Men’s Basketball: Prohm delivering messages of motivation to Cyclones

By Travis Hines Sports Editor thines@amestrib.com

They’re words of wisdom, parables of perspective and reasons for reflection. Whether culled from books, social media, a chance television program or his own experience, Iowa State coach Steve Prohm relies on these messages of motivation and items of inspirations.

“Keep Standing.” “Live in your vision, not your circumstances.” “Prepping for a tsunami.”

These are just some of the sayings and principles Prohm regularly uses to focus and drive his team.

“I think it’s important in sharing with these guys what success looks like and the avenues to get to success, what it takes,” Prohm told the Ames Tribune on Thursday. “Just in the standpoint of these are the standards for championship programs.”

Prohm learned from his mentor and long-time boss, current Texas A&M coach Billy Kennedy, that these outside quotes and concepts can be powerful tools when leading a team. It’s something he uses to augment his authority in the locker room.

“You can’t do it all the time but at the right moments in the right times, you have to challenge them,” Prohm said. “That’s my way. I’m not a demonstrative, I don’t think as a person I have a huge presence of overpowering, so I have to do it from investing in relationships centered and heart centered.”

With a young team that is experiencing adversity amid a 2-6 start to Big 12 play, keeping his roster engaged, focused and resilient is of paramount importance for Prohm. Delivering messages that resonate is key.

“Sometimes it’s hard to find,” Prohm said, “and some days those nuggets just match up perfectly, and that’s when you know this is the right thing to talk to these guys about.”

Those nuggets can present themselves in unexpected moments, like when the NFL Network drones in the background of a evening film session. It was a speech from Chuck Pagano that caught Prohm’s attention, and momentarily pulled him away from breaking down tape.

Pagano’s message, delivered in 2012 while he was battling cancer, was to “live in a vision, not your circumstances.”

“I love that quote,” Prohm said. “You look at our team you can make excuses. Injuries. Seven (available) guys. New. There’s four, five, six things you could point to, but what is our vision? Where we want to be?

“I really think that we are in a good place for where we want to be at the end of the day. That doesn’t mean next week or in three weeks, but I’m talking about me being here as a leader of this program and where we’re going.”

Motivational speeches or inspirational concepts aren’t the only tactic Prohm has employed to put things in perspective for his team this season. Ahead of the Cyclones’ matchup against Iowa in December, he asked former players to deliver a message.

“We had 15 former players send in what this rivalry meant to them,” Prohm said. “Because who (of current players) played in the rivalry? Two guys? Three guys? For one year. When you hear it, and Rahshon Clark was there that night, talked to those guys too, it hits home more.”

For the players, messages like that clarify their situations and hone their focus.

“(Prohm) tries to keep us motivated and determined to prove everybody wrong,” senior Donovan Jackson said. “It just challenges us. He wants us to succeed just as he does. Just having those quotes and all those messages he’s sending us is big time because we’ve got to use it.”

One in particular has been meaningful to Jackson.

“Just to ‘Keep standing,’” he said. “For me, that hit home because of how much stuff I’ve been through in my life. Hearing that in the toughest times, you just have to keep standing.”

The quotes, stories and messages aren’t just for the players, though.

“It’s probably better for me, to be honest,” Prohm said. “You do it for them, but it’s good for me to internalize. The biggest thing is you don’t want to let people down. You don’t want to let the administration down. You don’t want to let these players down. I don’t want to let the fans down. It’s not pressure and expectations. It’s more you want to let people down.

“But you can’t worry about all that. The biggest focus we try to take now is let’s try to be good now, today. I think at times this season I’ve done a poor job in I’m looking at the big picture. Focus on what do we need to do (today), and that’s it. It’s probably better for me than anybody to be honest.”

The messages are meant to make a better basketball team, but they extend beyond the court — and players’ time in Ames.

“When Deonte Burton sends me a text message with pretty good length the other day,” Prohm said, “and it said basically, ‘Coach you helped me.’ That’s what I’m like, keep doing what you’re doing.

“You’ve only coached these guys six months, nine months, two years with Deonte. Naz (Mitrou-Long), Monte (Morris). It takes time. It’s a lifetime deal with these guys.”