Larry Eustachy called, and he'd like you to hold his beer (no/maybe pun intended)...
What a preposterous statement. Please list the long line of ISU coaches who have made the steady rise you're describing... OK... now list the coaches among all college BB coaches...quite a list you have...?
Fred was great for ISU when he was here, but to assume that his teams would have continued their rise is the strawman no one can meet. If that's where you want to be, more power to you - you just might want to move your allegiance to the perfect team/coach, whatever that is.
If you can't seriously look at Fred's teams and realize that he was walking a fine line with the transfers he was taking, you're simply choosing to ignore facts. Sometimes it worked well, sometimes it bit - see that amazingly talented team that lost to UAB. If you switch coaches and Prohm had done that, you'd never forgive him.
Prohm does things I just don't understand (e.g., playing Babb/Shayok tons of minutes, out-of-bounds plays), but the guy dug out of the hole Fred left and has us back to being a potentially-excellent, but so inconsistent, team. His teams have clicked better every year as the season has gone one, which has caused me to just realize that my "expertise" may have to be set aside for someone who's paid to do this and has done it well. This year, who knows, but I'm happy with where we are - and, I would have loved if Fred stayed for a long time. But, he didn't.