Iowa State Basketball: Steve Prohm still developing the Cyclones
By Doug Winkey
Lofty expectations behind an inherited roster have fallen flat as Iowa State basketball sits sixth in their conference race.
The Cyclones recently dropped to 8-7 after losing at West Virginia on Monday night. It was a rough performance by the road team that featured two technical fouls and two Iowa State players fouling out.
One stat that will stand out to many is how Iowa State accumulated 21 fouls while West Virginia was only whistled 14 times. Part of that is the home court swing, but it also shows that the Cyclones have to develop their defense.
What is more disconcerting to ISU is the lack of defensive rebounding that has cropped up in the past several games. Iowa State rarely wins the total rebounding numbers, but they have allowed double-digit offensive boards in each of the teams past seven games, going 3-4 in that stretch. They are 208th in rebounding margin at -.2 per game and their issues on the glass prop up larger against teams like West Virginia and Kansas.
The issue with this is that it’s not particularly fixable at this point. The team simply doesn’t have any ready big men beyond Jameel McKay and Georges Niang. Playing freshmen Simeon Carter against a senior-heavy league like the Big 12 would be a recipe for disaster as Carter is not ready to compete at this level.
Even with poor rebounding numbers and an adjusted defense ranked 138th on KenPom, there are still lots of good numbers that trend in Iowa State’s favor. Iowa State has all six of their primary rotation players averaging double figures. They are 20th in team assist-turnover ratio at 1.47 and Monte Morris is third nationally 4.47.
As a squad, Iowa State is 35th in three-point percentage and second in total field-goal percentage. This team is the number two adjusted offense behind only Notre Dame (who has the 218th worse adjD, for those who want to compare extremes). The point is, Iowa State remains one of the top 20 teams in America by the numbers, including being 18 in the RPI with the 10th hardest schedule in America.
Now, how does Coach Prohm fit into all this. Well, he didn’t have a lot of time on the job, only taking over in June, over a month later than when most coaching changes are finalized and announced.
This, combined with the well-known personalities inherited from Fred Hoiberg, meant that Prohm had less time to meet his team and outline the new direction. He was never going to turn most of the squad into lockdown defenders, but a shortened timeline since entering meant that he had to take a roster he had almost no say over and develop it.
Sure, it hasn’t worked to perfect and Prohm should rightly be criticized for some of his decisions, but he is still learning in just his fifth year as a head coach and Iowa State plays in the toughest conference in college basketball.
In less than a season, three players have shown marked improvement under Prohm. Matt Thomas has gone from scoring just 4.9 to 10.5 and has doubled his rebounds to almost five a game.
Abdel Nader is averaging 13.6 and 5.2, up from 5.8 and 2.9 since his first year as a Cyclone. Finally, Monte Morris has gone from 11.9 to 14.8 and upped his assist stat from 5.2 to 7.2. Increased minutes for all three are a definite factor, with the bench not proving itself either in practice or in games beyond an occasional singular play, but production has been impressive from almost every measure.
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Even in a year that has not met the aspirations most Cyclone fans initially had, one must look at the positive numbers in difficult situations to truly appreciate what progress is being made. A full offseason to recruit, along with a minimum of six new bodies incoming next year, means that the 2016-2017 season will be the first true test for the new Iowa State head man.