What happened to the 2019-2020 recruiting class?

[UnCytely]

To be fair to Prohm, his best recruits from the last two recruiting classes left early for the NBA. That definitely makes it hard to build a team when you lose players early. Still, he needs to manage the remaining team much better.

bsaltyman makes a fair point here. The problem is, we didn't have a good recruiting class for this season. As bad as this team is, two of the recruits couldn't compete on this team and requested immediate transfers. Not transfers at the end of the season, as it goes with most players, but immediate transfers. So we didn't have talent coming in to replace what we lost. Losing those players to the NBA wasn't on Prohm, but having a partial-bust of a recruiting class IS on Prohm.

So what happened to this class? How did we miss-evaluate two players so badly that they couldn't even play one season?

 

[UnCytely]

I think I asked a legitimate question here. Others have asked the same question other threads.

 

[Gunnerclone]

Think about when these kids were being recruited and signing. It’s not that hard to figure out. Stuff happens. Things change. The expectation of a linear, plotted course followed to a t over multiple years is dumb.

 

[Clonefan32]

I guess I'm not sure how this could be answered with anything but we mis-evaluated. Grill and Jackson remain to be seen, but having two guys that can't even make it to the exhibition game is a result of bad talent evaluation.

 

[Gunnerclone]

I guess I'm not sure how this could be answered with anything but we mis-evaluated. Grill and Jackson remain to be seen, but having two guys that can't even make it to the exhibition game is a result of bad talent evaluation.

See my post above. We thought we were going to have room for a couple projects with THT coming back. That didn’t happen. I applaud the staff for recognizing the need for more flexibility and being ruthless about it.

CBB is a tough sport to admin. You have to have a plan but at the same time know that plan will not work out 90% of the time.

 

[Cyinthenorth]

Prohm has recruited well overall, and as other have mentioned, probably planned on having at least one of Wigginton/THT back at the time he was recruiting the 2019-20 class. He probably thought adding a couple, well 4 really, developmental type freshman would be fine, because they'd have at least a year to work them in before needing serious contributions from them. That didn't happen.
Anderson and Leech saw the writing on the wall, that they were going to be asked to contribute in ways they knew they weren't ready. It's a bit hard for me to fathom that they weren't even up to the level of Grill and Jackson, but they left for a reason. Either the talent level wasn't up to par, or they just didn't want to sit on a bench. I find the latter a bit hard to believe though.

FWIW, I think Iowa State still has a connection to Leech, who is now at IA Western. Could still end up here in a year or two, if he's actually any good.

 

[megamanxzero35]

Think about when these kids were being recruited and signing. It’s not that hard to figure out. Stuff happens. Things change. The expectation of a linear, plotted course followed to a t over multiple years is dumb.

Exactly this. Anderson always seemed like a reach. I would imagine once Leech got to campus, the extent of his rehab was probably apparent that he still had a long ways to go. I think the staff is still in on him seeing as how he went to Iowa Western.

But yes, staff probably thought they had another year or two of THT/Wiggington at least for a buffer. Anderson and Leech were signed in the fall before THT blew up in Hawaii. Could be a lesson for the staff, always recruit the best players and let them settle playing time opportunities in practice and in games.

 

[CloneIce]

I guess I'm not sure how this could be answered with anything but we mis-evaluated. Grill and Jackson remain to be seen, but having two guys that can't even make it to the exhibition game is a result of bad talent evaluation.

Bad recruiting. Poor evaluation overall. Two busts in the HS class, and the remaining recruits look more like role players than stars at the Big 12 level.

Prohm did not recruit at the level needed for ISU. He has had one really good recruiting class at ISU. Couple that with poor retention and you end up where we are

 

[CloneIce]

See my post above. We thought we were going to have room for a couple projects with THT coming back. That didn’t happen. I applaud the staff for recognizing the need for more flexibility and being ruthless about it.

CBB is a tough sport to admin. You have to have a plan but at the same time know that plan will not work out 90% of the time.

There is nothing to applaud. They made mistakes recruiting Leech and Andersen. Those two wasted scholarships needed to be used to improve the program. Instead we whiffed on two fall signees.

 

[BWRhasnoAC]

I guess I'm not sure how this could be answered with anything but we mis-evaluated. Grill and Jackson remain to be seen, but having two guys that can't even make it to the exhibition game is a result of bad talent evaluation.

I was still trying to be optimistic when those two were released but in the back of my mind I knew that was a bad bad sign.

 

[TedKumsher]

I've been somewhere between happy and impressed with recruiting during the Prohm era. ALL schools *compete* for recruits. A "down" recruiting year for a blue blood is still a decent year, and can typically be absorbed/managed within the existing roster. Multiple negative factors have combined to put ISU in this situation. Any of the negative factors individually probably wouldn't have been such a big deal (TH going pro, lose out on 1 or 2 recruits, unbalanced classes (lost a lot of seniors), whatever you call Wigginton/Lard leaving).
The real thing to worry about is if this turns into negative momentum over multiple years. Foster is a ray of hope. Tre Jackson might take the minutes he's getting as a true freshman and turn into something solid (or better). Grad transfer?

 

[acgclone]

Prohm has recruited well overall, and as other have mentioned, probably planned on having at least one of Wigginton/THT back at the time he was recruiting the 2019-20 class. He probably thought adding a couple, well 4 really, developmental type freshman would be fine, because they'd have at least a year to work them in before needing serious contributions from them. That didn't happen.
Anderson and Leech saw the writing on the wall, that they were going to be asked to contribute in ways they knew they weren't ready. It's a bit hard for me to fathom that they weren't even up to the level of Grill and Jackson, but they left for a reason. Either the talent level wasn't up to par, or they just didn't want to sit on a bench. I find the latter a bit hard to believe though.

FWIW, I think Iowa State still has a connection to Leech, who is now at IA Western. Could still end up here in a year or two, if he's actually any good.

I disagree. He’s had way too many busts in his 5 years here.

A few role players and a couple of big time gets that only stayed 1-2 years.

That’s a recipe for total disaster.

 

[Cyinthenorth]

I disagree. He’s had way too many busts in his 5 years here.

A few role players and a couple of big time gets that only stayed 1-2 years.

That’s a recipe for total disaster.

Let's talk about the misses: Long, Leech, Anderson
Potential misses: Lewis (running out of time) and Griffin, Grill (still too early)
Throw-away class due to timing of arrival: Carter, Ernst, Noskowiak (all misses or troubled in some way)

That really isn't so bad in the grand scheme of things. Yeah. that 2015 class was rough, but if you give Prohm a pass on anything, it's that class (plus none of them would be here anymore, anyway). Up until this year, his % really was pretty good, with everyone else he recruited being at the least, a contributing role player:

Solo, Lard, LW, THT, Conditt, and Tyrese, and I think you could squeeze Tre Jackson in this group already. He's not there yet, but you can tell he will be.

It sucks players have left early, but LW is the only one of those guys that I think you could say were "chased off" or was Prohm's fault at the very least. Cam was gonna Cam. You can't rag on this staff too much for identifying talent, as head scratching as it is that they brought in project - mid major guys like Anderson and Leech, but then also spotted a diamond in the rough like Tyrese.

 

[cybychoice]

Really it looks like we just rolled the dice with the wrong guys. Should have pursued Carton harder, and we just picked the wrong 2 diamonds in the rough guys in Anderson and Leech. If we landed these 2 instead we'd probably be higher on the recruiting class. And yes I understand they play different positions, but we play 4 guards 75% of the time anyway and had 3 forwards returning.

https://247sports.com/player/niven-glover-46036389/
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/player/stats/_/id/4593048/niven-hart

https://247sports.com/player/mylik-wilson-46048043/
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/player/_/id/4432902/mylik-wilson

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

I guess I'm not sure how this could be answered with anything but we mis-evaluated. Grill and Jackson remain to be seen, but having two guys that can't even make it to the exhibition game is a result of bad talent evaluation.

See my post above. We thought we were going to have room for a couple projects with THT coming back. That didn’t happen. I applaud the staff for recognizing the need for more flexibility and being ruthless about it.

CBB is a tough sport to admin. You have to have a plan but at the same time know that plan will not work out 90% of the time.

It's not like Leech and Anderson were these huge below the radar reaches, these guys were both being recruited by quite a few P5 teams. Prohms recruiting has been fine.

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

I disagree. He’s had way too many busts in his 5 years here.

A few role players and a couple of big time gets that only stayed 1-2 years.

That’s a recipe for total disaster.

Prohm is responsible for 5 full recruiting classes though. That HAS to be acknowledged.

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

Really it looks like we just rolled the dice with the wrong guys. Should have pursued Carton harder, and we just picked the wrong 2 diamonds in the rough guys in Anderson and Leech. If we landed these 2 instead we'd probably be higher on the recruiting class. And yes I understand they play different positions, but we play 4 guards 75% of the time anyway and had 3 forwards returning.

https://247sports.com/player/niven-glover-46036389/
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/player/stats/_/id/4593048/niven-hart

https://247sports.com/player/mylik-wilson-46048043/
https://www.espn.com/mens-college-basketball/player/_/id/4432902/mylik-wilson

You seriously don't think this staff pursued Carton? We should also have a guard on our team that backed out of his LOI late in the cycle. $hit happens.

 

[Messi]

I’m really not trying to be a troll or a jerk when i ask this question. Looking for civil discussion

have Prohms SE ties paid off in recruiting?

here’s a list of every Prohm recruit with their home state/country. I realize that home state/country doesn’t matter much when recruiting transfers


Caleb Grill – Kansas

Tre Jackson – South Carolina

Luke Anderson – Florida

Marcedus Leech – Arkansas

Rasir Bolton – Virginia

Javan Johnson – Alabama

Talen Horton-Tucker – Illinois

Zion Griffin – Illinois

George Conditt – Illinois

Tyrese Haliburton – Wisconsin

Prentiss Nixon – Illinois

Lindell Wigginton – Virginia / Canada

Terrence Lewis – Wisconsin

Zoran Talley – Indiana

Jeff Beverly – Texas

Hans Brase – South Carolina

Michael Jacobson – Iowa

Marial Shayok _ Canada

Jakolby Long – Oklahoma

Donovan Jackson –Wisconsin

Cameron Lard – Louisiana

Solomon Young – California

Darrell Bowie – Wisconsin

Simeon Carter – North Carolina

Brady Ernst – Iowa

 

[AuH2O]

You seriously don't think this staff pursued Carton? We should also have a guard on our team that backed out of his LOI late in the cycle. $hit happens.

And due to AAU handler shadiness. At the time Leech and Anderson signed there was no thought of THT leaving early, and we had a four-player class where the guy playing the least had a Kansas offer. At that time going after a high-risk, high-reward guy like Leech made perfect sense. I don't know enough about Anderson to say, but the Leech signing made a lot of sense given last years class and where they were at when these guys signed. Hell, last year's freshman class looked like a 4 man class of 3-4 year guys at the time the staff was going after Leech and Anderson.

 

[Cyinthenorth]

You want to know what's mildly depressing in hind sight? The de-commitment of McKinley Wright. That dude is one of the best PGs in college basketball as a junior for Colorado right now. Caught a bit of their game vs Oregon last week, big win. He is a stud and would be lethal with Tyrese and Bolton. He decommited after Lindell signed as I recall. Wouldn't mind having that one back.