Hlas: “Steve Prohm,” said Fred Hoiberg to Jamie Pollard

AMES - So who first suggested to Jamie Pollard that he consider Murray State's Steve Prohm as Fred Hoiberg's replacement?

Hoiberg.

This spring, when Iowa State athletic director Pollard and men's basketball coach were recuperating from heart surgery, they talked. Hoiberg knew he was probably headed to the Chicago Bulls in a few weeks. Thus, so did Pollard.

'As all that stuff was going on, being heart patients,” Pollard said Tuesday after Prohm's introductory press conference, 'it was just a weird dynamic for both of us because we knew stuff but we couldn't say things. But no one knew for certain that he was going to leave.”

Had Tom Thibodeau coached the Chicago Bulls to the NBA Finals instead of an Eastern Conference semifinals loss to Cleveland, it would have made the firing of Thibodeau a mighty tough sell by Bulls management. But once the Cavaliers eliminated Chicago, the die was completely cast.

'So during our discussions,” Pollard said, 'I said to Fred ‘OK, so if you leave, who's out there that I ought to be thinking about?' The first person out of his mouth was Steve Prohm.

'The reason was ‘He runs everything that I run, he's a man of character, he will fit your style.' ”

Case closed? It was more like the case for Prohm had simply been opened.

'That didn't mean Steve Prohm was getting the job,” said Pollard. 'I did not meet Steve Prohm until Sunday morning for the first time.

'I knew about Murray State being good, but I did not know Steve Prohm.”

Prohm was placed on a list of 20 coaches Pollard submitted to Parker Executive Search in Atlanta. The list was pared to seven, all of whom flew to Atlanta for 90-minute interviews. Two were Saturday night, the other five Sunday.

When that process was over, Pollard and Iowa State President Dr. Steven Leath didn't feel the need to pick finalists for another round of interviews. They decided on Prohm, and Pollard flew to Kentucky to finalize the deal on Monday.

Leath said last week he was going to be involved in the interviewing process, and he was. He became ISU's president three years ago, and this was the school's first coaching opening in a revenue sport during his tenure.

A June 2 CBSsports.com story said sources claimed Cyclones assistant coach T.J. Otzelberger had the 'full support” of Pollard to replace Hoiberg, but Leath wanted to hire 'a brand name.”

'He feels the level of the job has changed since Fred got here,” Rothstein quoted a source as saying. 'He wants to bring in someone with some pedigree. It's a battle of wills right now.”

Pollard bristled at that here Tuesday, saying 'there's no truth to that at all. I have my theory why and how that got out. That doesn't matter because I'm past it. But it was frustrating because that impacted (Leath), that impacted me, that impacted the players, that impacted the candidates.

'That's really unfortunate because it was total garbage. Whoever planted that had an agenda, and that's for their life to live.

'There was a lot of misinformation to waste peoples' energy.”

As for Hoiberg, the fact he named Prohm as someone to consider doesn't mean Otzelberger wasn't his first preference to be his successor. But he kept his thoughts on that private rather than potentially muddy things for his former boss.

Three weeks ago at the Cyclone Tailgate Tour stop in Cedar Rapids, it was striking how candid Pollard was about the possibility of Hoiberg taking a job in the NBA. He didn't say it was imminent, but did note it was Hoiberg's ultimate goal.

That suggested it was going to be sooner rather than later, and that Pollard was working on trying to cushion the fall for Iowa State fans when it happened. But a lot of athletic directors would have shied away from the topic.

'Everybody knew there was that possibility in the air,” Pollard said. So we (he and Leath) met with Fred and openly talked about ‘What are you thinking? How do you want us to respond? How are you going to respond?'

'Because I knew that on the Tailgate Tour I'd get asked, and I didn't want to say anything that made Fred uncomfortable, that he wouldn't want said. My sharing that was borne out of Fred and I having a close relationship and Fred suggesting that's how I'd like you to answer that.

'I think it allowed people to have a better insight to what Fred was thinking and at the same time allowed me to probably position our fan base to what Fred was thinking.”

So, now the saga is over. Hoiberg left, a new coach got hired a week later, and Pollard said he was coming off a few weeks of a diet, a sleep pattern and stress that his cardiologist would not have OK'd.

'If he's out there watching,” Pollard said, 'I'm about to go on vacation.”

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