Tom Izzo isn’t known for handling losses well. Few college basketball coaches are.
But he was all class on Monday when the news broke that he lost his ten year assistant coach Dane Fife to Indiana.
The Hall of Fame Michigan State head coach released a statement via the program’s Twitter account on Monday evening.
“I’m thrilled for Dane to get this opportunity at Indiana,” Izzo wrote in the post. “He is getting the chance to go back to his alma mater and it’s an opportunity to return to a place that he and his wife have considered a second home. Dane has been a tremendous asset to our program over the last 10 years and been a big part of the success we’ve had. He is a born coach, has been a hard worker and committed to Michigan State from the second he arrived here. We will obviously miss him, Blair and their daughters, Quinnly and Reagan, but wish him all the best as he takes this next step in his career and returns to his alma mater.”
Fife played against Izzo for four seasons at IU under head coaches Bob Knight and Mike Davis. He then served two seasons as an administrative assistant under Davis in Bloomington.
After a six year stint as a head coach at IPFW, Fife joined Izzo’s staff in April of 2011. He was the most recent assistant coach Izzo had hired.
Dwayne Stephens, Mike Garland and Fife made up one of the longest-tenured assistant coaching trios in college basketball.
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