Bad day for the Steven can coach crowd.

[awd4cy]

To be fair Oklahoma is the worst team in the conference and Vandy just beat another NCAA tourny team (Arkansas) last night.

Arkansas is not trending in the right direction. Would be very surprised if they make it.

 

[jkclone]

What? We are going to the NCAA with a likely top half conference finish. This is a good year for Prohm. Plus, the B12 tournament and NCAA hasn't even played out. The fact you have already written off this year tells me how biased against Prohm you are. Absolutely ridiculous.

Shaka won't even be in the NIT.

Well I was talking about up to this point I think we have definitely underachieved. We most likely make the tournament, but I think we have 4 home losses (absolutely unacceptable) and finish 9-9. It isn't the worst year and Prohm's year is better, but it is still underachieving IMO. I still reserve the right to change my opinion though.

 

[Bestaluckcy]

Vandy and Texas really arent bad teams. They are middling right now. Honestly they remind me a bit of Freds first year. A lot of ups and downs. Never as bad as the record shows..playwise.

I thought both teams (Vandy and Texas) were subpar. Not very good. Our guys only played one half of each game against them. I put that on the players. The guys played like all they have to do is walk on the court and the other team should lie down and give up. Transition points in both games shows a complete lack of effort by our players. It has nothing to do with shooting on the Iowa State end. Even when shots are not falling players can get back and defend. The coaches have stressed defense all year long. This is on the players.

 

[bos]

I thought both teams (Vandy and Texas) were subpar. Not very good. Our guys only played one half of each game against them. I put that on the players. The guys played like all they have to do is walk on the court and the other team should lie down and give up. Transition points in both games shows a complete lack of effort by our players. It has nothing to do with shooting on the Iowa State end. Even when shots are not falling players can get back and defend. The coaches have stressed defense all year long. This is on the players.

I understand that no doubt we should have beaten them and agree on your points. However, depending on graduation, I think both teams will be much improved next season.

 

[isufbcurt]

Arkansas is not trending in the right direction. Would be very surprised if they make it.

They are currently 17-7, not really much more work for them to do.

 

[rochclone]

I just would like to see people reasonable in their judgments, of a coach.
I believe ISU makes the tourney this year.

Next year is going to be a long year, as we start to fill the void of no juniors or sophs and will play JC's and freshman. People will call for his head, based your reasonable comments, I would ask why would they do that?

Above I point out how much talent Texas has on their roster, its ridiculous, and yet people are saying that coach is be all end all. There is a reason they were top 20. But he is great and our coach and ours sucks. The guy has just not managed that roster very well this year. He has done a very poor job.

Maybe it goes with the territory some fans are less reasonable with their own and will defend another coach who is underachieving by much more

My expectation given there are no sophs or juniors to speak of on this team, is it will take 2 years to fix the roster. ISU after this year will miss the tourney next year, possibly the year after that and then be back in year 3.

I would then expect a tourney appearance every 3 out of 4 years after that because the coach will have several recruiting cycles under his belt

I think next year will actually be more healthy for the fanbase with no expectations. He shouldn't be fire after next year and he won't barring some type of 8-23 debacle. But if he misses the tournament in 2018-19 then I think that would be worrisome.

 

[cyclones7]

These people that jump all over the coach after every loss seem to have the emotional strength of your average toddler.

It's ******* pathetic.

So just like the liberals...

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

I thought both teams (Vandy and Texas) were subpar. Not very good. Our guys only played one half of each game against them. I put that on the players. The guys played like all they have to do is walk on the court and the other team should lie down and give up. Transition points in both games shows a complete lack of effort by our players. It has nothing to do with shooting on the Iowa State end. Even when shots are not falling players can get back and defend. The coaches have stressed defense all year long. This is on the players.

starting 2-17 from the floor isn't an "effort" issue. I also thought we defended pretty well last night. Our defense played a significant role in the comeback. If we weren't playing defense, we would have been down by 20+ at half.

 

[acgclone]

They are currently 17-7, not really much more work for them to do.

17-7 is not that safe for SEC teams.

 

[Cyballzz]

True. That group also won a Big 12 Tournament Title and finished second in the Big 12. I don't judge an entire season by one game in March.

So last year gets no credit for winning games in the NCAA tournament but 2 years ago is great for lucking its way to a conference tournament title? Got it.

 

[fsanford]

Yeah it hasn't been a good year for him, but they are also one of the youngest teams in the country even with that talent, and we are one of the most experienced. So they had a much higher variance on what to expect. Neither coach can point to this year as a good year, but Shaka has shown much better years than Prohm has ever shown.

Kentucky has one of the youngest teams in the country and they are doing well, Duke has a young team, UCLA starts 2 freshmen.. USC is young, heck Iowa is young and has a better record than Texas

Now I think Smart is a good coach, but the fact of the matter is with that much talent, he should be fighting for the top half of the league. He does not have a bunch of 3 start guys, he has 5 stars.

If they fail to make the NCAA tourney next year would you fire Smart?

 

[Cyballzz]

17-7 is not that safe for SEC teams.

Especially when one of those 7 is to Missouri.

 

[isufbcurt]

17-7 is not that safe for SEC teams.

3 wins and they will be in.

 

[Stewo]

I'm assuming you are talking about Virginia. Which was a horrible match-up for us. But lets also recognize that we only had to play Iona and Ark-Little Rock to get that opportunity.

But that's the entire point of getting a high seed. No one ever gives the 1 or 2 seed a hard time because of the competition they played. We'd earned the right to play lower seeds throughout the season.

 

[jkclone]

Kentucky has one of the youngest teams in the country and they are doing well, Duke has a young team, UCLA starts 2 freshmen.. USC is young, heck Iowa is young and has a better record than Texas

Now I think Smart is a good coach, but the fact of the matter is with that much talent, he should be fighting for the top half of the league. He does not have a bunch of 3 start guys, he has 5 stars.

If they fail to make the NCAA tourney next year would you fire Smart?

The young talented teams have a significantly higher variance. It can pay of great or it can be awful like this year.

Smart gets a much longer leash because of his strong record at VCU and the situation he came into. If they fail to make the NCAA tournament next year then he should be on a solid hot seat the next year.

 

[rochclone]

So last year gets no credit for winning games in the NCAA tournament but 2 years ago is great for lucking its way to a conference tournament title? Got it.

Didn't say that he doesn't get credit but I think there is context. In what fashion did the 2014-15 squad "luck its way" into a conference tournament title? The 2014-15 also included a 12-6 Big 12 conference record compared to 10-8 last year. As I have discussed at length in multiple threads I don't think that 2015-16 was a massive underachievement but I'm also not going to coin it a massive success either.

 

[Gunnerclone]

Arkansas is not trending in the right direction. Would be very surprised if they make it.

You should do a bracketology thread like 5k. You're always spot on.

 

[fsanford]

I think next year will actually be more healthy for the fanbase with no expectations. He shouldn't be fire after next year and he won't barring some type of 8-23 debacle. But if he misses the tournament in 2018-19 then I think that would be worrisome.

Roch, there are some guys (not you) with an axe to grind and they will want him fired if he goes .500,

The guy has flaws no doubt, but I also understand the team is pretty much 1 dimensional as we do not have a front line player that has the ability to put the ball in the hoop.
He probably should not have recruited Malou, but also by all accounts, he brought in what would be considered the better of a group of grad transfers 6-7 or taller. As mentioned it was a really bad crop of grad transfer big guys this year.

I think 2018-2019 in an NIT year because most likely the guys playing with be frosh and sophs.
Maybe a couple of JC's sprinkled in or a grad transfer or 2.

 

[rochclone]

But that's the entire point of getting a high seed. No one ever gives the 1 or 2 seed a hard time because of the competition they played. We'd earned the right to play lower seeds throughout the season.

We were fortunate to play UALR rather than Purdue. Once again this isn't Steve Prohm's fault just like it isn't Scott Drew's fault. You can only play the people on your schedule. But it gives some context to the Sweet 16 berth.

 

[CyBobby]

Prohm is out of his mind playing a zero dimensional player (Bowie) at all, let alone 20+ minutes.

I really don't know if Prohm is out of his mind....but the more I see this guy coach, the more I'm convinced that He's In Over His Head as a power 5 head coach......

A team led by 5 seniors should NOT lose to a bunch of freshmen at Texass