Indiana is hiring Michigan state assistant chief technician Dane Fife as part of Mike Woodson’s technical team, Inside the Hall confirmed.
Fife joins Kenya Hunter as Woodson’s second assistant coach since he was announced as Indiana’s new head coach last Monday.
JoJo Gentry was the first to report the news.
Fife prepared to go to Indiana from 1998 to 2002, playing under the tutelage of Bob Knight and Mike Davis. The 6-foot, 4-inch point guard ended his career in Indiana with an average of 5.6 points, 2.6 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game. Fife still holds the record for Indiana’s all-time robbery program at 180.
In the 2001-02 season, Fife’s final year, he helped lead the Hoosiers to win a part of the Big Ten title of the regular season, as well as participation in a national championship game against Maryland, where Indiana ended up falling short. .
This season was Fife’s most productive one during his career at IU. He was awarded as one of the top ten defensive players of the year, racking up 53 steals, the eighth best in a single season in Indiana. He also hit more than 47% of his pitches beyond the hoop, ranking sixth in the show’s history in a single season. Fife is also tied for sixth in games played in the program’s history.
After playing a season at CBA, Fife joined Davis’ team in Indiana as an assistant for two seasons.
In 2005, Fife took over as head coach at IPFW (now Purdue Fort Wayne). In its first season, Fife took the IPFW to 10 wins, the highest since the program moved up to Division I rankings in 2001. In Fife’s fifth season, the IPFW achieved a record winning record for the first time at the Division I level. .
Prior to the 2010-11 campaign, Fife’s name was announced as a potential candidate for technical assistant positions in Indiana under Tom Crean and Michigan under John Beilein. Instead, Fife stayed at the IPFW and led the team to an 18-12 record.
After that season, Fife was a potential candidate to join Matt Painter in Purdue, but declined the offer. Later that year, Fife accepted an assistant coach position under Tom Izzo in the state of Michigan.
Fife has spent the past 10 seasons in East Lansing under Izzo. He was promoted to associate coach before the start of the 2018-19 season. He worked with a number of NBA players like Miles Bridges, Denzel Valentine, Bryn Forbes, Gary Harris, Jaren Jackson Jr., Cassius Winston and Xavier Tillman. The Spartans reached the Final Four twice during their term in Michigan.
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