Iowa State Cyclones Should Hire Steve Prohm as New Head Coach

There is a basketball coach in the world somewhere who is about to walk into a great situation. It could be a college coach or a pro coach, but whoever gets the head coaching job with the Iowa State Cyclones will immediately inherit a Top 10 team that should contend for the Big 12 title next season.

Fred Hoiberg, who left Iowa State to become head coach of the Chicago Bulls, left plenty of talent behind at Iowa State. Georges Niang, Jameel McKay and Monte Morris all return for the Cyclones next season. As if the talent wasn’t enough, this team will be hungry after being upset in the first round of last year’s NCAA Tournament by UAB.

The names being mentioned for the Iowa State job include Bryce Drew of Valparaiso, Brad Underwood of Stephen F. Austin and current Iowa State assistant T.J. Otzelberger.

While any of those coaches would do a great job for Iowa State, the man that should get the job is Steve Prohm of Murray State.

Prohm has proven himself to be an outstanding head coach as the head man at Murray State, which is in the Ohio Valley Conference. He has won four straight OVC titles and has a 104-29 record with the Racers. He has also led Murray State into the Top 10 of the national rankings during his tenure.

Last season, Prohm led his team to a 29-6 mark and a berth in the NIT Quarterfinals. The Racers did not make the NCAA Tournament after being upset by hot-shooting Belmont in the OVC championship game.

Prohm has proven that he can win at the mid-major level. He has also shown a knack for recruiting during his time in Murray. This season, Murray State’s top player, Cameron Payne, left school after his sophomore season to enter the NBA Draft. Not many mid-majors have a player leave early and actually get drafted, but Payne is projected as a first-round pick.

Iowa State will go through its process of talking to several potential candidates. But in the end, they would be smart to hire Steve Prohm.

Tim Letcher is a Featured Writer for www.RantSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @TimLetcher , on Facebook or add him to your network on Google.