My honest opinion was that people had a love affair with Fred Hoiberg. He was the golden child, the pretty boy.. The Mayor. There was blind optimism because people believed no matter the outcome of a game, Fred would fix the issues. People wouldn't blame Fred, they'd blame the team or give credit to the opposing team. They'd blame the other team's player for going off for 44, instead of blaming the defense that was being played. I would say we all fell into this trap of comfortability that Fred created.. We felt invincible.
Once Prohm came to Iowa State I think a lot of people, including me, instantly started to feel uncomfortable. Something felt off about the program. Sure we had the same players, but everything felt a little bit different. Because it felt different, we started to judge Prohm differently. We'd compare Prohm to Fred, compare the players we got to the players Fred had / was recruiting, the offenses and defenses he'd run, etc. We've now gotten to the point where people are starting to talk down some successful seasons because if "X" were coaching this team, we'd have a national championship appearance by now. Some fans are blaming the change of lights in Hilton to shooting performance, some are blaming not practicing in Hilton enough, some fans are even throwing in the towel ten games into a season, a season in which we are very young and have a lot of new people playing together (and have yet to lose to a bad team). People are saying Hilton Magic is dead.
You know what one of the first things Coach Prohm said when we won in KC last March? He said Iowa State University has the best fans in the nation and there isn't another program that comes close to being able to do what we do. He's so thankful for us fans and is crushed when his teams lose because he knows it crushes us fans to. Both him and Matt Campbell understand us and want to be in Ames and succeed. Hilton Magic isn't about who the coach is or who's playing but what the fans make it. I will back up Coach Prohm and hope that his team succeeds the rest of the way this year.
BRAVO!!!
/ thread!