Dane Fife reportedly turns Beilein down

Hmmm......he must still think he has a good chance at the Indiana job?

Among the other candidates who have been mentioned, 33-year-old Bacari Alexander, currently an assistant coach at Western Michigan, has a particularly interesting resume. He's a Detroit native who prepped at Detroit Southwestern and then split his college playing days at Robert Morris and UDM. He had assistant coaching stints at UDM and Ohio before joining WMU in 2008. He also spent two years (2000-2001) playing for the Harlem Globetrotters. And then there's his sartorial side:

Alexander is also recognized as the most fashionable assistant coach in America. Alexander is a three-time (2005, ‘07, ‘09) winner of CollegeInsider.com’s Runway to the Fashionable Four and runner-up in 2008. He is the only three-time winner (head or assistant coach) in the contest’s history.

He also seems not just smart-dressed but smart:

Alexander received the President’s Award as UDM’s most outstanding senior student-athlete, and graduated in 1999 with a bachelor’s of science in business administration and finance.

And with Jordan Dumars on the Michigan roster, he can also point to his connection to the Pistons:

After graduation he went to work for the Detroit Pistons as a Players Programs Coordinator, then left to return to the court as a member of the world-famous Harlem Globetrotters.

I thought we were going after Barney?

From this report from the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel, it's unclear whether Fife was actually offered the job.

“I am not pursuing the assistant coaching position at Michigan,” Fife said. “I expect to be at IPFW next year.” He admitted having talks with Wolverine Coach John Beilein about the job, but refrained from explaining as to whether any offer was made. “Those talks are to remain private,” Fife said.

As an aside, I'm surprised Rothstein at annarbor.com hasn't had anything on this given his Fort Wayne/Notre Dame background. UPDATE: This morning, Sam Webb said he had not heard that Fife had actually been offered the job and seemed very skeptical about Beilein having done so. Podcast of that segment can be found HERE

Next!

Mark Snyder at the paper that shall not be named has a new article on the coaching search, with a rundown of possible candidates:

Other possible candidates for the U-M position, according to college basketball insiders, are former Iowa and Butler assistant LaVall Jordan, Western Michigan assistant Bacari Alexander, who also has worked at Detroit Mercy and Ohio, and Oakland University assistant Saddi Washington.

Article says that John Mahoney has already left U-M, while Jerry Dunn is staying on through the end of April. Profile on LaVall Jordan can be found HERE. He lost his most recent job when Lickliter was fired by Iowa.

Kalamazoo Gazette writer Graham Couch has a report saying Bacari Alexander is "being seriously considered" for the U-M coaching job "according to a source with knowledge of the process." The article notes that Alexander has been working with WMU's big men--that happens to be one of the needs Beilein has said he has to fill with the departure of Mahoney. Also of note is that Alexander played a key role in the recruitment of Juwan Howard Jr. to WMU.