Basketball Assistant Search Well On Its Way

The Boiling Point: Couple names surfacing as potential hires as Purdue men’s basketball assistants.

With the departure of associate head men’s basketball coach Paul Lusk to Missouri State and the status of first-year assistant Mike Jackson up in the air, Matt Painter will be adding at least one assistant to his staff within the next week or so.

Lusk moved on to take over the Bears after former Purdue player and assistant Cuonzo Martin left the school for a new job at Tennessee. Jackson hasn’t been with the team since February after he was suspended following an alcohol-related arrest. He recently pleaded guilty to a Class A misdemeanor of operating a vehicle while intoxicated.

Painter hasn’t said if Jackson will return, but considering he still hasn’t returned to the team and the legal process has run its course, it’s unlikely he will be back with the Boilers. That would leave Painter with two assistant openings to fill with assistant coach Jack Owens still being on staff.

"“We’re in the process,” Painter said at Monday’s postseason banquet. “There’s a lot of interest, and I think that really speaks volumes to our guys and our program and the interest guys have of being on our staff.”"

A lot of names have been thrown around in association with the opening(s), but GoldandBlack.com is reporting two potential names that have some momentum are Dane Fife (yes, former IU player Dane Fife) and Micah Shrewsberry.

Fife started on IU’s national runner-up team in 2002 and has coached six seasons at IPFW. He was also an assistant under Mike Davis at IU and is a native of Michigan.

Shrewsberry is an assistant at Butler and former head coach at Indiana-South Bend. He just completed his third season as an assistant after joining Butler coach Brad Stevens’ staff as the coordinator of basketball operations in 2007. He’s also spent time at Marshall, DePauw, Wabash College and University of Indianapolis. He is an Indianapolis native and played college basketball at Hanover College.