I chose to be hopeful. We surprise next year. 
Early Thoughts On Next Season?
- Thread starter Thomasrickj
- Start date
I think the line near the end is pretty interesting - talking about his broken leg : "I'm glad it happened; it showed who was loyal to me" It seems pretty likely that he would not be coming to ISU if not for the broken leg and the loyalty Prohm & staff showed him.
I'm really looking forward to seeing him play next year - "Loyal sons forever true..."
He's not even in college and he's already learned the business of it. Seems like once you hit 18, the world stops cari g about your problems and everyone worries about themselves.
I think we could reload next year. It is still early. I like the nucleus of players coming back that we have to build around. The coaches are working hard to add a key piece or two in the spring signing. We are going to look different from last year most likely. Should be fun to watch things come together.
Leech has a lot of upside. He could surprise a lot of people that forgot about him after the break. I expect him to start pending his health.
In is in, that what matters then it's each game at a time.
IMO Coach Prohm will look at his roster and see that he will have to do things different next season. I would really be surprised if we run a 1/4 offense- heavy on PnR and isolation plays. So I think if fans look at our roster and are underwhelmed that is understandable if they expect to see Hoiball.
- Based on talent I would expect us to play 2 posts close to 80mpg. IMO Jacobson, Young and Conditt are among our 5 best players. So we'll try to create mismatches against shorter opponents.
- We'll see more screen/re-screen and motion offense to get guys open for shots or drive to basket.
- We have a unique talent in Tyrese Halliburton and Prohm/staff need to scheme ways to take advantage of his physical tools. Post him up. Isolate him on a wing to dribble penetrate.
- We have to be a physical, tough minded team. We will need to grind out wins by doing the small things & attention to detail.
We're going to be fine next year.
I would look to Beard as my model for shaping a team going forward. Both UVA and Tech have good but not elite talent for the most part. I realize Culver will be a high draft pick, but other than that these teams are not oozing with NBA players or McD's AA.
They win through hard-nosed defense, and very disciplined, opportunistic offense.
And they are old. That is a key in this day and age.
I think Prohm and his team need to work harder in the off season, and in practice. From what you hear about Beard's practices, they execute everything perfectly or they do pushups, etc.
We constantly hear about how much "freedom" our guards have. "Freedom" may not be an advantage in March when you start to play teams that defend and the refs start to let the kids play.
They win through hard-nosed defense, and very disciplined, opportunistic offense.
And they are old. That is a key in this day and age.
I think Prohm and his team need to work harder in the off season, and in practice. From what you hear about Beard's practices, they execute everything perfectly or they do pushups, etc.
We constantly hear about how much "freedom" our guards have. "Freedom" may not be an advantage in March when you start to play teams that defend and the refs start to let the kids play.
Yes we lose a lot, but we also lose a lot of drama. I hope the lesser talent will be offset by the ability to play as a team again. It is possible to have an offense without guys that can get their own shot. You just have to play as a group.
This is the reaction every year as we get to the Final Four: “My team should should play like this currently successful team ”. And every year it is a different style of team. There is not perfect way to play, but what these teams have in common is that their personnel fits there scheme very well. Also, they can play multiple ways offensively and defensively.
Don’t forget that ISU’s offense under Prohm has been quite successful against Texas Texas the past couple of years too. Many times a team’s run (or lack thereof) in the NCAA tournament comes largely down to favorable matchups.
p.s. also LOL on needing to “practice harder” and discipline with pushups.
I'm not sure you can say Virginia doesnt have elite talent. Pretty much their entire rotation were legit 4 star recruits and the majority are upperclassmen.
If you aren't a blue blood it is near impossible to sustain when you have attrition due to early entry (Wigginton, THT) or transfer (Lard).
I dont think it's a shocker ISU had arguably their greatest era of success when they had several four star (50-100 range recruits) in Morris, Thomas, Niang who were high-level four year players.
If there is a model to steal from Virginia it is that. Build a core of great four year college players and supplement with a sit out transfer and swing for the occasional homerun fringe 5 star recruit. Easier said than done. Their 2016 recruiting class was absurd think they had five signees ranked between 45-65.
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In a podcast CW did with Prohm, Prohm commented something along the lines of ~we could go two bigs 10 or 15 mpg next year~. Which I thought was... interesting. As of right now we certainly don’t have 4 guards worthy of playing big minutes. If we want to be competitive, that is.
Wait til you see how he uses the oxford comma.
If you are capable of getting talents like THT, you have to try, even knowing they won't be around four years. It doesn't need to be one or the other. But I think everybody agrees player development is key at a school like ISU, and that takes time.
I wonder if Talen was promised the opportunity to start as a term of his signing here. If he always saw himself as a one and done it would make some sense. That can be tricky turf for a head coach to navigate, but it was pretty apparent he was one of our top five talents this year--especially when considering both ends of the floor, just not a great fit all the time with shot selection.
I never said you pass on a fringe five star recruit like THT or Wigginton. I did say however it is impossible to reload in one year if you aren't a blue blood. If you are going to go that route you better capitalize when you have those players as well. I'm sure most of us on here would be understanding of a rebuild season yet again next year had we made a deep run in the tournament this year.
The post you quoted here was Norman dale esq. I will bet he lost his mind about these things when Fred was here. We guarded even worse then.
I think we are saying the same thing, having talents like that are a good way to boost a team like ISU while they are around, but aren't ever likely to form the foundation here.
I think finding the one and done works very with an already established foundation at the ISU level. Last year while not truly young, had basically never played together. Once you have a solid foundation the one and done can propel you to the next level
