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Article on MU's opening opponent
Posted on: September 20, 2017 at 08:44:46 CT
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https://www.fanragsports.com/iowa-states-steve-prohm-we-cant-focus-on-march-right-now/
Steve Prohm is a realist.
He knows that Iowa State lost four double-figure scorers — Monte Morris, Matt Thomas, Naz Mitrou-Long, and Deonte Burton — from last year’s team that won the Big 12 Tournament as well as a game in the field of 68.
He also knows that the Cyclones are one of 10 programs in college basketball to play in the NCAA Tournament in each of the past six seasons and boast a fan base that believes hearing its name called on Selection Sunday should be an annual occurrence.
But that expectation might not be fair considering the makeup of this program’s roster and the league ISU plays in.
For the first time since the fall of 2010 — Fred Hoiberg’s first year as coach in Ames — Iowa State is legitimately rebuilding.
“We can’t focus on March right now,” Prohm told FanRag Sports on Tuesday morning. “Our goal is always going to be to get to the NCAA Tournament, but we can’t focus on that right now. We’ve got to just focus on building our team. We’ve got three guys back in Donovan Jackson, Nick Weiler-Babb, and Solomon Young who all had roles for us last year and their roles are going to be completely different this year. We’ve got a bunch of freshmen that we’re going to count on and we’ve also got some graduate transfers that we’re going to need to play. There’s a lot of moving pieces right now.”
The most certain thing about the Cyclones right now?
The fact that freshman guard Lindell Wigginton is going to have a major role from the first day of practice.
“He’s college ready,” Prohm said of the 6-foot-2 Wigginton, who was a consensus Top-100 recruit out of high school. “He’s got the it factor. He has to remain humble and understand what it means to work at this level, but he’s going to play a big role in what we do. I’ve got to remind he and our other freshmen (Terrence Lewis, Cameron Lard) that I need to count on them like they’re going to be sophomores because we don’t have too much experience.”
Prohm — who has never won fewer than 21 games in a season in six years as a head coach — has always had dynamic lead guards. He coached guys like Isaiah Canaan and Cameron Payne at Murray State and then Morris the past two seasons at Iowa State.
With Wigginton set to be next in line, the question now remains who will emerge next to he, Jackson, Weiler-Babb, and Young.
Prohm believes 6-7 forward Zoran Talley, who averaged 11.3 points last season at Old Dominion, can be a factor and also knows that he needs mileage out of fellow grad transfers Hans Brase (Princeton) and Jeff Beverly (UTSA). The 6-9 Brase has suffered two knee injuries over the past two years and is still about six weeks from being fully cleared, according to Prohm.
September and October are the months where coaches are most optimistic, but what lies ahead for the Cyclones in the Big 12 is an uphill climb.
Kansas, West Virginia, Baylor, Texas Tech and TCU all return strong cores — especially in the backcourt — from last season, while Oklahoma and Texas both added five-star freshmen in Trae Young and Mohamed Bamba, respectively. Kansas State has a strong veteran trio with Kamau Stokes, Barry Brown, and Dean Wade; Oklahoma State has a potential All-Big 12 first-team caliber talent in Jeffrey Carroll.
“Our expectation is still to be in the NCAA Tournament,” Prohm said. “The thing about our league is, the teams that have been really good over the past few years have had great experience. That’s not us right now, but we can’t concern ourselves with that. We can’t think about March today. We’ve got too much to get through first. We open at Missouri and have to play three games in Puerto Rico in November. This situation really reminds me of my third year at Murray State where we struggled for the first half of the year and then became a good team in the second half of the year. We know we’re going to be better late than we are early.”
Steve Prohm is a realist.
He knows that Iowa State lost four double-figure scorers — Monte Morris, Matt Thomas, Naz Mitrou-Long, and Deonte Burton — from last year’s team that won the Big 12 Tournament as well as a game in the field of 68.
He also knows that the Cyclones are one of 10 programs in college basketball to play in the NCAA Tournament in each of the past six seasons and boast a fan base that believes hearing its name called on Selection Sunday should be an annual occurrence.
But that expectation might not be fair considering the makeup of this program’s roster and the league ISU plays in.
For the first time since the fall of 2010 — Fred Hoiberg’s first year as coach in Ames — Iowa State is legitimately rebuilding.
“We can’t focus on March right now,” Prohm told FanRag Sports on Tuesday morning. “Our goal is always going to be to get to the NCAA Tournament, but we can’t focus on that right now. We’ve got to just focus on building our team. We’ve got three guys back in Donovan Jackson, Nick Weiler-Babb, and Solomon Young who all had roles for us last year and their roles are going to be completely different this year. We’ve got a bunch of freshmen that we’re going to count on and we’ve also got some graduate transfers that we’re going to need to play. There’s a lot of moving pieces right now.”
The most certain thing about the Cyclones right now?
The fact that freshman guard Lindell Wigginton is going to have a major role from the first day of practice.
“He’s college ready,” Prohm said of the 6-foot-2 Wigginton, who was a consensus Top-100 recruit out of high school. “He’s got the it factor. He has to remain humble and understand what it means to work at this level, but he’s going to play a big role in what we do. I’ve got to remind he and our other freshmen (Terrence Lewis, Cameron Lard) that I need to count on them like they’re going to be sophomores because we don’t have too much experience.”
Prohm — who has never won fewer than 21 games in a season in six years as a head coach — has always had dynamic lead guards. He coached guys like Isaiah Canaan and Cameron Payne at Murray State and then Morris the past two seasons at Iowa State.
With Wigginton set to be next in line, the question now remains who will emerge next to he, Jackson, Weiler-Babb, and Young.
Prohm believes 6-7 forward Zoran Talley, who averaged 11.3 points last season at Old Dominion, can be a factor and also knows that he needs mileage out of fellow grad transfers Hans Brase (Princeton) and Jeff Beverly (UTSA). The 6-9 Brase has suffered two knee injuries over the past two years and is still about six weeks from being fully cleared, according to Prohm.
September and October are the months where coaches are most optimistic, but what lies ahead for the Cyclones in the Big 12 is an uphill climb.
Kansas, West Virginia, Baylor, Texas Tech and TCU all return strong cores — especially in the backcourt — from last season, while Oklahoma and Texas both added five-star freshmen in Trae Young and Mohamed Bamba, respectively. Kansas State has a strong veteran trio with Kamau Stokes, Barry Brown, and Dean Wade; Oklahoma State has a potential All-Big 12 first-team caliber talent in Jeffrey Carroll.
“Our expectation is still to be in the NCAA Tournament,” Prohm said. “The thing about our league is, the teams that have been really good over the past few years have had great experience. That’s not us right now, but we can’t concern ourselves with that. We can’t think about March today. We’ve got too much to get through first. We open at Missouri and have to play three games in Puerto Rico in November. This situation really reminds me of my third year at Murray State where we struggled for the first half of the year and then became a good team in the second half of the year. We know we’re going to be better late than we are early.”
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Article on MU's opening opponent - FIJItiger MU - 9/20 08:44:46