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Dane Fife not returning to Indiana


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33 minutes ago, IUCrazy2 said:

You guys need to get together and get your story straight.  However, to this statement I would say "Exactly."

Scott was talking about proof that this wasn't Fife, I responded that I need proof it was.  Mainly making the point that none of us has proof, we have a one sided narrative that was released and verified by "a mouth for the program".  That has led some to say Woodson is a better man than Fife.  Fife brought this all on himself.  Yada, yada.  Then you had a few of us saying, hold up, this is pretty one sided.  It threw another IU guy under the bus and that did not seem necessary...and that questioning is somehow the reason Fife had to get the long knife treatment.  Ok...

Dakich can be a dick, but he nailed it this afternoon.  This was a hit job.  It was done through mouthpieces of the school and there is more to it than "Dane Fife, insubordinate bad guy..."

Woodson is in the circle the wagons phase right now, I get it.  We want him to do well.  This was not handled well.  The season basically met my expectations.  However, there are concerns with the way some stuff went down this past year.  To me, this would play into them.  It might be one of the smaller, but still there.

At what point have I sided with Woodson? I’ve been concerned since the announcement because this whole thing doesn’t add up.

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I have news that is going to break this wide open.  The conspiracy theorists are right on the money.  I have it on good authority that whenever Scott Dolson was mad at coach Fife, he would place a house plant in the window of his office.  This was a signal to Rabby, who would drive up and down the street waiting for the signal.  Once the signal was given, the two would meet in a parking garage at a predetermined time to discuss the issues.  Rabby would then "leak" those issues to various IU message boards.  I happened catch onto this signal yesterday, and I went to the parking garage early and waited in my car.  I overheard, Dolson Rabby, and Woody discussing Woody's pending statement, and they all agreed to the use of code words.  They agreed that "appreciate" would actually mean "despise", and that "part of the Hoosier family" would mean "sack of s#!^ a$$#0<e", and finally that "him well in his future pursuits" would actually stand for "He had never been born"  They joked and laughed as they discussed it, trying to find the perfect wording.  They shared a secret handshake, and went their separate ways. After the official statement was read, they met up at the Office Lounge, where they were joined by Wittman and toasted each other for the remainder of the night.  As I left, I overheard them laughing about fleecing the Hoosier fanbase.  Needing something to get my mind off of the current situation, and feeling a little nostalgic, I went home and watched Deep Throat.

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Probably last thing I will say on this because some of the replies are getting silly to the point of condescension.

1.  If Fife did everything he is being accused of exactly as has been portrayed, it is a bad look on him.  I don't think anyone is disputing that.

2.  If Fife did all those things, it would lead one to wonder how on earth he has lasted in the business this long, including 10 years at an in conference rival that has been arguably the standard bearer of the BIG since Knight was fired.

3.  Given those things, I believe this is not as black and white as most of the people here are portraying.

4.  The statement attributed to Woodson and released by Indiana was about as "aggressive" of a "we are parting ways" statement that I have seen.  Yeah, he is part of the Indiana Family (no duh, he played for the team and made an NCAA Final game, nobody can take that away from him) but they made sure that everybody knew he was fired.

5.  Rabjohns tweet was a hit.  It did not have to be released because some fans on a message board were questioning things.  That is such a cop out.  Rabjohns does not say anything like that without go ahead from IU.  It went over like a lead brick and someone called him and told him to delete.  That is all strategic though.  Just posting something for a minute gets that message out there.

6.  You can read some other guys (like Tom Brew) who are also "connected" to the program and they deliver a different picture that is more grey.  Woodson being uptight about the Coach in waiting deal.  Woodson not utilizing his own assistants.  Woodson trying to run things like an NBA team.  

7.  We all want Woodson to succeed and I was ok with how the season ended but we were 1/2 away from the NIT just 2 weeks ago.  We had 15 losses this year.  We were like 2-11 against the BIG teams with a pulse.  There were stupid roster management decisions all year long from the substitution patterns down to who got minutes.  We fell apart late in a whole bunch of games.

8.  Dakich was right in the Indiana way.  We dispose of people and character assassinate them on the way out.  And that comment hit at me too.  I have done that to players before.  And here we are doing it to another IU guy over what looks like 2 big egos that could not get along.  People go out of their way to make sure a guy like Romeo Langford was protected a few years back from comments and now they are on the pile on Fife train.  

9.  Fife was asked to come here.  Sounds like he was told things.  He is brutally honest and the honest truth appears to be that there were some things Woodson was doing well and there were some where he was lost.  Fife's mistake was believing that he could talk about that kind of stuff in confidence when this whole program from the AD, to the media, to the fans has all got to have their piece and say.  So we ran off a "member of the family" who left a 10 year job to move he, his alumni wife, and two small children here (and that happens sometimes) but then we character assassinated him on the way out.  IU is toxic.  There is a reason we have not been good for 20 years.  Coaches have come and gone but the AD culture and program culture remain the same.  

10.  This absolutely will be a "we should have seen" moment in 3 years IF things don't work out.  For all our sake, I hope that is not the case.

Edited by IUCrazy2
Corrected a few typos
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12 hours ago, KoB2011 said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A collection of some of the posts from before the Rabby post. This is from one IU site that is a little smaller than some others. That’s what forced this. Blame yourselves if you’re mad it happened. 

I am so proud to have so much power to be able to FORCE someone to post. Most days I can get anyone in my own house to even listen to me let alone FORCE someone I really don't know to write something running someone else through the mud. Damn I feel good

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1 hour ago, IUCrazy2 said:

Probably last thing I will say on this because some of the replies are getting silly to the point of condescension.

1.  If Fife did everything he is being accused of exactly as has been portrayed, it is a bad look on him.  I don't think anyone is disputing that.

2.  If Fife did all those things, it would lead one to wonder how on earth he has lasted in the business this long, including 10 years at an in conference rival that has been arguably the standard bearer of the BIG since Knight was fired.

3.  Given those things, I believe this is not as black and white as most of the people here are portraying.

4.  The statement attributed to Woodson and released by Indiana was about as "aggressive" of a "we are parting ways" statement that I have seen.  Yeah, he is part of the Indiana Family (no duh, he played for the team and made an NCAA Final game, nobody can take that away from him) but they made sure that everybody knew he was fired.

5.  Rabjohns tweet was a hit.  It did not have to be released because some fans on a message board were questioning things.  That is such a cop out.  Rabjohns does not say anything like that without go ahead from IU.  It went over like a lead brick and someone called him and told him to delete.  That is all strategic though.  Just posting something for a minute gets that message out there.

6.  You can read some other guys (like Tom Brew) who are also "connected" to the program and they deliver a different picture that is more grey.  Woodson being uptight about the Coach in waiting deal.  Woodson not utilizing his own assistants.  Woodson trying to run things like an NBA team.  

7.  We all want Woodson to succeed and I was ok with how the season ended but we were 1/2 away from the NIT just 2 weeks ago.  We had 15 losses this year.  We were like 2-11 against the BIG teams with a pulse.  There were stupid roster management decisions all year long from the substitution patterns down to who got minutes.  We fell apart late in a whole bunch of games.

8.  Dakich was right in the Indiana way.  We dispose of people and character assassinate them on the way out.  And that comment hit at me too.  I have done that to players before.  And here we are doing it to another IU guy over what looks like 2 big egos that could not get along.  People go out of their way to make sure a guy like Romeo Langford was protected a few years back from comments and now they are on the pile on Fife train.  

9.  Fife was asked to come here.  Sounds like he was told things.  He is brutally honest and the honest truth appears to be that there were some things Woodson was doing well and there were some where he was lost.  Fife's mistake was believing that he could talk about that kind of stuff in confidence when this whole program from the AD, to the media, to the fans has all got to have their piece and say.  So we ran off a "member of the family" who left a 10 year job to move he, his alumni wife, and two small children here (and that happens sometimes) but then we character assassinated him on the way out.  IU is toxic.  There is a reason we have not been good for 20 years.  Coaches have come and gone but the AD culture and program culture remain the same.  

10.  This absolutely will be a "we should have seen" moment in 3 years IF things don't work out.  For all our sake, I hope that is not the case.

Zero blame on Fife after 10 bullet points?

"Fife's mistake was believing that he could talk about that kind of stuff in confidence"  Was that his only mistake?  If feel like this super long post is short a few things.  

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34 minutes ago, Billingsley99 said:

I am so proud to have so much power to be able to FORCE someone to post. Most days I can get anyone in my own house to even listen to me let alone FORCE someone I really don't know to write something running someone else through the mud. Damn I feel good

Collecting those posts was a colossal waste of time.  The comments by fans do not justify the way IU handled it.  That’s absurd and not worth seriously getting into.  

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3 minutes ago, BobSaccamanno said:

Collecting those posts was a colossal waste of time.  The comments by fans do not justify the way IU handled it.  That’s absurd and not worth seriously getting into.  

What did IU do? Rabjohns isn't IU, he posted something regrettable as a result of the over the top backlash. Rabjohns is very plugged in to what is being said about IU on the internet, it's literally a part of Peegs business.

We have someone who has done PR for an NBA team saying there is no way that was leaked or forced by IU. If anything, I'd guess IU and Woody are the reason it got taken down. 

I don't understand what is absurd about thinking someone who is interacting with people on a message board would react to things being posted on message boards. That actually seems like a very intuitive point more than an absurd one. 

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1 hour ago, IUCrazy2 said:

Probably last thing I will say on this because some of the replies are getting silly to the point of condescension.

1.  If Fife did everything he is being accused of exactly as has been portrayed, it is a bad look on him.  I don't think anyone is disputing that.

2.  If Fife did all those things, it would lead one to wonder how on earth he has lasted in the business this long, including 10 years at an in conference rival that has been arguably the standard bearer of the BIG since Knight was fired.

3.  Given those things, I believe this is not as black and white as most of the people here are portraying.

4.  The statement attributed to Woodson and released by Indiana was about as "aggressive" of a "we are parting ways" statement that I have seen.  Yeah, he is part of the Indiana Family (no duh, he played for the team and made an NCAA Final game, nobody can take that away from him) but they made sure that everybody knew he was fired.

5.  Rabjohns tweet was a hit.  It did not have to be released because some fans on a message board were questioning things.  That is such a cop out.  Rabjohns does not say anything like that without go ahead from IU.  It went over like a lead brick and someone called him and told him to delete.  That is all strategic though.  Just posting something for a minute gets that message out there.

6.  You can read some other guys (like Tom Brew) who are also "connected" to the program and they deliver a different picture that is more grey.  Woodson being uptight about the Coach in waiting deal.  Woodson not utilizing his own assistants.  Woodson trying to run things like an NBA team.  

7.  We all want Woodson to succeed and I was ok with how the season ended but we were 1/2 away from the NIT just 2 weeks ago.  We had 15 losses this year.  We were like 2-11 against the BIG teams with a pulse.  There were stupid roster management decisions all year long from the substitution patterns down to who got minutes.  We fell apart late in a whole bunch of games.

8.  Dakich was right in the Indiana way.  We dispose of people and character assassinate them on the way out.  And that comment hit at me too.  I have done that to players before.  And here we are doing it to another IU guy over what looks like 2 big egos that could not get along.  People go out of their way to make sure a guy like Romeo Langford was protected a few years back from comments and now they are on the pile on Fife train.  

9.  Fife was asked to come here.  Sounds like he was told things.  He is brutally honest and the honest truth appears to be that there were some things Woodson was doing well and there were some where he was lost.  Fife's mistake was believing that he could talk about that kind of stuff in confidence when this whole program from the AD, to the media, to the fans has all got to have their piece and say.  So we ran off a "member of the family" who left a 10 year job to move he, his alumni wife, and two small children here (and that happens sometimes) but then we character assassinated him on the way out.  IU is toxic.  There is a reason we have not been good for 20 years.  Coaches have come and gone but the AD culture and program culture remain the same.  

10.  This absolutely will be a "we should have seen" moment in 3 years IF things don't work out.  For all our sake, I hope that is not the case.

These aren't numbered in any particular order, but figured I'd respond to some of your thoughts since several people have seemingly been saying some similar things.

1. I have no idea what event actually happened, but at this point most of the stuff about Woody is pure speculation. It all boils down to there were some leaked rumors that he is stubborn and hard to work with. People keep complaining about IU leaking stuff about DF, but leaking info is a 2 way street. At this point, it seems pretty clear where the leaked info about Woody is coming from. 

2. Some of the info about DF is also pure speculation, but some of it came directly from DF tweets. He publicly (drunkenly?) tweeted about his former school having a better student section - which is not a big deal imo, but still a bad look. More importantly, he tweeted some negative comments on NIL. Whether he was trying to get a different point across or not, having the perception of being an anti-NIL will kill recruiting high level players. If you're an anti-NIL school or staff, you are immediately out of the running for almost all 5 star and a lot of 4 star recruits. Whether you like NIL or not, it's here to stay and IU needs to take advantage of it.

3. If that was an "aggressive" parting ways announcement, I'm assuming you don't follow sports very closely. That was about as benign as it gets. Also, more broadly speaking, I disagree with some that say IU should have said it was a mutual parting of the ways. I prefer an organization actually have the courage to say what happened. It sends a strong message internally and externally about what expectations are and what happens when expectations aren't met.

4. We have our most successful season since 2016, and now all of a sudden Woody can't coach because he let go of a liked former player/assistant? Come on. I have no idea if Woody will be the answer long term, but this is as optimistic I've been about IU bball since the start of the 2017 season. Also not sure which two of the following B1G teams are the ones with a pulse: Purdue, Ohio State, Michigan, and Illinois 

5. Rabjohns is not an IU employee. He does not need to ask for approval to post stories/messages about what he has heard.

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Since we are going with unfounded conspiracy theories about leaking, might as well go with one that paints everyone in the best possible light: 

  1. Fife is let go by IU due to irreconcilable differences with CMW - both to blame 
  2. Ridiculous fan backlash happens in twitter-verse and elsewhere, damaging IU's ability to recruit
  3. Fife, who loves IU more than himself (which I do believe to some extent), tells Rabjohns to release information that paints his time at IU in a less than favorable light in order to exculpate IU and Woodson in order to not be a distraction for IU's recruiting and search for a new assistant
  4. CMW, wishing to protect Fife's future options, contacts Rabjohn and requests that he remove the private details about Fife

I guess it is kind of fun to just make stuff up...

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29 minutes ago, NotIThatLives said:

Zero blame on Fife after 10 bullet points?

"Fife's mistake was believing that he could talk about that kind of stuff in confidence"  Was that his only mistake?  If feel like this super long post is short a few things.  

This has gotten out of hand for something that was pretty simple. 

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1 minute ago, GaloisGroupe said:

Since we are going with unfounded conspiracy theories about leaking, might as well go with one that paints everyone in the best possible light: 

  1. Fife is let go by IU due to irreconcilable differences with CMW - both to blame 
  2. Ridiculous fan backlash happens in twitter-verse and elsewhere, damaging IU's ability to recruit
  3. Fife, who loves IU more than himself (which I do believe to some extent), tells Rabjohns to release information that paints his time at IU in a less than favorable light in order to exculpate IU and Woodson in order to not be a distraction for IU's recruiting and search for a new assistant
  4. CMW, wishing to protect Fife's future options, contacts Rabjohn and requests that he remove the private details about Fife

I guess it is kind of fun to just make stuff up...

I would put DAMN good money down #4 is true. But of course the conspiracy theorist won't see it that way. Smh

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38 minutes ago, NotIThatLives said:

Zero blame on Fife after 10 bullet points?

"Fife's mistake was believing that he could talk about that kind of stuff in confidence"  Was that his only mistake?  If feel like this super long post is short a few things.  

It was literally bullet point #1 FFS.

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4 minutes ago, KoB2011 said:

What did IU do? Rabjohns isn't IU, he posted something regrettable as a result of the over the top backlash. Rabjohns is very plugged in to what is being said about IU on the internet, it's literally a part of Peegs business.

We have someone who has done PR for an NBA team saying there is no way that was leaked or forced by IU. If anything, I'd guess IU and Woody are the reason it got taken down. 

I don't understand what is absurd about thinking someone who is interacting with people on a message board would react to things being posted on message boards. That actually seems like a very intuitive point more than an absurd one. 

This was Dan and the mystery player X’s point.  You don’t need to publicly “fire” Dane.  Woody wanted the whole world to know that he fired him. Just leave it as IU and Dane are parting ways, we agreed we are not a good fit, and be done with it.  

Just because there is blowback does not in any way justify Rabjohns’ ridiculous and unprofessional screed.  It was nuclear.  Total dufuses like Skip Bayless don’t even go off like Rabjohns did.  

Others, including Dakich, have said that Rabjohns does what IU administration wants.  He earns a living by having access to information from IU.  The relationship between Peegs and IU is that the Peegs guys try to please IU.  Woody is literally speaking at a Peegs event in May, according to DD.  

If you haven’t listened to Rabjohns on JMV, I encourage you to.  He totally trashed Fife, up and down, with no nuance. He was condescending and made Fife sound like an idiot.  He was transparently trying to please a particular audience (IU athletics administration).  IU doesn’t need to “smear” anyone.  The Peegs lapdogs can activate on their own to tacitly please the IU folks who give them access and goodies.  

IU didn’t handle this well.   I can’t believe this is in serious dispute.  It is pretty self evident that this is the case by how long the discussion lasted.  The fact that people are defending IU here are way off track.  

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2 minutes ago, btownqb said:

This has gotten out of hand for something that was pretty simple. 

Rabby is an easy target and I think that makes it easier to dismiss what he said outright.

What I don’t see is folks trying to explain away all the other IU insiders like ITH, AC, that film guy, etc. saying almost the exact same thing as Rabby. 

The funniest part about all of this is that I’m not sure we would’ve parted ways if Fife was tied to any commits or critical recruiting processes

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11 minutes ago, GaloisGroupe said:

Since we are going with unfounded conspiracy theories about leaking, might as well go with one that paints everyone in the best possible light: 

  1. Fife is let go by IU due to irreconcilable differences with CMW - both to blame 
  2. Ridiculous fan backlash happens in twitter-verse and elsewhere, damaging IU's ability to recruit
  3. Fife, who loves IU more than himself (which I do believe to some extent), tells Rabjohns to release information that paints his time at IU in a less than favorable light in order to exculpate IU and Woodson in order to not be a distraction for IU's recruiting and search for a new assistant
  4. CMW, wishing to protect Fife's future options, contacts Rabjohn and requests that he remove the private details about Fife

I guess it is kind of fun to just make stuff up...

All the while Fife is still getting paid his full contract for the next year.  Pretty fair for a guy that was let go with cause. 

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1 minute ago, BobSaccamanno said:

This was Dan and the mystery player X’s point.  You don’t need to publicly “fire” Dane.  Woody wanted the whole world to know that he fired him. Just leave it as IU and Dane are parting ways, we agreed we are not a good fit, and be done with it.  

Just because there is blowback does not in any way justify Rabjohns’ ridiculous and unprofessional screed.  It was nuclear.  Total dufuses like Skip Bayless don’t even go off like Rabjohns did.  

Others, including Dakich, have said that Rabjohns does what IU administration wants.  He earns a living by having access to information from IU.  The relationship between Peegs and IU is that the Peegs guys try to please IU.  Woody is literally speaking at a Peegs event in May, according to DD.  

If you haven’t listened to Rabjohns on JMV, I encourage you to.  He totally trashed Fife, up and down, with no nuance. He was condescending and made Fife sound like an idiot.  He was transparently trying to please a particular audience (IU athletics administration).  IU doesn’t need to “smear” anyone.  The Peegs lapdogs can activate on their own to tacitly please the IU folks who give them access and goodies.  

IU didn’t handle this well.   I can’t believe this is in serious dispute.  It is pretty self evident that this is the case by how long the discussion lasted.  The fact that people are defending IU here are way off track.  

Who gives a F about Rabjohns? 

No. You are off track. Dane Fife messed up BAD... he should have been fired well before now. Woodson did him one hell of a solid waiting. 

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21 minutes ago, KoB2011 said:

What did IU do? Rabjohns isn't IU, he posted something regrettable as a result of the over the top backlash. Rabjohns is very plugged in to what is being said about IU on the internet, it's literally a part of Peegs business.

We have someone who has done PR for an NBA team saying there is no way that was leaked or forced by IU. If anything, I'd guess IU and Woody are the reason it got taken down. 

I don't understand what is absurd about thinking someone who is interacting with people on a message board would react to things being posted on message boards. That actually seems like a very intuitive point more than an absurd one. 

I  w I l l t y p e  s l o w l y . 

Rabby is not IU just like Mike CHappel is not part of the Colts but you better believe neither are saying anything that does not have the green light. Even if they know they could be the first to break a story.they both know where the money comes from

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Just now, btownqb said:

The actual stance some of you have taken is.... Woodson is trying to sabotage the program. 

The HC fired him guys. An actual, Indiana living legend... one that played under RMK... fired Dane. You all have wanted the "guy to make all the tough calls".... until you didnt like what the end result of one of those tough calls were..

What more do you need? 

I'm out.  This was handled great.  Fife was the devil incarnate and Woodson and the IU AD are blameless and perfect.  

Going to go hop on my unicorn and fly off to eat skittles and count gold at the end of my rainbow.

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