The Michigan Daily - Monday, April 18, 1994 -17^
Fife proves he can yafrus
Sophomore epitomizes team-player mentality 4
By TIM RARDIN
DAILY BASKETBALL WRITER
itting on the sidelines at
Crisler Arena, watching
great Michigan players at
work was nothing new for Dugan
Fife. He had done it since he was
just two years old.
"I used to take him to practice
and he was around Rickey Green
and (Phil) Hubbard and (Steve)
Grote," said his father, Dan, a
former Michigan player himself
who was coaching the Wolverines'
junior varsity squad at the time. "Of
course, everything he had at that
time was Michigan and Michigan
sweatshirts. I think that's where he
really got his Michigan blood in
him - in his early years. That's all
he's ever really known."
And yet, when little Dugan grew
up and entered Michigan as a 175-
pound freshman, it was almost as if
he was a kid all over again.
For much of the season, he sat
and watched the Fab Five from
those same lonely sidelines, only
this time he had a real Michigan
jersey on. He logged only limited
playing time, and after lighting up
Michigan high schools for a school-
record 2,083 career points at
Clarkston, he didn't even score a
field goal.
'it was frustrating, to go from playing all the
time, and being a star, to not playing a whole
lot.'
- Dugan Fife
Michigan guard
was hesitant to shoot because he
doubted whether he could make it.
Though it had been his dream for
much of his life to play for the
Wolverines, Dugan didn't know if
he belonged.
"When he came home last year,
he was very frustrated. I really
thought that he might have thoughts
of transferring - I wasn't sure,"
Dan said. "I've never seen him so
down in all the years as he was
when he first came home. We'd go
play, and he would get so frustrated
with himself if he missed one shot.
After about two weeks, I wouldn't
even go to the gym with him."
But Dugan kept going.
"You go back to the high school
gym, where you feel comfortable,
where you know you've had
confidence before," Dugan said. "I
tried to get my game back at the
gym."
And get it back he did.
When the season was over,
Dugan began a rigorous summer
routine. He returned to Clarkston
three times a week to work out, and
honed his shooting and ballhandling
skills in Ann Arbor with Michigan
assistant coach Jay Smith.
"Coach Smith gave me a list of
100 things I could do for
ballhandling," he recalled. "I tried
to get most of them down, but
mostly I worked on my shooting, I
tried to get a consistent jump shot
that, when I shot it, I had a pretty
good idea that it was going in."
In addition, Dugan toured
Europe with the Big Ten All-Star
team, giving him valuable
experience in game situations.
When his sophomore season
began, he knew he could play, but
he still had to prove it to his
coaches and teammates.
"I didn't really prove myself
until the Georgia Tech game,"
Dugan said. "No one knew how I
would respond because I'd never'
really been in a game situation
before."
He responded with nine points,
including a pair of 3-pointers, two
assists, two steals and three rebounds
in Michigan's 80-70 victory over the
Yellow Jackets. Mediocre numbers
to the casual observer,.but to coaches
and teammates on a team already
loaded with proven players, it was
just what the doctor ordered.
"Dugan made good decisions,"
Michigan coach Steve Fisher said
after that game. "If he can have that
kind of game every time out, he'll
continue to get minutes."
He did just that, starting every
game for the Wolverines. After the
season, Fisher had more to say
about his fifth starter.
"He fit like a glove. It's hard on
anybody when you don't get to
play, when you've been a star -
and Dugan was that," Fisher said.
"That can wear on you. To his
credit, he worked extremely hard in
the off-season. Dugan did better
than I had imagined he could
possibly do. He exceeded what I
hoped he could do."
Dugan led the team in steals
(52), and ended the season
averaging 6.5 points, 2.7 assists and
2.7 rebounds, in addition to leading
the regulars in three-point field goal
percentage (40 percent).
"He does a lot of the little things
that don't necessarily show up in
the scorebook," said Dan, a steady
player himself while at Michigan,
averaging 13 points a game during
his three years as a starter. "He's
guarding the point guard, doing a
good job, taking charges, getting
the ball to the right people. It's hard
to find someone like that.
"I think this year he had a lot to
prove to himself. One thing that my
wife and I are very proud of is the
way that he dealt with it. He
basically worked things out himself.
He just accepted his role and did
what he thought was best. He just felt
he was doing what he should be
doing.
"I think he proved to them
(coaches) this year that he can
play."
But for those who know Dugan
Fife, the pressure to prove he could
play is really nothing new.
As a freshman at Clarkston High
School, he was forced at a young
age to deal with similar pressure.
After the junior starting quarterback
went down with a collarbone injury,
coach Kurt Richardson called the
scrawny 140-pound, 14-year-old up
from the JV squad rather than go to
his senior backup.
Parents - as they are apt to do
in a small-town setting like
Clarkston - were outraged by the
Michigan's Dugan Fife and Ray Jackson trap Arkansas' Dwight Stewart in the NCAA tournament.
Fife
"It was frustrating, to go from
playing all the time and being a star
to not playing a whole lot," Dugan
said. "My friends were always
saying, 'How many shots did you
make last year?' and you can't
really say anything. When you
don't play for so long, it kind of
hurts your confidence."
Amidst the hoopla that hounded
the Fab Five, Fife and fellow
freshman Leon Derricks quickly
became the Forgotten Two.
"It helped to go through it with
someone," he said, referring to
Derricks, also his roommate at the
time. "We said, 'We're not playing,
but we're playing behind the best in
the country.' We tried to keep it in a
positive light."
Still, he began to doubt whether
he could play. When he did play, he
decision. The local weekly paper ran
scathing protest letters, and
controversy erupted, as many
suggested that Dugan's father, also
the varsity basketball coach at the
high school, pulled some strings to
get his son on the varsity football
team.
"It really got blown way out of
proportion," said Dan, who also grew
up in Clarkston. "It was a small-town
paper, a once-a-week paper, and the
way they could sell papers was to let
people decide who the local
quarterback should be. Maybe it
comes with the territory, me coming
back to my hometown, and coaching
my sons."
"It was well overblown," said
Clarkston Athletic Director Paul
Tungate, who began his career at
Clarkston when Dan was a senior
there. "It was a case of a very few
people that were involved. Once
everyone saw Dugan's ability, he
See FIFE, Page 18
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