Dane Fife leaves IPFW

[Da Coach]

Looks like Dane Fife is getting his wish and getting out of Ft. Wayne.
After trying for several open head coaching jobs, he is now reportedly set to be hired as an assistant under Tom Izzo at Michigan State.

Associate Coach Tony Jasick will take over IPFW.

[lefty]

Looks like Dane Fife is getting his wish and getting out of Ft. Wayne.
After trying for several open head coaching jobs, he is now reportedly set to be hired as an assistant under Tom Izzo at Michigan State.

Associate Coach Tony Jasick will take over IPFW.

That's not a bad way to go actually....he'll have head coaching experience and then asst under a great program......

[Da Coach]

I agree. It is probably better for him than most of the jobs his name surfaced for, like Eastern Michigan. At MSU he'll get paid very well, better than the head coach at a lot of D1 schools, and eventually, all of Tom Izzo's assistants get offers for head coaching jobs.

[tornado]

yes -- but most go to middle or lower mid-majors like Montgomery just did in going to NIU...
and current Michigan State assistant Dwayne Stephens who really went hard to land the Kent State opening...
just like former MSU assistant Mike Garland a few years ago took the Cleveland State job when it was a bottom dweller job..
...so making the same move in reverse -- going from HC when you're just getting some press for the good job you've done to back to an assistant spot is unusual.

so any way you spin it good or bad decision -- this is an unusul move to leave a D-I head coaching position to take an assistant coaching position somewhere else.

[SFP]

yes -- but most go to middle or lower mid-majors like Montgomery just did in going to NIU...
and current Michigan State assistant Dwayne Stephens who really went hard to land the Kent State opening...
just like former MSU assistant Mike Garland a few years ago took the Cleveland State job when it was a bottom dweller job..
...so making the same move in reverse -- going from HC when you're just getting some press for the good job you've done to back to an assistant spot is unusual.

so any way you spin it good or bad decision -- this is an unusul move to leave a D-I head coaching position to take an assistant coaching position somewhere else.

T I have to disagree. I believe this is a good move for him on multiple levels:

Financial - more money less stress

Able to walk into the doors of higher quality programs and handlers - will help him in the future

IPFW was not going to win him any kudos and the chance of hurting his stock could be high

Working with Izzo is never a bad move IMHO

[tornado]

T I have to disagree. ...
Working with Izzo is never a bad move IMHO

disagree ??


I didn't say it was a bad move -- I only said it was a very unusual move - do you know of many examples?

[SFP]

T - Let's face it IPFW was like working at a D2 school. This is also a new phenomena of coaches leaving a D1 HC position for an assistant job at a BCS school. Can you give me an example on how it has not worked out?

[tornado]

since there aren't a lot of examples - I know only of a couple recent ones...
so it is early but Ritchie McKay might be a brewing example ..

He had a solid job as HC at Liberty -- he probably would have been there for life but went to UVa as an assistant..
now after a couple years of Bennett/McKay at Virginia, the natives are already restless ..and I suspect if they are under 7 conference wins a couple more years they may be looking for a new job.
if he's canned his prospects of getting another D-I HC job won't be great

[TheAsianSensation]

Agree with t. Whether it's good or bad, it is unusual. (t didn't say it was either good or bad)

My thoughts: Fife has two routes:

Route 1) Assistant coach for a couple years under Izzo. Asst. coaches at this level usually can step right into a BCS job for their next job. Of course, if you go be an assistant and the head coach gets canned, you as the assistant freefall in the college basketball hierarchy. But I'll go out on a limb and say Izzo is safe

Route 2) Stay at IPFW, however, you can't get to the BCS from IPFW. You'd have to find a solid mid major. If you succeed there, you then have an easy jump to the BCS if you want it. But if you fail there, you probably have to jump down back to a Summit-level job and start the process over.

So there's two paths, and one of the paths cuts out a lot of the risk.

[tornado]

a recent head coach at BU and current head coach at a nearby school once said some people are way more cut out to be head coach and some way more cut out to be assistant and might make bad HC's...
it's all in their personality and what they want......
I know he would have far preferred to be HC at even a bad school than asst. at a big one..

[lefty]

Well he wasn't getting the HC jobs he was looking for so maybe in the process he found out some reasons that these schools weren't taking him and thought MSU might be a better shot at getting to the next level instead sticking it out at FT Wayne. Some guys have too much ego to do this and would continue to beat a dead horse on their own than do better with someone else's help

[Da Coach]

From some things I have heard and read, he wanted out of IPFW badly. There were conflicts there, and serious budget and facilities problems. I suspect he knew he would never be able to win there or take them to the next level. After several rejections for open head coaching spots, maybe he realized this was the best (or maybe the only) way to get out or move up.

[SFP]

since there aren't a lot of examples - I know only of a couple recent ones...
so it is early but Ritchie McKay might be a brewing example ..

He had a solid job as HC at Liberty -- he probably would have been there for life but went to UVa as an assistant..
now after a couple years of Bennett/McKay at Virginia, the natives are already restless ..and I suspect if they are under 7 conference wins a couple more years they may be looking for a new job.
if he's canned his prospects of getting another D-I HC job won't be great

I get where you are going with this but the big difference is that the chances of a Tom Izzo program going backwards is slim to none. Even his worse years he contends for the Big X title and is seeded pretty well in the NCAA tourney.

[tornado]

yea but even a great HC candidate like Montgomery still waited 9+ years before an opportunity came along and it still wasn't the world's greatest opportunity -- it was NIU..

[tornado]

Ran across this interesting discussion......
There's talk on the Michigan State boards of Dane Fife - who was at one time rumored to be a candidate for the Bradley spot a couple years ago- but never was...
Fife left the IPFW head coaching spot for the assistant spot at Michigan State under Tom Izzo, that was vacated when Mark Montgomery left to take over at NIU.

Now more than one discussion on who might take over after Izzo - centers on Fife....
some are talking about Tom Izzo's retirement - as if it might be sooner than some think (58 y/o) and that Fife is effectively the Coach-in-Waiting and will take over for Izzo at Michigan State..
nothing official just rumors....

http://michiganstate.247sports.com/Board/93/Dane-Fife-and-MSUs-OC-search-16893158/1