*** Official Iowa State Season Thread ***
- Thread starter CycloneRulzzz
- Start date
A lot of folks ridicule on Morgan for lack of post-ISU coaching jobs, so where / what do we see Prohm doing in the future?
I can see Prohm landing an assistant job somewhere in the south, or a low level HC gig that direction.
Wayne did end up as an assistant at Hofstra for 4 years after leaving ISU. He had a pretty solid resume (long time Boeheim assistant, HC at Long Beach & ISU), so I'm guessing some of his post ISU ventures might have been by choice.
I totally agree. I'm not sure there was any major flaw in logic when it came to Prohm. With the benefit of hindsight we can now obviously see issues, but that's life.
I think it boils down to two main things:
A) He doesn't make his players better. Someone who is relatively in the know has basically told me if you are a self-motivated type you have a chance here. But if you are someone who needs coached up and pushed, you won't get it. I imagine that's dead on. The Georges, Monte, Naz, Hali, etc. of the world didn't need someone pushing them to be better, they pushed themselves. The rest of the guys didn't get that extra push they needed and never really improved.
B) He's in a league where every night he's facing off against a legendary coach who has had success on a high level. If the talent is lacking you better be good at Xs and Os, and you better be a great motivator. Steve is neither.
In regards to A). I go back and forth. I think he can develop players, he just can’t develop a team. You can make great players but if they are severely fragmented without a reasonable plan, you won’t have success. Our offense is not set up for team chemistry. It’s one against the world many times. The times we do move the ball, we will have some success, but then we seem to go back to hero ball and start jacking up 28 footers with 18 on the play clock.
I know it seems unduly harsh to Steve to bring up all the guys who have come here and not done well against him, while suggesting those who have played well didn't benefit from his coaching. But I really think that our batch of NBA guys either were NBA caliber players when he got here, or were pretty can't miss anyways. Does Haliburton wind up a lottery pick if he went to Wisconsin or Cincy? I'd imagine so.
So I guess I stick with what I mentioned above. If you come here with a strong desire to get better and are self-motivated to put in the work you'll be ok. But if you need someone to coax that ability out of you, it isn't Steve.
It's hard to say he can develop players when so many players leave early due for one reason or another. I can honestly only say that Nick Babb and Solomon Young developed under him.
I would say most people who are in the NBA are ones who put the time in. He reminds me of Kevin Jackson as our wrestling coach. Those top end guys seemed to do well,but those who were just a step below never seemed to get to where they could/should.
The literal dictionary definition of a coach is " train or instruct (a team or player)". So yea, how exactly did Prohm get to where he is?
I won't bag on JP for hiring Prohm. I WILL bag on him for the contract extension, though. That was a big, big mistake, and despite the quick b12 tourney run, alarm signs were already there.
They may suck at offense but like you said they play hard and are coached well defensively.
He did say that he would retire when he wasn't having fun anymore calling the games. He almost retired during the McDermott years, but Fred asked him if he would do it, so he stayed, and obviously had fun. Clearly isn't having fun anymore..
I had season tickets for the team in '75-76 that lost more games (10) in Hilton. But the wins were over OU and Colorado and Hercle Ivy was a scoring machine. 0-fer whatever kinda speaks for itself.
A) People forget: Niang's success was built on his own 'old man game' deal where he had to carve out his skill set since pure athleticism was not his thing. Naz was someone who went after it when he first got to ISU to even get a chance, and Hali playing with other great 19 and under players likely also contributed. Matt Thomas seemed to really flourish more under CSP but maybe that was a confidence thing.
I'm personally a big believer in internalized motivation to make real improvements in all aspects of life, but if you're paid millions, balancing it out as the leader is needed. Seems like CMC is someone who is very good at finding that balance but still building internalized power within the team. That may have been lost a bit in 2019 but it looked like he used it for improving his own approaches. CSP doesn't seem to be able to get out of that.
B) I think some think ISU is a basketball destination when in reality most basketball fans might remember a couple of years when their name was brought up a few times but not much else. With that, the approach likely needs to be unique in some fashion to have success, or there needs to be serious 'buy-in' from the players. I think that's been strong with some and not others, which just doesn't work.
