. I guess the status quo is okay for many.

99.9% of “disruptors” are a very small fraction as intelligent as they think they are.

[HoosierAloha]

4 minutes ago, IUHoosierJoe said:

99.9% of “disrupters” are a very small fraction as intelligent as they think they are.

Research on that?

I never mentioned anything about intelligence or what they perceive their intelligence to be. Hell, sometimes when you get the disruptor personality with lower intelligence you get better results. It's amazing how often you get into a habit because it's what is comfortable. When that lower IQ disuptor comes along and starts questioning almost everything you become much more efficient or better at what you should be. Of course, it depends on if you're looking to get better or you're happy with the status quo.

[IUCrazy2]

17 hours ago, Golfman25 said:

They didn't say Fife doesn't contribute, just that he isn't liked.  How many coaches are actually "liked."  There is probably more animosity between coaches than anything.  

If so though, there is a Bob Knight quote about what the @$$ to the bench does for a player.  Banks, Duncomb, and Leal never get off it.  Gunn did get off and had some mixed minutes.  Knight wasn't afraid to go to that bench to make a point.  He took a 50 point L @Minnesota to make the point.

Players will do what you let them do.  You can't always be their buddy when you are the coach....

[IUCrazy2]

17 hours ago, Hoosierfan2017 said:

If Fife didn’t go to IU two decades ago no one would care about Woody firing him. IU didn’t give him some assistant coach special sauce. His boss didn’t like him and he wasn’t doing well at his job. That combination will get you fired about anywhere. 

That's fine, now do Hunter and Rosemond.  I think the issue people have is that those two don't appear to be doing sh*t either.  Not like we are killing it in recruiting, we had a bunch of misses over the past year and development doesn't appear to be their thing based on the court.

Fife (reportedly) got out over his skis a bit (although this is always told to us in a "trust me, I know but can't give you any detail way") but he is somebody that the fans have familiarity with.  He was a player, he was on staff here, he coached another D1 school up state, he had been an assistant at an in conference school for arguably the best coach in the league for a decade....kind of crazy how things just never seem to work out right at IU.

[str8baller]

20 hours ago, Uspshoosier said:

Couple things can be true.   Fife was a good assistant for Michigan St for over 10 years.     Fife didn’t work out at IU.   Easy to see throughout the year that things were not working out with him and Woody.   You lose a heads coaches trust hard to earn it back and at the end of day it’s the head coaches team and decisions 

I buy this. It was my original (unstated) position . It’s not what was argued further up thread; that was the position that Fife was a failure that MSU wanted to fire before we took him off their hands.  
 

But that brings me back to my original question: what did Woody and Fife not see eye to eye on and is there anything there that is a contributing factor to the mess we’re seeing in the floor?   
 

Nobody knows. We’re just guessing. But as somebody wrote up above: funny how these things never work out at IU. 

[Chris007]

6 minutes ago, str8baller said:

I buy this. It was my original (unstated) position . It’s not what was argued further up thread; that was the position that Fife was a failure that MSU wanted to fire before we took him off their hands.  
 

But that brings me back to my original question: what did Woody and Fife not see eye to eye on and is there anything there that is a contributing factor to the mess we’re seeing in the floor?   
 

Nobody knows. We’re just guessing. But as somebody wrote up above: funny how these things never work out at IU. 

I'll bite. Pretty sure these are answers we've all seen before. One Fife talked politics to players and it bothered them, he was asked to stop but didn't. Next, he told a top 10 recruit and his family they should be happy with a scholarship from IU and not worry about NIL money. He openly talked about how he didn't like NIL. He openly talked in meetings with basketball staff or athletic staff about how he is going to do things when he's the head coach. He offered a high school player a scholarship when he was told not to. I also believe Woodson & Fife had their differences in day-to-day basketball operations. 

[go iu bb]

17 minutes ago, Chris007 said:

 He openly talked in meetings with basketball staff or athletic staff about how he is going to do things when he's the head coach.

Whaaaaat? This is the first I've seen this one. So he thought he was next in line for the HC position and talked openly about what he would do differently when he got it? That sounds like he was undercutting Woodson.

[Chris007]

4 minutes ago, go iu bb said:

Whaaaaat? This is the first I've seen this one. So he thought he was next in line for the HC position and talked opening what he would do differently when he got it? That sounds like he was undercutting Woodson.

I think many in the department thought this was a problem and I know of at least one person who was shocked the first time they heard it.

[str8baller]

20 minutes ago, Chris007 said:

Fife talked politics to players and it bothered them, he was asked to stop but didn't. Next, he told a top 10 recruit and his family they should be happy with a scholarship from IU and not worry about NIL money. He openly talked about how he didn't like NIL. He openly talked in meetings with basketball staff or athletic staff about how he is going to do things when he's the head coach. He offered a high school player a scholarship when he was told not to

How did such an incompetent boob like that last ten years at a more successful program in MSU? And who was the incompetent boob who wanted to bring him in?   
 

I always take these post-firing narratives with a gram of salt because they’re incredibly self serving and don’t generally pass basic scrutiny. It’s not just an IU thing, lots of organizations do this when a high profile employee leaves. 
 

“ also believe Woodson & Fife had their differences in day-to-day basketball operations. ”. 
 

Now this is something I’d be interested in hearing more about. 

[TheWatShot]

I'm still trying to figure out why anyone would think our current struggles have anything to do with Fife leaving. It's not like the team woke up a few weeks ago and realized he was gone. 

[Uspshoosier]

30 minutes ago, Chris007 said:

I'll bite. Pretty sure these are answers we've all seen before. One Fife talked politics to players and it bothered them, he was asked to stop but didn't. Next, he told a top 10 recruit and his family they should be happy with a scholarship from IU and not worry about NIL money. He openly talked about how he didn't like NIL. He openly talked in meetings with basketball staff or athletic staff about how he is going to do things when he's the head coach. He offered a high school player a scholarship when he was told not to. I also believe Woodson & Fife had their differences in day-to-day basketball operations. 

Told recruits that as well about being coach in waiting.   Recruits calling IU to see if true is a bad look.    Gave other schools ammo to negative recruit.   Why would you go play for Woodson if he is t going to be there in a couple years when you are suppose to be there.