Stayed away for a few days, but here are my observations:
A) Prohm continues to be a horrendous in game coach. Much like last year, when we get zoned our offense turns into passing it around the perimeter before a desperation 27 footer, which to be fair is not markedly different than our actual man-to-man offense. There is a complete lack of game plan or adjustments.
And if anything is worse than his offense gameplan, it's his defense gameplan. It's astonishing to watch how bad we guard people. Straight line drives with zero resistance. Absolute uncertainty about where to be on rotations. On the rare occasions we do get a stop we can't rebound. I found myself Friday saying the same thing I said all last year-- what exactly do we practice? What exactly is our gameplan?
B) I know people think we have some great talent influx coming with our freshmen, but they are a ways from being contributors. This may not be a popular opinion, but the best freshman on the floor on Friday was Keegan Murray, the kid we all made fun of Iowa for signing. He was certainly better than Dubar, Blackwell and Walker. An argument could be made either way on who was better between he and Foster. Now does Foster have the higher upside? Of course. But if we are relying on those 4 to save the program within the next year or two, boy, I have my doubts.
C) On that note, give Foster all the minutes. Solo has his moments and I commend the kid for sticking it out with his injuries. He has a place as a 12 or so minute a guy. But he just cannot guard and cannot rebound.
As for Conditt, it seems to me his confidence is just shot. He used to go to the basket with authority. That travel told me about all I need to know about where his game is at now, as he made a nice move to back in and then just refused to go up.
Just go all in on Foster and see where you wind up at this point.
D) I'm not sure I've heard a worse argument than "moar Iowa kidz!" If anyone can say with a straight face that Tyreke Locure and Bowen Born are the answers to our problems I commend them. I guess if your argument is "it can't get much worse" then ok, I guess? While there may be some truth to that I'm not sure it gets us anywhere near where we need to be.
Also, using Iowa as the basis for that argument is pure comedy. You've got Garza, Frederick, Nunge, Touissant-- all out of state. Plus, anyone with a brain can see it's a team full of good, but not great players, and a generational talent in Garza. But if you think a team of Weiskamp, JBo, the McAffreys, Bowen Born and Tyreke Locure would do anything but lose by 40 (which, albeit, is not that much worse than what we have...) you are crazy.
E) I'm at the same point with Prohm as I was with CPR at the end of his tenure. You'd love for it to work out, but it's not. It is what it is. So either we are trying to be a competitor or we just don't give a **** about basketball and those resources should go elsewhere. I don't really care what the answer to that is, but at least be honest about what we are dealing with, which is a coach who is completely overwhelmed. When you dip down into the mid-majors for a coach your not always going to find a big fish in a small pond like you did with Campbell at Toledo. Sometimes they are a small fish who is in the exact pond they belong in.
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