Over the last four seasons as Iowa State’s head coach, Fred Hoiberg helped bring the Cyclones back from the brink of proverbial extinction and into the national spotlight. A team that had one 20-win season since 2001 became a national powerhouse, battling for supremacy in the always tough Big 12 Conference.
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Hoiberg, although not actually winning a real election, was known as the Mayor of Ames. Fans loved him, flocked to him. Players respected him, appreciated him. College basketball recognized him. The Chicago Bulls needed him.
On Monday, the inevitable happened as it was announced that Hoiberg was on his way to being introduced as the new coach of the Bulls. His deal is reported to be for five years and $25 million, almost double his salary with Iowa State.
Iowa State now finds itself on incredibly rare ground. No, having to find a new head coach because yours went to the NBA isn’t necessarily new, but having to find one to lead a team that’s expected to be a top five ranked team next season and potential national championship contender is.
As CBSSports.com’s Gary Parrish points out, having to find a new coach to lead a title contender is something that just doesn’t happen. The Cyclones are currently fifth in the What The Hell early rankings for the 2014-15 season, just two spots behind 10-time defending Big 12 champion Kansas.
Both Iowa State and Kansas return most of their rosters from last season but the Cyclones have a potential Wooden Award winner in Georges Niang coming back, the type of player the Jayhawks just don’t have in their arsenal.
Along with Niang–the reigning Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, the Cyclones have Jameel McKay and Monte Morris, an underrated point guard who, based on last season’s growth, could be challenging to be known as the best true point guard in the country this season, also return.
These three players are the meat of the Cyclone sandwich moving into next season, and there are a number of great players around them to make a real run at Kansas in conference play and everybody else come NCAA tournament time.
Who’s going to replace Hoiberg to lead this national contender? That appears up in the air right now, but Iowa State would likely be better off promoting Hoiberg’s right-hand man assistant coach T.J. Otzelberger.
Because of the timing of this head coaching change, all the big players in the head coaching market have found new homes or have been extended by their programs.
Shaka Smart, Rick Barnes and Gregg Marshall, just to name a few, have been set in their places for a few months now, and while there are a few names that could entice Iowa State brass — Steve Prohm, Brad Underwood and Archie Miller — keeping Otzelberger, who has been instrumental in recruiting under Hoiberg, as the main guy would keep at least some of the chemistry with the team.
Since the team is already assembled and having this much talent on the roster, making an outside hire could diminish team moral and lead to a brutal summer trying to connect with everybody once again. This is the kind of thing Florida had to go through when they lost Billy Donovan to the NBA, but they had some time to get things going. Iowa State doesn’t have that luxury.
Regardless, whoever they pick to replace Hoiberg has one key thing they need to accomplish: win away from Hilton Coliseum.
One thing that’s kept the Cyclones out of the big picture on the national level is their struggles away from home. Over the last two years, Iowa State has gone just 20-14 in true road and neutral court games including the postseason (conference tournament and NCAA Tournament). In that same time, the Cyclones have lost just two games at home.
If you exclude the postseason (conference tourney and NCAAs, where they are 8-2), the Cyclones are just 12-12 away from home.
As of now, Iowa State’s 2015-16 non-conference schedule includes two true road games (at Cincinnati and Texas A&M) and four neutral court games (two during the Emerald Coast Classic, one against Northern Iowa in Des Moines and one against Colorado in Sioux Falls).
Betsided
Over the last two years, Iowa State played a grand total of two true road games in non-conference play, so the Cyclones are loading up to try to counter this recent trend.
These games, while being played in November and December (the Texas A&M game will be played at end of January), these are incredibly important. An inability to win on the road has cost Iowa State two straight chances at a Big 12 title and led to their downfall against UAB in the 2015 NCAA tournament.
While the focus may be on who the new coach is going to be, but the most important aspect to the new coach is their ability to get this team, this Big 12 and national championship contender of a team, to win away from home.
Hilton has made the Cyclones incredibly comfortable, but now with road and neutral games on the horizon with a new head coach waiting to lead this talented team, Iowa State now finds itself in uncharted territory.
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