So I never once said it was a masterful coaching job. I said you're an idiot. There's a HUGE difference. Prohm wasn't great last year but he wasn't bad overall. Offensively for the most part he does a really, really good job. Defensively however we were (and are) pitiful and it should've caused heads to roll.Your first mistake is comparing the ACC to the Big 12. Ok maybe not 15-3 but certainly enough talent to win the Big 12 last year. We ran Kansas out of the gym twice. Ran co-champ K-State out of the gym twice and won on the road at co-champ Texas Tech. They certainly had the talent to go 13-5 at the very least with a ceiling of 15-3.
I suppose you think last year was a masterful coaching job?
It's interesting you cherry pick out the games you did but say it's not ok to compare the Big 12 to the ACC. We ran Kansas out of the gym twice down their best player in Azubuike. We beat Kansas State in Manhattan but running them out of the gym is purely disingenuous because the game was close until the very end. I also believe that game we hit a ridiculous number of threes to be our equalizer. Did we get them pretty good in Kansas City? Yep....sans their best player in Dean Wade. So in 3 out of the 5 games you're talking about the opposing team was down their MVP.
You find me one coach who doesn't have issues with consistency from freshmen. Having a high ceiling (Iowa State did) doesn't translate to results a lot of the time. Why? Because even the best freshmen in CBB struggle with being consistent. Offensively they normally can pick up where they left off in high school or prep school. Defensively they're normally a disaster. The stats will show we got a lot of steals or blocked shots from Wigginton/Haliburton/THT/Lard but what they don't show is how many times they gave up a dunk because they were lost. Prohm deserves blame for some of the Wigginton/Lard defensive issues because he had a year to address them. Haliburton and THT were normal freshman.
What do teams who win the title normally have? Upperclassmen plus 1st rounders.
Tech last year? Upperclassmen plus Culver.
Virginia last year? Upperclassmen plus Hunter.
2018 Nova? I think the starting 5 might were all first rounders and I don't think any were freshmen.
2018 Michigan? Upperclassmen plus Wagner.
2017 Gonzaga? Upperclassmen.
2017 UNC? Somehow Roy got a bunch of upperclassmen to stick around.
On a conference champion level team, Nick Weiler-Babb and Michael Jacobson are role players playing spot minutes.
It's a tough spot with Prohm. Great he recruited some players who decided to leave early to play professionally. Bad because you have scholarships tied up but your development to get to having a balanced roster goes out the window. At a place like Iowa State where we aren't getting lottery picks you have to make sure they're talented but not talented enough to leave early because chances are you aren't recruiting well enough consistently to be able to replace them with a player that's ready. Fred was phenomenal at plugging his holes with transfers because he was one of the only ones to do it. Now that's not the case at all.
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