Bolton Tweet

[huntt26]

Why?

It’s him. He got new social media accounts.

Okay, that's good. The account literally has no pictures of him with his friends, him out to eat, etc. so that's why I was/am skeptical. The post further down about his mom retweeting does help though.

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

This will only last if he likes the new coach.

Would it kill some of you guys to not be complete d!ck holes about all things basketball?

 

[Tlyon]

Rasir is really good but there are two things holding him back from being great:

1. he doesn't like to play physical, with his first step, he could live at the FT line if he wasn't afraid of contact at the rim, with as good a FT shooter as he is, this could be a game changer for us. He needs to get physically stronger or at least not shy away from contact. Often, if he gets his shot blocked or fouled hard, he starts to avoid going to the rim. He should be in attack mode all the time

2. He isn't always mentally engaged, that accounts for the long stretches where he disappears and many of his turnovers it also plays in to the first point I made. I think its fair to put some of this on how he's coached and the fact that he is playing out of position. When he is locked in, he's really tough to stop but too often we get long stretches where he isn't making an impact.


He did improve in both of these areas this past season and he's going to be a really good player next year no matter what but until he can improve in these areas, he won't be an alpha that can carry a team. He has all the skills to be great, he just needs whats upstairs to match what he can do physically. That's what can take him from good to great, hopefully he gets to play for a coaching staff that can help bring that out in him.

Re: Free throws

For the top ten FT% shooters in the conference, average attempts was 103.6 on the season to date. Rasir finished with 83 attempts. To be fair the average games played for the top 10 was 24.3 games and Rasir played in 21 (counting tcu which he went out in). At the rate he was shooting he would’ve shot 99 free throws on the year, which is still below average. Just some useless research I did because I was curious about how Rasir compared to the other top shooters.

I do agree he needs to get to the line more, bump it up to 5 attempts per game and he’ll be great.

 

[GetAwesome]

Enter Tyrese Hunter. I don’t want to be a black sheep, this year was terrible, but there’s a silver lining if Prohm stays and that’s Hunter.

Just curious on this point, does anybody know if Prohm himself was Hunter's lead recruiter? It's not a surefire bet that Hunter stays if Prohm stays.

Nonetheless, if Prohm was not the lead recruiter it's plausible a new HC may retain a staff member for a year or two for continuity of recruiting.

 

[BillBrasky4Cy]

Just curious on this point, does anybody know if Prohm himself was Hunter's lead recruiter? It's not a surefire bet that Hunter stays if Prohm stays.

Nonetheless, if Prohm was not the lead recruiter it's plausible a new HC may retain a staff member for a year or two for continuity of recruiting.

The whole staff would be gone, not just Prohm.

 

[CascadeClone]

Rasir is really good but there are two things holding him back from being great:

1. he doesn't like to play physical,

2. He isn't always mentally engaged,

I'd agree those could be improved, but I don't really think I'd negatively criticise Rasir on either.

#1 he could be coached to initiate contact and draw fouls. He has so much skill he tries to avoid contact and that reduces his fg% and ft attempts both. Seems like an obvious coaching/teaching moment, but no help from the staff of course. So that's not on him, imho.

#2 - how anyone could be mentally engaged all the time on this team is beyond me. How they aren't ALL checked out is beyond me. Maybe if he was sitting there on the bench eating a can of pringles and playing candy crush or something, then yeah...

 

[brett108]

Would it kill some of you guys to not be complete d!ck holes about all things basketball?

If there was ever a year to be pessimistic about all things MBB, this is the year. Its never been worse.

 

[Sigmapolis]

The whole staff would be gone, not just Prohm.

Likely -- but there are precedents for key staffers being kept during a regime change, at least to start.

Hoiberg kept TJO.

 

[heitclone]

I'd agree those could be improved, but I don't really think I'd negatively criticise Rasir on either.

#1 he could be coached to initiate contact and draw fouls. He has so much skill he tries to avoid contact and that reduces his fg% and ft attempts both. Seems like an obvious coaching/teaching moment, but no help from the staff of course. So that's not on him, imho.

#2 - how anyone could be mentally engaged all the time on this team is beyond me. How they aren't ALL checked out is beyond me. Maybe if he was sitting there on the bench eating a can of pringles and playing candy crush or something, then yeah...

I wasn't bashing the guy, just being blunt about the areas he can improve to take his game to the next level.

 

[GetAwesome]

The whole staff would be gone, not just Prohm.

There hasn't been a single head coaching change for Iowa State basketball since Eustachy that didn't have some level of carryover of staff.

 

[cyclone1209]

Bolton seems like a great kid and is very talented. That being said he was badly misused this year and has no business playing point guard hopefully whoever is coaching next year uses him properly.

Turnover prone (like usually 3-4 TOs per game) who can score a lot. He has skills.

In an ideal offense needs to be the off 2 guard not asked to dribble everywhere.

 

[ATCy]

There hasn't been a single head coaching change for Iowa State basketball since Eustachy that didn't have some level of carryover of staff.

Micah Byars would be the likely holdover. Director of Operations.

 

[t-noah]

Rasir is really good but there are two things holding him back from being great:

1. he doesn't like to play physical, with his first step, he could live at the FT line if he wasn't afraid of contact at the rim, with as good a FT shooter as he is, this could be a game changer for us. He needs to get physically stronger or at least not shy away from contact. Often, if he gets his shot blocked or fouled hard, he starts to avoid going to the rim. He should be in attack mode all the time

2. He isn't always mentally engaged, that accounts for the long stretches where he disappears and many of his turnovers it also plays in to the first point I made. I think its fair to put some of this on how he's coached and the fact that he is playing out of position. When he is locked in, he's really tough to stop but too often we get long stretches where he isn't making an impact.


He did improve in both of these areas this past season and he's going to be a really good player next year no matter what but until he can improve in these areas, he won't be an alpha that can carry a team. He has all the skills to be great, he just needs whats upstairs to match what he can do physically. That's what can take him from good to great, hopefully he gets to play for a coaching staff that can help bring that out in him.

I'd agree those could be improved, but I don't really think I'd negatively criticise Rasir on either.

#1 he could be coached to initiate contact and draw fouls. He has so much skill he tries to avoid contact and that reduces his fg% and ft attempts both. Seems like an obvious coaching/teaching moment, but no help from the staff of course. So that's not on him, imho.

#2 - how anyone could be mentally engaged all the time on this team is beyond me. How they aren't ALL checked out is beyond me. Maybe if he was sitting there on the bench eating a can of pringles and playing candy crush or something, then yeah...

Good analysis.

 

[CyberJJJ]

It was worse coaching than that.
There’s having a non-pg fill in at pg, and then there’s using a non-pg as though he’s like the previous very good pgs Prohm’s career has been built on. We used him way too similar to how we’d use our previous very talented pgs.
He should have been used much more like we used Scotty in 2011-12. I don’t think we would have been worse with another player at pg and running an actual offense. You know, passing, cutting, etc

Fred was able to use Scottie that way as he had Korie Lucious at PG and Royce as Point Forward.

 

[Cloneon]

I wasn't bashing the guy, just being blunt about the areas he can improve to take his game to the next level.

Technically, it was more bashing than not. Difference between the two:
Bashing: He's bad in this area.
Not bashing: He needs to improve in this area.
Subtle, but nevertheless a difference.

 

[WhoISthis]

Fred was able to use Scottie that way as he had Korie Lucious at PG and Royce as Point Forward.

Scotty never played with Lucious so you have no idea what you’re talking about.

Bolton needed to be used as a stop-gap pg like Scotty, not like they’re the past pgs he’s had. But Prohm is a one trick coach, and all he knows is to have an offense with elite pg play.

 

[Big_Sill]

Prohm is guilty of many things, but playing Bolton at PG this past season is not one of them. In fact, it was probably a good coaching decision.

 

[allfourcy]

The whole staff would be gone, not just Prohm.

If it's TJ, which I'm hearing it is, then doubt if the whole Prohm staff will be gone. Okay by me that they would be tho.

 

[CyberJJJ]

Scotty never played with Lucious so you have no idea what you’re talking about.

Bolton needed to be used as a stop-gap pg like Scotty, not like they’re the past pgs he’s had. But Prohm is a one trick coach, and all he knows is to have an offense with elite pg play.

I took the roster from here. 2011-12 Men's Basketball Roster - Iowa State University Athletics (cyclones.com), but forgot that 2011 was Korie's "sit out" year after transferring. They were on the team together, but didn't suit up at the same time for in season games. Why so testy and aggressive? Was it not true the Royce also handled the ball a ton that year...oh must not have as I "have no idea what I'm talking about."

 

[jbhtexas]

Re: Free throws

For the top ten FT% shooters in the conference, average attempts was 103.6 on the season to date. Rasir finished with 83 attempts. To be fair the average games played for the top 10 was 24.3 games and Rasir played in 21 (counting tcu which he went out in). At the rate he was shooting he would’ve shot 99 free throws on the year, which is still below average. Just some useless research I did because I was curious about how Rasir compared to the other top shooters.

I do agree he needs to get to the line more, bump it up to 5 attempts per game and he’ll be great.

It's not just Bolton...it's the whole team. FT stats for the conference were posted in the game thread. The FT disparity between ISU and the rest of the conference is astounding. It's going to be really, really hard to win with ISU giving away so many points at the FT line.

None of the players really seem to know how to initiate contact and draw fouls when they get to the hoop. In addition to the scoring disparity, ISU hardly ever puts foul pressure on the opponents, so the defenders can play physically against ISU because they know they are unlikely to get into any kind of foul trouble. This needs to be a point of emphasis for whoever is coaching next year.