Article on Prentiss and Larry

Torks Pub

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I loved having LE as our coach. Dude just breeds toughness. He definitely had plenty of flaws though, even outside of his alcohol issues. He didn't like recruiting much and let his assistants do a lot of it. When we should have been capitalizing on those great seasons, his main assistants left for HC jobs and we didn't make hay like we should have. Also, after some success, he didn't feel like he needed to answer to the AD. Pete Taylor was his buffer. When Pete died and LE got in trouble, it gave VandeVelde the perfect excuse to fire him. BVDV was not going to go out of his way to save LE, even though he could have.

I hope that Prohm can get LE back to one of their reunions. Maybe the 20 year anniversary of the 99-00 team next summer (or would that be THIS summer?).


The AD wasn't the only one LE didn't think he reported to. He burned his bridge with Beardshear Hall and didn't have any allies outside of Pete.
 

Knownothing

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Love Larry. Looking back the right decisions were made for everyone involved. He needed to go get cleaned up. We needed to move one. At the time I was pissed off about it and didn't understand why we had to get rid of him. I wish we could get him back into good graces at Iowa State. I mean the guy never says anything bad about Iowa State and always talks up Ames.
 

jsb

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Love Larry. Looking back the right decisions were made for everyone involved. He needed to go get cleaned up. We needed to move one. At the time I was pissed off about it and didn't understand why we had to get rid of him. I wish we could get him back into good graces at Iowa State. I mean the guy never says anything bad about Iowa State and always talks up Ames.

He’s in fine with Iowa State. He came back for the Barry Stevens day. He’s been invited to the reunion. I suspect he’ll eventually get into the hall of fame.
 
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Knownothing

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He’s in fine with Iowa State. He came back for the Barry Stevens day. He’s been invited to the reunion. I suspect he’ll eventually get into the hall of fame.

Well he is fine. However, I am not sure about the hall of fame type stuff. That is what I am talking about.
 

Pat

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I see Nixon as a potential Mike Nurse type player who played for LE at ISU. Maybe a forgotten guy to a lot of fans, but one of my all time favorite Clones for his toughness and ability to come up big in big moments.

“Get hit by a car and miss one half” toughness.
 

IcSyU

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Nov 27, 2007
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Tinsley and Fizer made Larry a huge success here. He stunk without them. That "toughness" really made the 01-02 and 02-03 teams solid.

I'll never understand the connection between coaches who have temper tantrums and the team's toughness.
 

SpokaneCY

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Apr 11, 2006
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People killed prohm for last year and not making the NCAA after having a very short recruiting season after he was hired super late. Larry followed up 2 championships with a horrible season and few bat an eye.

Things in the past are always super awesome for some people.
 
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Kurttr

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Tinsley and Fizer made Larry a huge success here. He stunk without them. That "toughness" really made the 01-02 and 02-03 teams solid.

I'll never understand the connection between coaches who have temper tantrums and the team's toughness.
I'd say it's more about who they recruit & how they coach (not tantrums, per se). LE's teams were tough, and, yes, having Tinsley & Fizer led to the best team we've had in my 50 years. LE really could coach, but things were not going in the right direction on the court as the stuff about his personal life hit the news. I'd like to think he would have gotten it turned back around at ISU if his personal issues hadn't derailed him, but it wasn't pretty on the court at the very end.
 
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heitclone

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People killed prohm for last year and not making the NCAA after having a very short recruiting season after he was hired super late. Larry followed up 2 championships with a horrible season and few bat an eye.

I love Prohm but Larry also followed a horrible season in his first year with 2 championships. He earned some slack. The two situations are not even comparable.
 

jsb

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I love Prohm but Larry also followed a horrible season in his first year with 2 championships. He earned some slack. The two situations are not even comparable.

Then he followed 2 championships with two even worse seasons than his first. Why didn’t he recruit better?
 
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Frak

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Then he followed 2 championships with two even worse seasons than his first. Why didn’t he recruit better?

Because all of his assistants took HC jobs. He finally got some talent and depth back in the program when he hired Wayne Morgan, but he wasn’t around long enough to coach them.
 
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deadeyededric

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I love Prohm but Larry also followed a horrible season in his first year with 2 championships. He earned some slack. The two situations are not even comparable.
The 2002(I think) recruiting class never panned out. It was ranked #2 in the country. Haluska transferred, Tim Barnes couldn't shoot, Vroman was good, Chris Alexander played about 2 games, and I don't even think Jerome Harper got into school(currently in prison for murder).
 

247cy

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Nice article.

Too bad the photo album at the bottom had to go and remind me of one Bruce Van De Velde. Probably a good person, but what a terrible AD. Good God. Anyone who thinks Jamie Pollard is doing a bad job (you know who you are)...careful what you wish for. Urick, good, but with no university support, Gene Smith, mediocre at best, BVDV, dumpster fire. There will be a statue of Pollard in Ames one day.
 

Frak

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Tinsley and Fizer made Larry a huge success here. He stunk without them. That "toughness" really made the 01-02 and 02-03 teams solid.

I'll never understand the connection between coaches who have temper tantrums and the team's toughness.

That elite eight team was one of the toughest minded teams I’ve ever seen play. Had nothing to do with temper tantrums. LEs bad teams lacked talent. Plain and simple.
 
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CapnCy

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The AD wasn't the only one LE didn't think he reported to. He burned his bridge with Beardshear Hall and didn't have any allies outside of Pete.

Curious as I've seen a couple people mention he and Pete being close....could someone expand? I was a casual fan back then so didn't know any of the insights/relationships, but curious.

I love John Walters....and I always wonder what it must be like to be the "voice" as in his role he needs to "buddy/buddy" with coaches as he hosts shows, etc...but I can also see how that must be hard when things go south and we fire a coach.

And in the context of Pete, does the radio host really have much pull? (Not questioning his status as a cyclone legend, just curious)
 

Acylum

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Nov 18, 2006
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Curious as I've seen a couple people mention he and Pete being close....could someone expand? I was a casual fan back then so didn't know any of the insights/relationships, but curious.

I love John Walters....and I always wonder what it must be like to be the "voice" as in his role he needs to "buddy/buddy" with coaches as he hosts shows, etc...but I can also see how that must be hard when things go south and we fire a coach.

And in the context of Pete, does the radio host really have much pull? (Not questioning his status as a cyclone legend, just curious)

Pete also worked in the AD.
 
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Frak

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Curious as I've seen a couple people mention he and Pete being close....could someone expand? I was a casual fan back then so didn't know any of the insights/relationships, but curious.

I love John Walters....and I always wonder what it must be like to be the "voice" as in his role he needs to "buddy/buddy" with coaches as he hosts shows, etc...but I can also see how that must be hard when things go south and we fire a coach.

And in the context of Pete, does the radio host really have much pull? (Not questioning his status as a cyclone legend, just curious)

I don't know how much pull he had, but IMO he had a way of smoothing things over when LE ruffled feathers with BVDV and Geoffrey. Once that buffer was gone, it was only a matter of time. LE gave them the perfect excuse.
 

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