ATLANTA -- What is worth remembering about Dane Fife tomorrow? Is there anything?

For as fine a job as he did in containing the uncontainable Juan Dixon Monday night, he didn't stop him from nailing that game-altering 3-pointer, did he? As great a season as his Hoosiers had, they didn't win it all, did they? And as nice a career as he had at IU (Fife set the IU career steals record Monday night. Did you even know that?), it is over now. No question mark about that.

	Indiana's Dane Fife did all he could to keep Juan Dixon in check Monday night.

Dane Fife will graduate, then he will play some European ball -- maybe -- and then he'll fade away, and do something else -- what else? who cares? -- for the rest of his life. This is how it is, you understand, for 99.9 percent of college basketball players, those that aren't fortunate enough to make a professional career out of the game. They play four years at the U. If they are lucky, they achieve brief moments of fame. If they are lucky, they etch their names in the school record books, maybe in the top 20 for blocks, top 30 for rebounds, top 15 for free-throw shooting. Then they are displaced. Then they are replaced. Permanently.

What is worth remembering about Dane Fife tomorrow? The Hoosiers, not a sullen bunch in the locker room after their 64-52 loss to Maryland, still weren't quite removed enough from the moment to make much sense of it, and they struggled to grasp the idea that Fife was no longer their teammate. In remembering Fife, they spoke of slight things, tiny things. Freshman guard Donald Perry: "He's a goofy dude. He's weird. He's always talking, always playing. He's a good guy, though. He's a good guy."

Junior forward Kyle Hornsby: "He's always honest, whether it cuts you like a knife. His words might hurt, but he's honest with you. I appreciate that."

Assistant John Treloar: "He just works his ass off. He just works. He's relentless." What is worth remembering about Dane Fife tomorrow? Even Fife himself wasn't quite so sure how to wrap things up, sitting in his red folding chair after the game, leaning back ever-so slightly, his indifferent face (not one sign of tears) betraying the melancholy of this moment.

He could speak clearly about the tangible aspects of his career, about the struggles he had finding his shot his first three years (he never averaged more than 3.0 ppg until this season), and about how he re-tuned his game to become a killer defensive player. And, most compellingly, he spoke about the last challenge of his IU career, taking on and slowing down -- as well as can be expected, anyway -- Juan Dixon.

He knew what the challenge was: Deny Dixon the ball. Fight hard through screens. Deny him the ball. Use your body to keep him off-balance. Deny him the ball. Keep a hand in his face. Deny him the ball. He knew how well he met that challenge: Only nine shots allowed, but one of them absolutely killer, the 3-pointer that took away the Hoosiers' lone lead of the game with 9:44 remaining.

Said Fife: "Juan is unbelievably quick with the basketball, and he plays hard. It's like (Allen) Iverson in the playoffs. I think he won the game for them."

But ask Fife about his legacy -- this idea that when he's long gone and far removed from this school, that he's somehow changed things noticeable -- and, No, he wasn't sure how to speak of that.

He tried to speak of helping return to prominence the Indiana program, which just yesterday, it seemed, was so deeply scarred by the Bobby Knight mess. He tried to speak of setting a standard of work ethic for others to follow. Each time he tried to speak of these things, his train of thought trailed off, and he left us without a conclusion.

Then Fife was asked what his Indiana career meant to him. He thought for a second.

"Anytime you play for a coach like Coach Knight, who is that competitive, you expect a roller coaster, and certainly there were some things in my career that were pretty unexpected. I guess as I grow older, that's what life is really all about. I guess I got a pretty early start as far as learning about the ups and downs."

What is worth remembering about Dane Fife -- the basketball player -- tomorrow? Maybe there is nothing. But to Fife, and the other 99.9 percent, that's not the question that matters, is it?

Scott Burton writes for ESPN The Magazine.