Following Murray State’s loss in the quarterfinals of the MVC Tournament on Friday night, head coach Steve Prohm announced that he’s stepping away from the program. This was the end of Prohm’s third season with the Racers, though he had previously been head coach of the program a decade earlier.
A former student manager at Alabama, Prohm’s coaching career caught on under Billy Kennedy, under whom he served as an unpaid assistant at Centenary back in 1998. Prohm would follow Kennedy to two other schools, landing at Murray State in 2006. After five years, Kennedy left for Texas A&M and Prohm was promoted to the top job.
Sources: Murray State coach Steve Prohm is stepping down and will not return next year. They have not finished higher than sixth in the Missouri Valley in his three seasons since returning to the school. They’ve had losing records in conference in the last two years. pic.twitter.com/GlmBq11bBa
— Pete Thamel (@PeteThamel) March 8, 2025
Taking advantage of a program in fantastic shape, Prohm led Murray State to a 31-2 record, an OVC title, and a first round NCAA Tournament win as a rookie head coach. He’d get the Racers back to the Big Dance in 2015 and won over 100 games across those four seasons.
After that success he accepted the Iowa State job vacated by Fred Hoiberg. The Big 12 represented a bigger challenge, though Prohm led the Cyclones to the Sweet Sixteen in his first season. He won Big 12 Tournament titles in his second and fourth years respectively, though fizzled out with some awful seasons and was fired in 2021.
Following a season out of coaching, Prohm was rehired by Murray State after predecessor (and successor) Matt McMahon took the LSU job in 2022. Unfortunately, the program couldn’t come close to that previous success. Prohm led the Racers into the MVC and settled for 7th place finishes in all three of his seasons, winning just 45 total games.
The Racers are thrown into a head coaching search but there won’t be panic for this program. They’re making the beginning strides to life in the MVC, which is far more difficult than in the OVC, and increased investment into this sport has allegedly been promised by the administration.
Murray State had a run of head coaches that left for bigger jobs in Mark Gottfried, Mick Cronin, Billy Kennedy as well and have found successful coaches in different ways. Perhaps the best course of action is hiring a young assistant whose shown promise much like Cronin and Prohm had done in their careers.
Whichever direction this program goes in, Murray State can be successful someday soon in the MVC with the right investment; it just won’t be as easy as life used to be down in the OVC.