Mar 21, 2019; Tulsa, OK, USA; Iowa State Cyclones head coach Steve Prohm answers questions during a press conference before the first round of the 2019 NCAA Tournament at BOK Center. Mandatory Credit: Brett Rojo-USA TODAY Sports
Iowa State head coach Steve Prohm got an opportunity to talk about his four-man class of 2020 signees on Thursday for the first time. The following quotes are excerpts of what Prohm had to say about in-state recruit Xavier Foster, the goal of the class and more.
On how they can use Foster
“He just brings a lot of skill to the table at whatever you want to call him, 6’10”, 6’11”, 7’. The great thing is he has a great body. He has a good body right now. I was over there a couple of weeks ago and it looks good. I think you can play him a lot of different places. He gives you the ability to stretch the floor, whether it’s trail threes, but also he gives you someone who can score around the basket as well. One thing I think he provides defensively is a guy who can rebound and really, really take baskets away. The way we play, four-out, five-out, he’ll have a lot of opportunities to play all over the floor and really continue to grow his skill level. We’re really excited to get him. My staff did a really good job over a long, long period of time with him and his family. Hopefully, they might be over here next week.”
On signing the top in-state player
“I think it’s great to get a really good player that’s in your state that’s right up the road an hour and a half away to choose Iowa State. I think that’s huge. We really recruited him for almost four years. It was a full three years. You just stay diligent in the process and a lot of people came in and out of there. Really impressed with him as a kid. I think he’s got great humility, especially watching his press conference the other day and hearing his interviews. I think he gets it. We’re looking forward to getting to work with him next summer.”
On Foster’s fit next to George Conditt
“It’s two guys who can really protect the rim. Anytime you can put length and size around the basket is huge. You can see what George is doing for us right now defensively with three or four blocks a game. It’s tremendous because it gives your perimeter guys an opportunity to really get up there and heat up the ball and not worry about getting beat taking people off the 3-point line and funnel them into the help and funnel them to the rim. If you’re going to play those guys together, you’ve got to think of some things that you want to do defensively because those guys are both 6’10”, 6’11”, 7’ guys. To have both of those guys in the frontcourt in the following years in huge for us.”
On the importance of winning a long recruiting battle
“I think it’s great. I think it speaks to the relationships that we have with them, the assistants’ relationships they have with their families and the time that’s invested. They know we will take good care of them here and they can trust us to help build men. That’s the biggest thing is just trying to build men in a lot of different areas of their life. We just take the foundation their family laid and continue to help grow that. We’re excited about this class. I think we addressed our needs of what we needed to get done. Obviously, to add a guy like Xavier then put three perimeter guys that are all kind of point guard slash point forwards, but just size, skill and ability to make people better. They’re all 6’5”, 6’6” and long and can pass, dribble, shoot. It’s huge.”
On trying to get more versatile perimeter players
“We’ve got to get some more size on the perimeter. We want to get to where we’re interchangeable. Ideally, you love to play, I hate to use the word small-ball, but to where four guards are interchangeable parts. It doesn’t matter who brings the ball up or who is playing where. I think the biggest thing was just recruiting size and skill. I think we did that.”
