OGIUAndy

I'm not sure I follow?

Took the words out of my mouth.

Yes. https://iuhoosiers.com/sports/mens-basketball/roster/coaches/brian-walsh/3164

Well, one is about kids on the team, one is about a guy who is no longer on the team. I don't agree with ripping Fife, but what DD is saying is, you can't have it both ways and I just don't agree. I don't think you should be doing "exposes" about kids getting in trouble on the team. DD is also just way too involved in all things IU and it's always negative. So, yes I think what Rabby did was lame, but to act like it's all a conspiracy to tarnish Fife and make IU look good, is purely gossip. Any and all beat writers are semi subservient to the teams they cover. If they can't get close to players and coaches they have no job. It's easy for DD to say this since his entire job is ripping people and the only time people pay attention is when it's IU. So his criticism is pretty ironic. Someone should just ask Rabby, why spill the beans?

Yeah, lets trash kids says the former IU player known for college buffoonery. This tit for tat stuff is the world we live in these days. If someone says something you don't like, let's come back with something they wouldn't like. The mentality of some of these dudes is about 4th grade level.

I agree with this, and I know this might ruffle some feathers, but I have never been a big fan of pushing the Christian narrative either. It's one thing to hold those values, it's another thing to constantly bring it up even if 90% in the room are down. Politics (culture wars) are in everything these days, but if you over state them, there's going to be consequences. But let's be honest, Woodson doesn't come across as the PC/woke type, he's saying sh*t on national TV and adores Knight, arguably the poster boy for the anti-woke. And if you think canning Fife somehow damages the reputation program, you're way overthinking this. Head coaches who went to the school get canned (or quit) all the time. Woody was hired as the head coach and will most likely will get canned (asked to retire) some day. If you're going to IU guys you can't worry about staining the program if you fire them.

Sometimes things don’t work out with coaches and players. Look at the turnstile of coaches and players during Knight’s time. It’s not always an indicator of dysfunction per se, but a my way or the highway type of situation. Not saying it’s a good thing Fife is gone, I’m really disappointed it didn’t work out, but it’s not a unique situation. I suppose the one caveat being an assumption he was the heir apparent. But that obviously is and was not the case.

Not to mention, they are paying the rest of his contract.

Yeah, I am not a huge fan of trashing Fife on the way out, but it does sound like he made some mistakes. I am sure Woody made a few too. Either way, I don't think it's that big of a deal to separate if it's not working. That being said, I think some people (not you) defending Fife to the end, shouldn't be so quick to personally attack players who actually play for the team, that's not a good look either. Many, many people were quick to accuse players of smoking weed without much proof besides similar rumor mongering. Most of the rumors should be taken with a grain of salt. There might be a little smoke, but without both sides of the story, it all lacks context or depth. I hate to see Fife leave under these circumstances, but it is what it is.

Disappointed, but not surprised. The only way he's going to progress is with consistent playing time. I think he could do well, but his defense is just not closed to be good enough against BIG competition. But you could see his jump shot was much improved, so I bet he ends up being a very good scorer wherever he ends up.

Eating all my own words here. I am shocked to say the least. Not a good look here at all for me or Woody. I hope he knows what he's doing.

Eating all my own words here. I am shocked to say the least. Not a good look here at all for me or Woody. I hope he knows what he's doing.

I am sure there is a nugget of truth to this, but if Fife were to quit one year into this, I would question him as much as Woody. Woody has a lot to learn, if you expect him to make all the right moves his first year, then you've taken the wrong job. At the same time, Woody has to trust his assistant coaches. Sounds like he's just relying on his buddies, which is ok for a bit, but is not realistic long term. Woody is not a dumb guy, and I would hope if a poster on one board and Rabjohns (who are probably getting the information from the same "source") have heard this, I would expect Woody and Fife have talked about it as well. The same reason people are believing it is the same reason to question it, these guys were basically forced into this relationship, so there's going to be learning curves and adjustments made.

I hope Woody understands going through assistants year in year out is not going to work in college. College is about recruiting/relationships, so you have to have assistant continuity otherwise recruiting is going to suffer and badly. He's new to the recruiting game but not coaching, so there's going to be some learning curves with recruiting and probably some stubbornness/trust issues when it comes to coaching. That's always been my concern with older coaches, guys who idolize coaches coaches (Knight, Brown), but don't like the rest of it (recruiting, fundraising, glad handing, social media, NILs, etc) but that's what the "game" is today, so you either have to adapt or you will be on the wrong side of success sooner than later.

Forgot there's a Fife topic already. I am just semi skeptical of all this because it seems to be the same person reporting this again. Being unhappy with your role doesn't necessarily mean you are quitting. And if Rabjohns and one poster know this information, I would assume Woody knows this. And if not, he's not doing a very good job behind the scenes. The whole idea behind hiring Woody is to bring IU players etc together. If it's Wittman versus Fife, I am taking Fife every day all day, and Wittman should be telling Woody the same.

And I understand this could be an issue, but I would hope that all the coaches are mature enough to handle the situation without quitting. And I am sure there is some sort of disagreement, and I assume Ya is leaving for Louisville, but if Fife is taking off because of Wittman, then Woody's job needs to be reassessed, and I am 50% serious. My point is, although this might be an issue, is it such an issue where Fife would leave? If so, that's a problem.

This just sounds like more of the same to me, but because Rabby is repeating it, it has more validity? I just can't believe this is a major issue. Wittman is a consultant right? And who is telling Rabjohns this? So Fife is calling him and complaining? It's like bloggers and fans aren't satisfied unless there's behind the scenes drama. It's tiring. Then if something happens they can go "I told you so...". I would hope these coaches are not so thinned skinned and sensitive.

What smoke are you referring to?

1.6 points to be exact.

This is "rich" coming from Martha the Mop Lady, arguably the most negative IU Twitter handle around.

I don’t like Dakich and I’m not a huge fan of a lot of bloggers or IU Twitter accounts for a couple of reasons. First and foremost, they’re normally spewing negativity or criticism. Sometimes warranted, many times it’s just to get a reaction from people. Secondly, there isn’t always daily “news” surrounding the program, but they’ll make something up or just repeat the same complaint or gossip hourly. I think that’s my biggest complaint with sports bloggers and social media guys in general, they just repeat the same opinion over and over and over….like we get it. Most of the time the opinion is not very original or worthy of a big audience, and if you call them out on it, they get really offended, defensive, or just rude.

The team seems to be struggling. Young pitching right?

Anyone have his stats for the season?

I said "basically" which in context I meant arguably. TJD's play got better as X got better, so to me, X was the reason the team and TJD got better. Against St. Mary's X got a little more out of control, was over passing (to TJD), and missed layups (and passes) he had been making. I think he was spent.