Purdue Basketball: Assistant Coach Mike Jackson Resigns

Purdue's coaching search for new assistants has now been doubled as Mike Jackson has resigned effective April 30th. The Boilermakers now have two open positions after Paul Lusk left to take the head coaching position at Missouri State. From Hammer & Rails:

That leaves us with Jack Owens and two open positions with the departure of Paul Lusk. There have been some names floated with current IPFW coach (and IU alum) Dane Fife being one of the top names out there. Brian Neubert at GBI recently posted a blog about Fife, stating that a high profile assistant position might be better in the long run for Fife even though he is currently the head man at another school. He has a good relationship with Painter, and he can likely earn more as an assistant than he can leading the Mastodons.

I don't know about Fife. It would likely upset some IU fans since he is a former player and possible heir apparent down the road. He also is having a nice run of success at IPFW considering that he was the youngest coach in Division I when he started. He is only 82-97 as head coach, but IPFW has never won fewer games than a previous season under him. He is coming off of the best season in program history at 18-12. Does he stay and continue to build his resume, or is Purdue really a better move?

Another factor in our search is that one of the 10 head coaching positions within the state is currently open. The IUPUI Jaguars are still looking to replace Ron Hunter, who is the only coach they have had in their Division I history. Even though Hunter stayed there for 17 years, it is likely that the next coach at IUPUI (perhaps even current IUPUI women's coach and former Purdue player Austin Parkinson?) will try to use that as a springboard to something else. That means a solid young assistant may look for his first head coaching spot instead of taking a potential assistant job with us.