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BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL MEDIA DAY

October 20, 2015

Steve Prohm

Kansas City, Missouri

THE MODERATOR: We're now joined by Iowa State's coach Steve Prohm. Coach, your thoughts on the upcoming season?

COACH PROHM: Thank you for having me. Really excited about this upcoming season. I've got my four guys over there with me, Georges, Jameel, Naz, and Monte. These guys have been terrific. Obviously it's been a big transition, not only for me, but for these guys. I've told these guys from day one they're my focus. These four seniors, the two juniors, Monte and Matt, they're what this is all about, giving them the best possible season that we can.

That's my job, that's my staff's job to max these guys out. Obviously we've got a lot of expectations, but that's a good thing. That's a credit to what they've done over the last several years. The job Fred did, the job this senior class has done. They won a lot of games. Georges and Naz have an opportunity to be the winningest players in the history of the school at Iowa State, and that's an unbelievable achievement to be a part of something like that.

So my focus and my mindset with these guys is let's be great today. Let's win the day and that's our job. Obviously, we have big dreams, big goals, big aspirations of winning Big 12 championships and making a great postseason run, but right now, today, in October, it's about getting better and enjoying the process, and trusting the process of getting better.

So they've been great. They're working extremely hard to try to build a good foundation as we get ready for November.

Q. How do you -- how would Georges' role change, if at all, in your new system?
COACH PROHM: I don't think it will change at all. I'm really trying to sit down with Georges, understand the strengths on what he was able to do over the last several years, watching a lot of tape.

I talked to Fred a couple times. I just tried to put him in the best position that he feels comfortable. I want to be able to have a relationship with my seniors, my best players. Talk to them, hey, what do you feel comfortable with? Tell me and we'll put it in and we'll go over it and we'll execute it.

So I don't think his role will change. He knows how important he is to this team. I do want to challenge him on the defensive end to become a better rebounder, to rebound out of his area and do some things defensively that we need. But offensively, I don't see it changing at all. I just hope he can even excel it even more.

Q. What will you guys do different defensively than what Iowa State's done in the past?
COACH PROHM: I don't know what they've done in the past from the standpoint of the day-to-day, so I can't tell you that exactly. I just want to put an emphasis on getting back in transition defense, not giving up the easy baskets, containing the basketball, making everything a tough, contested shot and then finishing plays.

I want to have a three-stops-in-a-row mentality. We can challenge our guys. How many times can they put three stops in a row together? That's huge at home, but it's really, really big on the road to have that type of mentality to finish games away with big stops on the defensive end. So we'll have a focus about it in practice. We'll touch on something, transition defense, boxing out, positioning each and every day to just build good habits on the defensive end.

Q. With all the rule changes and we kind of got the tutorial, and it's obviously more than just a shot clock, did you do anything different so far to educate your players on what's changing and what they're allowed to do? Do you plan on doing that in practice?
COACH PROHM: We had our first intersquad scrimmage this past Saturday. We had referees come in, so they spent five to ten minutes just going over the new rules with our guys. Being able to call timeouts and doing things like that in live play is something I've talked to them about. As we get closer, I'll really start to stress that, to where Monte, Georges, whoever has the ball in certain situations, they may need to call timeout in live play.

But when you look at shot clock, I don't really think that will affect us. People may try to slow people down with three-quarter court pressure, but we want to be in attack mode. I want our guys to try to continue to play free, and space the floor and continue to make big shots like they've done in the past.

Defensively, we've got to continue to build our depth at 7, 8, 9. I feel really good about our first six. But when you look at the way they're officiating with the hand checks, with the bumps and the weight, we set a lot of ball screens. A lot of dribble handoffs to where we're not getting illegal screens. We don't need to be getting some of our main guys in foul trouble.

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