Murray State Basketball: Steve Prohm is back at head coach

Murray State Basketball has found its replacement at head coach with former Iowa State leader Steve Prohm. Will he keep the Racers in contention as they move to the Missouri Valley?

When Murray State basketball was faced with replacing coach Matt McMahon, they turned to a familiar face. McMahon’s former boss Steve Prohm has returned to Murray State. After four highly successful Racer seasons (104-29), Prohm left for Iowa State.

The 47-year-old Prohm had mixed results in the Big Twelve (97-95) and is rejoining his former team, but in a different conference. While Xavier was rehiring Sean Miller, Murray State Director of Athletics Kevin Saal looked to the past to secure the basketball team’s future. MSU will be joining the Missouri Valley Conference next academic year.

"“As we envisioned the ideal profile for the next Murray State Men’s Basketball head coach, it remained abundantly clear a commitment to character, integrity, student-athlete development, community, family and competitive excellence were critically important,” said Murray State Director of Athletics, Kevin Saal. “Steve Prohm represents, reflects and personifies these, and many more, qualities. His skill set, experience and genuine love for Murray State will effectively guide our program as we begin our Missouri Valley Conference journey.”"

Prohm’s teams have played postseason basketball in six of his ten seasons as a head coach. He has won four NCAA Tournament games and seven times his teams have won at least twenty games.

Prohm is thrilled to be ‘coming home’.

"“I’m extremely excited and grateful for the opportunity to return to Racer Nation,” Prohm. “I’m thankful for the belief and continued investments ushered by President Bob Jackson, Director of Athletics Kevin Saal and the great people who support our program. Though there have been many great moments and memories all of us have shared, now is the time to shift our focus forward, as we begin a new chapter of Murray State Basketball entering the Missouri Valley Conference.”"

After working six seasons under Billy Kennedy at Murray, Prohm led MSU to four straight divisional or conference titles and recruited and coached star guards Isaiah Canaan and Cameron Payne and it was Prohm that hired McMahon to work on his staff.

Prohm’s 2013-14 Murray State team won the CollegeInsider.com Tournament championship. Under his leadership, Murray State won two conference regular-season and one tournament title. While at Iowa State his teams claimed two Big Twelve Tournament trophies.

Coach Prohm will have a tough challenge on his hands with Murray State Basketball. Stars KJ Williams and Tevin Brown are both likely going pro, while sophomore guard Justice Hill could potentially be leaving as well after the coaching change. It’ll be important to keep him on board, as the Racers will be moving from the Ohio Valley to the Missouri Valley Conference, arguably a step up in competition.

But Coach Prohm has a proven track record overall to succeed and now back at familiar grounds, should be more than capable of keeping Murray State in NCAA Tournament contention.