Open Practice with Steve Prohm

with Steve Prohm,
Murray State University Head Coach from 2022 to 2025;
Iowa State University Head Coach from 2015 to 2021;
2017 & 2019 Big 12 Tournament Champions;
2016 Sweet Sixteen;
Murray State University Head Coach from 2011 to 2015;
2012 Joe B. Hall National Coach of the Year (top 1st-year coach in D1 college basketball);
2014 CIT Champions;
3x Ohio Valley Conference Champions;
2x OVC Coach of the Year

In his first year as head coach (2016), Steve Prohm led Iowa State to the Sweet Sixteen of the NCAA Tournament. The Cyclones were an offensive powerhouse that were nationally ranked throughout the entire season. He has won 20 or more games in each of his first five seasons as a head coach, and his 23 wins tied for the third-most for a first-year head coach in Big 12 history. Through the 2016 season, Coach Prohm owns the sixth-best winning percentage among active DI head coaches.

This Open Practice features Coach Prohm's first practices as the new head coach of Iowa State and the time period when he needed to introduce everything to his players for the first time. It provides a rare in-depth look inside the strategies and drills behind Iowa State's offensive and defensive systems.

Coach Prohm demonstrates 17 drills he uses to develop a tough-minded defense that strives to prevent easy baskets. Additionally, you will see a variety of aspects related to Iowa State's offense including their fast break system, half court sets, inbound plays and zone offense.

Warm-Up Drills

Practices begin with a wide variety of warm-up drills that focus on running the floor, passing, catching, shooting and finishing at the basket. These drills will get your players moving and ready to play while developing the essential skills needed for offensive execution.

Closeout Drills

Coach Prohm demonstrates five practice drills that focus on the fundamentals of closing out to the ball. Full Court Closeouts will have players using the whole court to individually focus on breaking down to the ball and exploding with their defensive slides. Players will learn how to integrate closeouts into other defensive movements, such as sprinting to help or cutting off dribble penetration in the Triangle Slides drill. The Partner Closeout drill improve your players' on-ball pressure to maximize their ability to be disruptive defenders.

Half Court Defensive Drills

You'll learn nine drills that break down a variety of elements necessary to build your man-to-man defense. These drills teach concepts such as helping in the post, denying passes, preventing dribble penetration, "icing" ball screens, and fighting through different off-ball screens. Many of these drills teach multiple defensive concepts at the same time.

In the 1-on-0 Dig the Post drill, players practice how to closeout, pressure the passer, dig on the post, stunt at dribble penetration, and contain the dribble with defensive slides. Another multi-purpose drill, the 3-on-3 Positioning Drill, trains players how to jump to the ball, stunt and recover, help and recover on baseline drives, and deny cutters. Two different drills challenge your players to scramble through 4-on-3 disadvantage situations. These are great for getting your players to increase their alertness, force them to communicate, and teach them defensive priorities such as protecting the ball and the rim when outnumbered.

Transition Defense

Stopping the opposing team from scoring easy buckets is a must if you want to be a great defensive team. Three drills teach multiple phases of defending in fast break situations. The 3-on-2 to 3-on-3 Live drill has players work through disadvantage situations in addition to covering space and stopping the ball in 3-on-3 situations. Establish roles for your players in transition defense with the 5-on-3 Get Back drill.

Offense

Learn the primary options to Iowa State's transition offense with the 5-on-0 Early Break. These include actions such as scoring off dribble drive actions such as Loop and Pinch, inside-out play through the post, and setting early ball screens with Coach Prohm's Quick One and Quick Down plays. You will also learn how he creates opportunities for his players to play in space with several half-court sets. These plays feature different ways of freeing up your best scorer with ball screens in addition to other screening actions such as stagger screens.

Coach Prohm installs two inbound plays from the sideline and baseline and his Slash zone offense. For teams that are more perimeter-oriented, this continuity offense will flash your guards through the high post and allow you to space the floor with shooters.

Competition

Coach Prohm knows that his players thrive on competition. He demonstrates four scrimmage formats that Iowa State uses to finish up practices so their players leave on a positive note. The rules for each of these scrimmage segments vary to emphasize different concepts, allow for teaching opportunities, and create unique challenges for players. This segment is a fantastic opportunity to see how Coach Prohm interacts with players in the huddle and tailors his half court sets for specific scoring opportunities.

This inside-access look into an Iowa State practice will give you an expansive understanding behind the success of one of the top teams in the country!

"I absolutely love the focus on closeouts in this video. Coach Prohm gave me a ton of drills that I can use to help my kids execute proper closeouts so we don't get blown by so easily. I truly believe this is an important part of the game that so many kids and teams don't focus on enough. Thanks coach, I think my kids will enjoy the variety of drills you showed us." - Customer Review

213 minutes (2 videos). 2016.