Fife in Peoria today

[Beninator]

More speculating on candidates -- I like Lick, Graves, and a few of the others...
http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/coll...-coaching-jobs

If we are committed to winning then even this list is easy to winnow down for interviews.

Strong Candidates for high priority interview from this list in no particular order:

Gard
Lusk
Montgomery

Interview these candidates but lower priority to keepOUR options open
Graves
Howard
Lickliter

Coach who I bet will get an interview whom I am not sold on:
Cooley

[lake Camelot]

PLEASE!!! No Lickliter! If anyone is to be avoided, it's him.
He has no personality and probably wouldn't connect as well as other candidates with student-athletes. He seemed burnt out at Iowa - this would be an absolute downgrade. Not sure how he succeeded at Butler, but if "what have you done for me lately" is at work, he is at the bottom of my list.

I guess every one has a no way person. I am fine with Lickliter. My no way is Keno.

[houstonbrave]

The recruiting comment is silly. Its just not that easy and there are not that many good players hanging around in April without a firm idea where they will be going in August. This becomes a very dangerous situation if you have too many open slots. You want to fill the roster but you don't want to sign marginal players that you "live with" for 4 years. Right now the roster is full but with any more players leaving we are left with holes to fill.

[houstonbrave]

I just don't see the case for Fife. He doesn't have a good record and yes I think it is relevant. The school does not have nearly the tradition or resources that BU does but the competition is very poor in that league. I also wonder if we know if he can really recruit. At IPFW he does not seem to have drawn great recruits (and it would be hard to do at that university) so I think he is an unknown.

By all reports he is a good guy and we would not have to worry about violations of NCAA rules. He is personable, but I just don't see that as enough.

In the end he could work out and be a great coach but it is a bit of a "Hail Mary"-it might work out but you are not playing the percentages.

If he gets hired I will support him but again (as I said with Hinson)-I don't think you pay JL a bunch of money, lose players, potentially lose recruits, anger some donors and run off a local legend to move from JL to Fife. It is not a move that makes any sense to me.

[ser_solace]

If the guy did never finish above 4th in a worse conference, then I definitely don't want him. I guess my profile of our future would be one of the following:

-head coach who's killing it in a lower level conference and wants a step up
-assistant a major school with a winning history
-former head coach who had successful midmajor run but didn't quite translate success to a BCS school

The first two are preferable for our hire. Third profile not so much since I'd prefer so new blood.

[ser_solace]

Just kind of thought of this after reading the Bob Knight thread:

Dane Fife Head Coach
Bob Knight Assistant Coach / Mentor Guy

Would that be a more attractive package?

[lake Camelot]

Just kind of thought of this after reading the Bob Knight thread:

Dane Fife Head Coach
Bob Knight Assistant Coach / Mentor Guy

Would that be a more attractive package?

Yes as long as they had a young recruiter with them.

[InMnBob1]

I will take my chances with Howard from UofI

[braveatheart]

I am no expert on this but from that article T linked, I liked Hardy from Northwestern. Smart, private school guy, great recruiter, Chicago ties. Sign him up.

[Braves2011]

I will take my chances with Howard from UofI

I will say Howard would prob be in my top 2 choices. He will be able to recruit and i also think he could be the guy that saves alot of the guys from asking for their release

[Bravesfan]

hey -- I have no problems with giving the guy an interview -- if he is truly the best and MOST qualified guy we have who's interested, then we may just have to hire him....but that would say a lot for the supposed "strong field of candidates" we have heard about....
... but let's temper our enthusiasm to hire him on the spot because of his winning conference record

again -- I rhetorically ask....as we did in baseball and volleyball -- do we want to hire a new coach who has a career head coaching record of under .500 and/or very limited D-I experience? That's fine if nobody any better applies..but honestly -- we have to do a bit better...and the "atmosphere" at Bradley should be such that we should draw FAR stronger candidates...not saying it is but the atmosphere SHOULD BE

Yeah, if we hire this guy then why did we get rid of Les in the first place?

[SFP]

I will support whoever they bring in period! I'd have a hard time though with BK.

[JBinPeoria]

I am actually really happy that Bradley is taking a serious look at Dane Fife. IPFW is a school that has been at the D1 level for only 10 years. Comparing Jim Les's record at Bradley versus Dane Fife's record at IPFW is just ludicrous and shows a lack of understanding of the specific situation each school with regards to their respective conference. What Dane Fife did at IPFW would be like some coach coming into DePaul and making it a middle of the pack Big East team. This coach has a lot of coaching talent, leadership ability, winning attitude and outstanding character. He will be going places in this profession and I would love to see it happen at Bradley. I think a lot of folks are still too sad about coach Les to open their eyes and see what Fife has to offer. But you will eventually see. Hopefully, we will see it at Bradley!

[AZ BU Fan]

JD -- I will bet dollars to donuts that I have singlehandedly had more posts deleted than the next 10 in rank put together...so I have no idea what the hey you can possibly be talking about...

He must be talking about me.

Aw, you guys are amateurs....Set aside deleted posts... I get the impression I have seriously upset more posters here than both of you combined....

I have to be Forum leader in "PDPPTP" (percentage deleted posts per total posts)

On my way to a lifetime ban

[AZ BU Fan]

Jim Les would get skewered for losing games to the likes of Centenary, WIU, and South Dakota State....

Got to give JL credit, BU only lost to power houses Quincy, Eastern ILL, Wisc Platteville, UMKC, ILL-Chi, Tenn Tech, Bowling Green State, Lubbock Christian, Chattanooga, IUPUI, Central Michigan.....