Photo credit: hoopdirt.com

By: Ana Kieu

When San Jose State Athletics welcomed Jean Prioleau with open arms, things appeared to be calm and relaxed. After all, Prioleau had seven successful seasons as an assistant and associate head coach at the University of Colorado. The Buffaloes won 149 games, had five 20-win seasons, and appeared in the postseason each year. They played in the NCAA Tournament in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2016, the NIT in 2011 and 2017, and the CBI in 2015. Sounds good, right? Wrong!

Sure, Prioleau signed a five-year contract, and said: “I’m looking forward to building a program the university and community will be proud of and to ensuring that we prepare our young men to succeed in the classroom and on the court,” but the latter turned out to be false. The Spartans went 4-26 in his first season from 2017-18 and 4-27 in his second season from 2018-19. That meant that Prioleau picked up just eight wins in two years, which has to be painful to put it lightly.

But the losses weren’t the only issues Prioleau faced in his coaching gig. Prioleau also lost eight of his players during his time at SJSU so far.

In 2019, Noah Baumann, Michael Steadman, and Brian Rodriguez-Flores announced their intents to transfer.

“I didn’t get enough opportunities,” Rodriguez-Flores told The Spear. “My teammates believed that too.”

“I love the fans,” Rodriguez-Flores added. “After all the losing we went through, the fans still showed support … These fans are really loyal.”

In 2018, Ryan Welage left for Xavier, while Jaycee Hillsman and Keith Fisher transferred to Illinois State.

In 2017, Brandon Clarke headed to Gonzaga; and let’s not forget Brandon Mitchell departed to join the SJSU football team as a wide receiver.

We can’t blame any of the now-former players for wanting to leave, but their decisions hurt the chances of the Spartans’ rebuilding process. They were set back when they were already behind. So, unless if they attract new star players to their program and/or Prioleau gets a pink slip, they need to do more than hoping and praying to get out of the basement in the Mountain West Conference.