Fred has two massive injuries that happened in two tournaments...Babb and Niang...it’s disingenuous to act like that didn’t happen. It’s possible he would have made the Final Four had either of those not happened. It's possible nothing would have been different, but imagine if someone got hurt now how the excuses would roll out for Prohm. My point is, people act like those injuries never happened. Fact is they did. Niang was one of, if not the best player we ever had here, that team was a buzzsaw the way there were playing. That team was one of the best Cyclone teams ever, right behind the 2000 team.
I don't get why people don't understand how good a couple of those Hoiberg teams were. They had ups and downs but the Big 12 was LOADED. There is a lot of revisionist history about Fred's teams, both good and bad. They had ups and downs like any team, but overall did very well and I do think had he stayed he would have gotten us to the Final Four.
The Chris Babb year, he was one of the best defensive players in the country on a bad defensive team. Chris literally took the best scorer on the other team and held them EVERY TIME to half their average. Losing him was a killer and that bracket was very winnable if they had beaten Ohio State.
Fred checked out mid year the UAB year, it was his fault. He also had a pretty serious heart problem, but he was checked out, no question of that. Still, Fred had the following games in the tournament...UCONN, Kentucky, Notre Dame, Ohio State, NC Central, North Carolina, UCONN and UAB. His teams played great in all but one of those games. 8 games, one stinker. Not bad. Even Duke lost to Lehigh.
For those that hate Fred.....Deandre Kane, Will Clyburn, Tyrus McGee, Royce White, Georges Niang, Naz Long, Monte Morris, Deonte Burton, Abdel Nader...none of those guys are Cyclones without Fred. Steve Prohm would not be here without Fred having success. We have two Sweet 16's that are all on Fred and probably more had the injuries not happened. What Fred did here was remarkable considering where we were at when he came. He handled his departure poorly with the rumors and he stopped recruiting, but he did leave 4 NBA players and another G-league player here. Morris, Nader, Burton and Niang area all on NBA rosters. When has any coach ever left that much for the next guy?
And this defensive nazism everyone has on Fred, he wanted to play fast, and he forced the other team to adapt to that, he made other teams match up with him, if you do that you give up some points. Prohm has the opposite philosophy, he is going to play however the other team wants to play and tries to adapt as best he can in the second half. Fred threw that out the window and just said the hell with it, if you won't matchup with us then we are going to try to outscore you. It's just two different philosophies, one isn't right or wrong.
It makes me sick to see people drag Fred through the mud like he stuck it in Iowa State's a**, it was a great relationship for both Iowa State and Fred. Both benefited immensely. Fred is a wealthy man because of Iowa State and Iowa State has a Top 25 program now because Fred did well here as a coach. It's over now, I wish he would have stayed, but he didn't want to, and I assume he has good reasons for that.
