Jamie Pollard: Iowa State men’s basketball rebuild needed new leadership

AMES - Steve Prohm and Jamie Pollard met several times over the past few weeks.

In those meetings, they talked about the direction of the Iowa State men's basketball program, how it got where it was and what it would take to turn it around.

The Cyclones just finished one of the worst seasons in history with a 2-22 overall record that included 0-18 in the Big 12 Conference.

'It became clear during those meetings that there's no short-term fix,” Pollard said in a video released by Iowa State. 'It's not going to happen overnight and it might take several years. It also became clear that we needed to start over.

'I challenged coach Prohm to share with me what the plan would be to get our program better. He believed, and I agreed, that the plan probably meant making some changes with staff and making some changes with some of our players. Essentially rebooting and starting over. That raised the question, ‘If we're going to start over, is it better to start over with fresh leadership? Or start over with somebody going into their seventh year?'”

Pollard decided it was best to start over with fresh leadership.

He met with Prohm on Monday night and told him there was going to be a 'change with our men's basketball head coach position.”

With that decision made, Pollard now has to turn his attention to the coaching search.

Both Stadium's Jeff Goodman and CBS Sports' Jon Rothstein have floated former Iowa State assistant and current UNLV coach T.J. Otzelberger's name as being a 'primary candidate.”

In the video, Pollard warned about believing hearsay.

'There will be a lot of people at water coolers talking about what's going on with the search,” Pollard said. 'What I want you to know is that if you don't hear it personally from me or officially from our athletics department, then it's probably not true.

'If you have this need to play in that space - do it for entertainment or do it for humor, but don't do it for fact.”

Pollard did outline what the coaching search would entail and said it would move relatively quickly.

'Why do we need to move fast? With the landscape that we're in in college athletics with transfers being able to leave and be eligible right away at other schools, with the recruits that we've signed, we have a responsibility to those young men,” Pollard said. 'We need to share with them sooner, rather than later who their head coach is going to be. I want to assure you that we will not sacrifice the quality of the search just to expedite the search.”

Pollard also said he won't sacrifice integrity for winning.

'I've always said, the most important part of my job as an athletics director is coaching searches,” Pollard said. 'I say that because our student athletes are the most important part of our athletics department. Our coaches, and especially our head coaches, are the ones that work closest with those young men and young women. I feel a huge sense of responsibility to make sure we have the right coaches.

'It's critical that you hire the right people.”

Pollard pointed to coaches like Matt Campbell and Bill Fennelly as examples of ISU coaches who are standard-bearers.

'We see it all of the time in our industry - people try to win the press conference,” Pollard said. 'I can assure you winning the press conference is not going to be our goal.

'Our goal is going to be the best person to be our head coach. For Iowa State, the best person doesn't mean that just because someone can win at another program, that they can win at Iowa State. We have to get the right person to be the head coach at Iowa State.”

Pollard didn't mention what Prohm's buyout was, but if they didn't come to some sort of agreement, it was slated to be $5.3 million.

Whatever it was, Pollard made it clear one or two donors did not step up to pay the buyout.

'That did not happen,” Pollard said. 'And I don't want that to ever happen at Iowa State. I think that sends a horrible message about how the program is led and managed. That did not happen.”

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, Iowa State, as well as most athletics departments, have smaller operating budgets than in years past.

Pollard said the next coach will need to understand ISU might need to get creative with the contract.

'Making a coaching change during this time, especially in men's basketball, is a significant financial hit to our department,” Pollard said. 'It's going to be critical that whoever we hire understands that we're going to have to be very creative financially to make all of this work.”

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