I don’t post often, don’t follow sports as closely as most posters and don’t have great basketball knowledge. I am someone who has followed and supported Cyclone athletics for decades, particularly men’s basketball and football.
As admirable a person as Coach Prohm may be, he seems to prioritize building character in his athletes above building a championship basketball team. And by building character, I think Coach Prohm holds a pretty narrow ideal as his standard. And I think that’s part of his problem in communicating with his team.
I hear that Coach Prohm doesn’t let the team listen to their preferred music during practice. I notice infrequent but repetitive comments from Coach Prohm that “God” will determine how the team turns out, or to help the players resolve their issues. Do Coach and the team acknowledge the same god? Might his god rankle someone else’s belief or values system?
And while prioritizing “character,” how is he demonstrating that “character” may involve playing smart and hard in all phases of the game they’re on scholarship to play, and the coaches are paid to teach and implement?
Another poster in this thread referenced Bill Self’s ability to coach elite, egotistical athletes into successful teams. Self and KU athletics are dirty, and I certainly don’t want dirty, but Self is also focused and sufficiently in touch with his players to turn them into an outstanding TEAM, year after year. Huggy too, with lower pedigree players, and Weber, Kruger, and even Drew. Is Prohm of their caliber as a basketball coach?
This year ISU had an outstanding collection of individual talented players thanks to Coach Prohm. However, Prohm coached them into summer league level performances in the second time around the league. His interventions with Cam Lard May have been helpful for Cam as a person. If so, good, that’s great. But has he thrown away the season with his emphasis on molding character to his specifications while leaving outcomes to God?
