EAST LANSING— Michigan State basketball associate head coach Dane Fife has accepted a role on new head coach Mike Woodson’s staff at Indiana. He had previously been an assistant coach with the Hoosiers from 2003-2005.

Woodson, the former head coach of the Atlanta Hawks from 2004-2010 and the New York Knicks from 2012-2014, was hired as the replacement to former head coach Archie Miller on March 28.

pic.twitter.com/e4x31YWFl7

— Dane Fife (@CoachDaneFife) April 5, 2021

Fife, 41, has been a coach at Michigan State since 2011. He previously coached at Indiana University—Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW), where he compiled a 82-97 overall record in six seasons before taking a role on Tom Izzo’s staff. In 2017, Fife interviewed for the head coach position at Duquesne before turning down the offer.

Fife previously played for the Hoosiers from 1998-2002, holding the record for most all-time steals in school history. He also won the Big Ten Defensive Player of the year award in his senior season in 2002; the season that also saw the Hoosiers go to the National Championship before falling to Maryland.

Izzo will now look for Fife’s replacement, with assistant coach Mike Garland and director of basketball operations David Thomas being popular in-house candidates. Drew Valentine, a former graduate assistant at Michigan State and brother of former Michigan State basketball player Denzel Valentine, was a possible candidate before he accepted the head coaching position at Loyola-Chicago.

Fife’s departure leaves a void in what was one of the longest-tenured coaching staffs in the country.