To all the Prohm Haters...

Cat Stevens

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I'm taking a break from this board but since I assume most of this post was directed at me I'll take the time to respond. I don't hate Prohm and there are certainly some great things he's done here.

#1. I love what he's doing with high school recruiting. There is really nothing to work on here, he's pulling in highly touted recruits who are NBA talent. You need those type of guys to win conference championships and make deep NCAA runs.

#2. I love what he's doing with out defense. Last year was a down year, but in the other 3 years you can clearly see an emphasis on defense. Defense travels so I expect us to continue to compete well on the road.

#3. I think he's a good guy, he wants whats best for the program. I've been questioning his disciplinary tactics but its shown to get results and help build character with out players.

Now for the other part. The main reason I get so frustrated and vocal after losses like the other night are 2 main reasons:

#1 WE ARENT PROTECTING HILTON! I REPEAT, WE ARE NOT PROTECTING HILTON. This is honesty my main beef with him. The last four years we've let numerous teams we were better than come in and push us around in front of our home crowd. This is completely unacceptable. With Fred you knew there is no way a team is coming and winning unless they were clearly more talented or they got hot shooting. The only teams I remember losing to were Missouri and Kansas when they were Top 10 programs, and Baylor got us once because they shot out of their minds one night.

Now, mid tier teams are coming in and winning at an alarming rate. We would blow #1 teams like Kansas and Oklahoma out of the water, then turn right back around and lose to to West Virginia and Baylor. I wont even get into the disaster that last year turned into. The Milwaukee loss aside, which shouldnt happen to any coach here, we were completely blown out alot last year at home.

I've been to games the last 4 years and its just not the same atmosphere anymore. Something has changed and we need to find a way to get that back. If we ever want to dethrone Kansas its a must you protect your home court. Games where we gave away like on Saturday are completely unacceptable unless you are ok with going 11-7 ever year.

#2 His in game adjustments and is inability to adapt are extremely frustrating to watch. We've lost 3 games this year in the exact same manner and almost had a 4th last night. This has already been discussed in depth so I dont have much more to ad, but he needs to improve on his in-game coaching skills. He doesnt seem like he has ability to adapt to change unless his back is completely against the wall. An example of this is in 2016-17 when we were struggling with 4 guards. It took him until February 4th that year before he finally realized we were getting killed inside and adding even 1 competent post completely changed our season. Another example is the Wiggington thing right now, the guy should be starting.

#3 His transfer recruiting has been extremely average compared to the talent Hoiberg was bringing in now. Hoiberg brought in at least one player each year that was equivalent to a 5 star one and done guy. Prohm hasnt shown the ability to be able to do that. Shayok and Jacobson are by far his best transfers and they are up there with some of Hoibergs best, but overall he's had far more busts than serviceable Big 12 players. I think landing Shayok, Jacobson, and Nixon is a huge step in the right direction for him.

So in closing, start making Hilton an automatic loss for teams again, start working more on in-game adjustments and finishing games, and continue getting high quality transfers and Prohm should be here for a long time and expecting NCAA tourney teams every year.

I also apologize for being so negative on here, the last couple games were 4 years of frustrations boiling over. It was the complete epitome of everything that I think has gone wrong in the last 4 years, losing in Hilton, to a team we were clearly better than and who didnt even have their POY up to full speed, and the way we couldnt close out down the stretch was a little too much frustration for me.


When your “frustration” is based on faulty logic, and revision of history, it’s definitely a you thing.
 

MJ271

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I'm taking a break from this board but since I assume most of this post was directed at me I'll take the time to respond. I don't hate Prohm and there are certainly some great things he's done here.

#1. I love what he's doing with high school recruiting. There is really nothing to work on here, he's pulling in highly touted recruits who are NBA talent. You need those type of guys to win conference championships and make deep NCAA runs.

#2. I love what he's doing with out defense. Last year was a down year, but in the other 3 years you can clearly see an emphasis on defense. Defense travels so I expect us to continue to compete well on the road.

#3. I think he's a good guy, he wants whats best for the program. I've been questioning his disciplinary tactics but its shown to get results and help build character with out players.

Now for the other part. The main reason I get so frustrated and vocal after losses like the other night are 2 main reasons:

#1 WE ARENT PROTECTING HILTON! I REPEAT, WE ARE NOT PROTECTING HILTON. This is honesty my main beef with him. The last four years we've let numerous teams we were better than come in and push us around in front of our home crowd. This is completely unacceptable. With Fred you knew there is no way a team is coming and winning unless they were clearly more talented or they got hot shooting. The only teams I remember losing to were Missouri and Kansas when they were Top 10 programs, and Baylor got us once because they shot out of their minds one night.

Now, mid tier teams are coming in and winning at an alarming rate. We would blow #1 teams like Kansas and Oklahoma out of the water, then turn right back around and lose to to West Virginia and Baylor. I wont even get into the disaster that last year turned into. The Milwaukee loss aside, which shouldnt happen to any coach here, we were completely blown out alot last year at home.

I've been to games the last 4 years and its just not the same atmosphere anymore. Something has changed and we need to find a way to get that back. If we ever want to dethrone Kansas its a must you protect your home court. Games where we gave away like on Saturday are completely unacceptable unless you are ok with going 11-7 ever year.

#2 His in game adjustments and is inability to adapt are extremely frustrating to watch. We've lost 3 games this year in the exact same manner and almost had a 4th last night. This has already been discussed in depth so I dont have much more to ad, but he needs to improve on his in-game coaching skills. He doesnt seem like he has ability to adapt to change unless his back is completely against the wall. An example of this is in 2016-17 when we were struggling with 4 guards. It took him until February 4th that year before he finally realized we were getting killed inside and adding even 1 competent post completely changed our season. Another example is the Wiggington thing right now, the guy should be starting.

#3 His transfer recruiting has been extremely average compared to the talent Hoiberg was bringing in now. Hoiberg brought in at least one player each year that was equivalent to a 5 star one and done guy. Prohm hasnt shown the ability to be able to do that. Shayok and Jacobson are by far his best transfers and they are up there with some of Hoibergs best, but overall he's had far more busts than serviceable Big 12 players. I think landing Shayok, Jacobson, and Nixon is a huge step in the right direction for him.

So in closing, start making Hilton an automatic loss for teams again, start working more on in-game adjustments and finishing games, and continue getting high quality transfers and Prohm should be here for a long time and expecting NCAA tourney teams every year.

I also apologize for being so negative on here, the last couple games were 4 years of frustrations boiling over. It was the complete epitome of everything that I think has gone wrong in the last 4 years, losing in Hilton, to a team we were clearly better than and who didnt even have their POY up to full speed, and the way we couldnt close out down the stretch was a little too much frustration for me.

#1
We are a little bit more inconsistent at Hilton under Prohm then under Hoiberg, but I think that's actually a tribute to the overall better consistency of the team. Hoiberg's teams often needed runs of shooting to get themselves back into games, which were easier to get at Hilton where momentum swings were more likely to go in their favor. The Prohm playing style travels better, which is why we play better on the road. I'd rather have a chance in every road game and have a couple home losses than have no chance in nearly all of the road games and beat everyone at home, besides for Kansas. The ceiling under Prohm is a lot higher than under Hoiberg.

#2
I'll admit, as an in game coach, Prohm is not as good as I would like. However, I think part of the end game problems is simply a result of Prohm putting a lot of trust in his players. Long term, that can help the team a lot. Also, I'd much rather have a coach who is elite in development and in practice and average in game to one who is really good in game but struggles some in those other areas.

#3
I don't really get why this matters. Plus, if Hoiberg was still here, he'd be struggling more with transfer recruiting than he was at the beginning, too. With bigger programs going after the blue-chip transfers, it's harder to get them. Also, it's more difficult to develop team chemistry with grad-transfers. Since Prohm is more defensive minded, team chemistry is more important, since a lot of good team defense is about communication. Once again, thinking long term, Prohm's high school recruiting gives the team a much higher ceiling (due to the chemistry piece) than recruiting transfers heavily.
 

Cy$

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Why does every win and loss turn into some fight between people about Prohm and Hoiberg? Why can't we like them both and also be critical of each one without it being a reflection on the other?
Everybody has to be the “I told you so guy”.

I don’t understand why people can’t be critical of coaches on here (a minority of people) and their comeback is “we won, didn’t we?!”. There’s so many things/plays in a game that makes that argument really lazy.

The Babb bucket at 61-61 had people standing around with little movement with him hitting a jumper. Awesome it went in, but in another game that goes the other way and people complain why a better play wasn’t drawn up or why were we settling for an iso play in the biggest moment of the game. It’s been a criticism of Prohm that they take the air out and drain the clock out in those situations. It happened but it went in so who cares I guess.

Criticism like the above is seen as somebody taking personal shots at coaches. Criticizing the coach for a play call is not the same as saying I want him fired or that he’s a ****** human being. It’s dangerous when it gets portrayed as that by some people.
 
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RedDog

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Everybody has to be the “I told you so guy”.

I don’t understand why people can’t be critical of coaches on here (a minority of people) and their comeback is “we won, didn’t we?!”. There’s so many things/plays in a game that makes that argument really lazy.

The Babb bucket at 61-61 had people standing around with little movement with him hitting a jumper. Awesome it went in, but in another game that goes the other way. It’s been a criticism of Prohm that they take the air out and drain the clock out in those situations. It happened but it went in so who cares I guess.

Criticism like the above is seen as somebody taking personal shots at coaches.
Was an iso play called perhaps? I can't remember what led up to the shot Nick took.
We won a fair amount of close games under CFH running isos at the end.
 

BillBrasky4Cy

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Was an iso play called perhaps? I can't remember what led up to the shot Nick took.
We won a fair amount of close games under CFH running isos at the end.

What led up to that shot was an incredibly stagnant possession. Kudos to Nick for hitting the shot but that was a really bad possession.
 

madguy30

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No. Critical with Hoiberg when it came down to the last seconds and whether to foul or not (to allow a 3 pt attempt or not)

I was always critical of Hoiberg when ISU had like a 4 point lead with 45 seconds left and shot quick 3s instead of at least being patient enough to either get to the hoop or work it around a bit to take some time off the clock but not sure how much of that was his direction.

The result tended to be quick missed 3>long rebound for the opponent>lay up or 3 at the other end>me slamming a beer.
 

RotatingColumn

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I really like Prohm. But if Tech had hit some of those bunnies and/or free throws we would be talking about our third close loss in a row.
 
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jsb

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I really like Prohm. But if Tech had hit some of those bunnies and/or free throws we would be talking about our third close loss in a row.

And if Kansas State had missed just one of the 3-4 desperation shots they hit with no time on the shot clock, we’d be 4-1.
 
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moores2

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It would be interesting to see what kind of stats there are about teams giving up leads on the road at the end of games when playing high end opponents, I think you would find that most games get very tight at the end, and teams ahead will give up those leads or nearly give them up what 80% of the time.

Playing peer schools you will have ebbs and flows. Its a sport where if you shoot 50% as a team you are considered great, seems only baseball has a worse percentage level for excellence.


Heck I have seen teams up by like 27 and nearly blow it, (as he thinks back to ISU vs WV a few years back)

Here's the thing, the color guy, who I assume knows something and he mentioned ISU was getting good looks and not hitting the shot. that was inside the 4 minute mark. Was he wrong?

Regarding taking the air out of the ball if we take the first open look then people gripe about that don't take a shot too early

Even the great Bill Self, who is the master of managing the last 5 minutes, had to sweat out a 3 ball at home at the end of the game after leading Texas by over 10 points for most of it

They hit a shot and made a block and hit a layup, seems they finished well, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder I guess.

This ignores the reality of when we got our absolutely best looks at the basket, transition. You can't tell me that the looks we were getting from the 3 minute mark down were better than the offense we were running in the first half, with the ball swinging, players driving, kicking out, etc. We got sub-par looks for the final 3 minutes, until the lead was completely gone. How did we win this game? As soon as it was tied, we quite looking to run out the clock and worked for better shots. Babb hits a shot he has missed a lot of, and Wiggy gets a transition bucket.
 

4theCYcle

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The overreactions each way get old. Even with the big win tonight we again saw the issues late in the game. I’m not going to be overly critical tonight but we still saw the shutdown of the offense late in the game.

While this rings true, the other side of it you could argue, well they also closed out the half pretty well, which hasn't always been there. That's a positive.
 
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EJ4CY

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And you know who you are...

Coach Fred Hoiberg, for as much of a legend as he deservedly is, will NEVER coach at Iowa State again, and the sooner you dumba$$es can get that through your thick skulls the better.

Steve Prohm is our coach. He may not have played basketball at Iowa State or be the hometown hero, but he is our coach. And he is a very good coach. Is he perfect or beyond reproach or above criticism? Of course not.

But he is our coach, and if you cannot support him or the program as long as he coaches, and if you hate him so much that you never post on here after big victories like tonight or against Kansas but take the time to scream for his head after a loss like against KSU, guess what? You are NOT a Cyclone fan and whatever ISU apparel you might own needs to be donated to kids in Africa. Time to be a fan of Iowa State, not a fan of one man.

Rant over. Had to get it off my chest.
I am not the world's biggest supporter of Prohm, however, I don't post about how mad I get, nor complain.

My frustration is simple, We are a far better team when we are running and controlling tempo. We lack half court sets and struggle when tempo is not in our favor. So why when we have a lead do we take our biggest strength away and play a style of ball that isn't in our favor case in point Kstate game and last night with our last four points to win..

THat is all.
 
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moores2

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I was always critical of Hoiberg when ISU had like a 4 point lead with 45 seconds left and shot quick 3s instead of at least being patient enough to either get to the hoop or work it around a bit to take some time off the clock but not sure how much of that was his direction.

The result tended to be quick missed 3>long rebound for the opponent>lay up or 3 at the other end>me slamming a beer.
There is a big difference between taking a quick 3, and having a good offensive possession.
 

MartyFine

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I think some people have it installed in their head that Fred won a lot more games in March than he really did. I can see why they make those mistakes, however.

2011-2012

The nostalgia...
"We kicked UConn's butt! We sent Jim Calhoun out with an L!"
"Royce was the best player on the court against Kentucky! Remember that dunk?"

The reality...
UConn was dysfunctional by that point, and while we gave a historically great Kentucky team a challenge, they ultimately still won the game 87-71.
If we were consistent throughout the season, we would have had a better seed than 8/9 and avoided a terrifying opponent like Kentucky until the second weekend.
One big dunk does not undo a bad seed and early exit.

2012-2013

The nostalgia...
"**** you, Aaron Craft! The officiating at the end was terrible!"
I swear I have heard CW say something like, "After Ohio State, that region was wide open!" something like 5-6 times on the radio and podcasts by now.

The reality...
Same as the season before -- be more consistent throughout the regular season, and you are off the 7/10 line and avoid a strong opponent in the first weekend.
Craft hit that shot. I am sorry, but a good player made a big play to win the game.
Close games in the NCAA tournament are inherently like that. We have no idea what ISU would have done in the region later against Arizona or Wichita State.
Acting like we made a deep run this year is preposterous.

2013-2014

The nostalgia...
"Georges broke his foot! We were about to win a national championship!"
"No way we do not beat UConn and go to the Final Four without Georges!"

The reality...
I honestly think some people act like we won a national title this season.
UConn was playing out of its mind that March -- Napier was 4/6 from three, Daniels put up 27 on us, and Boatright was 2/3 from three. They were just hitting everything against everybody. Those three have never played that well before or since, for that matter.
They might not sleepwalk the second-half if Georges is around and the game is more competitive; we were in for a dogfight with a hot team.
Even if we won that game, we are up against Michigan State the next round, a program still coached by Tom Izzo with a record of 29-9, the winners of the Big Ten tournament, and they have some dudes like Gary Harris, Adreian Payne, and Denzel Valentine.
They had just beaten a VERY good UVA team the weekend before, too.
If you get to the Final Four, you still need to get through Florida and Kentucky.
Great team that was on a roll, but we do not know what would have happened, and giving us a "mental national championship" ignores what actually happened.
I know they were hot and won the Big 12 tournament, seemed to have it all figured out, but they went 11-7 against the Big 12. They lost plenty of games.
Georges' foot was the worst luck ever, but we have to accept it for what it was.

2014-2015

The nostalgia...
BDJ throws a chair at Hoiberg at halftime, we lose to UAB, and Fred goes to the Bulls.

The reality...
BDJ throws a chair at Hoiberg at halftime, we lose to UAB, and Fred goes to the Bulls.

This conveniently ignores the reality of the first decade of the 2000's.
 

Sigmapolis

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This conveniently ignores the reality of the first decade of the 2000's.

I grew up in Boone and was a student in Ames from 2005 to 2010.

Nobody gets to lecture me about the McDermott era. He took the best years of my life.

Dendy just missed another jump shot.

The Hoiberg era, its personalities, and its stories (and its echo for two years) were great -- but Fred only won four tournament games during his tenure.
 
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Cynonymous

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I am not the world's biggest supporter of Prohm, however, I don't post about how mad I get, nor complain.

My frustration is simple, We are a far better team when we are running and controlling tempo. We lack half court sets and struggle when tempo is not in our favor. So why when we have a lead do we take our biggest strength away and play a style of ball that isn't in our favor case in point Kstate game and last night with our last four points to win..

THat is all.

I don't know the answer but I do wonder if this is a product of running a shallow bench. At the end of the game we have our main group on the floor for extended periods. If the idea is to have the energy to defend those last few minutes, I can see why we may give the guys a slight breather on offense. I think things will improve once we have more half court sets that can utilize Wigginton and Shayok on the floor at the same time or at least more synergy with the ones they use now. Down the road hopefully we'll be able to run clock and score efficiently. Clearly we aren't there just yet.
 

ISUChippewa

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I am not the world's biggest supporter of Prohm, however, I don't post about how mad I get, nor complain.

My frustration is simple, We are a far better team when we are running and controlling tempo. We lack half court sets and struggle when tempo is not in our favor. So why when we have a lead do we take our biggest strength away and play a style of ball that isn't in our favor case in point Kstate game and last night with our last four points to win..

THat is all.

Well...duh.

Every single college basketball team plays better when they can control their own tempo; whether that means a slower half-court set type of offense or more of a "run and gun" fast break kind of style. The best defensive teams (like Texas Tech) are the kind of teams that force you to play the kind of tempo they want you to play. The good teams (like we were last night) can make adjustments as needed and still pull off the victory, even while playing out of their "comfort zone". For all the talk last night about how we beat the season average of points allowed by Tech they also held us to well below our season average. Didn't matter in the end; we still got the W.

See? This is the kind of total crap that just pisses me off to no end; this "cherry picking" of certain elements of the game to keep on driving home an agenda. "Our offense slowed down in the end against a really good defensive team...so that means Prohm's a bad coach" or "We had a couple of turnovers on the out of bounds plays, so Prohm can't coach". It's completely unfair and asinine and frankly is chock full of "Derp".
 

SCyclone

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Compare the endgames of the last two contests - against KSU, we had 5 point lead with about 4 minutes to play, and scored only 2 points the rest of the way and ended up losing. This was at home, to an unranked team. (Though I will admit after last night, KSU should probably be ranked.)

Last night, we had a 10 point lead about midway through the second half, let Tech tie the score, and ended up winning by 4. This was on the road, to the #8 team in the country.

Sure looks to me as though our guys learned something.