Prohm unaware of Noskowiak’s criminal troubles before returning from Spain

ISU guard Nick Noskowiak was charged with multiple crimes in Wisconsin.

ISU guard Nick Noskowiak was charged with multiple crimes in Wisconsin.

Max Dible

Iowa State men’s basketball player Nick Noskowiak has been suspended indefinitely from the team due to multiple criminal charges in his home state of Wisconsin.

Noskowiak has had several encounters with the law during the summer, dating as far back as May. The most recent and most serious charge stems from an incident in Langlade County on Aug. 9, after which Noskowiak was hit with three criminal violations, including first-degree recklessly endangering safety — a class-F felony in Wisconsin.

The ISU men’s basketball team departed for Spain to play in four exhibition games on Aug. 10, the same day Noskowiak was charged with the felony.

ISU coach Steve Prohm said Noskowiak’s absence from the trip to Spain had nothing to do with either the August or May incidents, as Prohm wasn’t made aware of any of Noskowiak’s criminal issues until recently.

“I probably didn’t find out until maybe two days ago,” Prohm said. “And then we found out, and we just suspended him.”

Prohm absolved Noskowiak of any wrongdoing in regards to his failure to relay pertinent information to the team about his legal issues.

“You usually hear about it once something happens, so I don’t know if it’s (Noskowiak’s) job to report it,” Prohm said. “Usually you get wind of it. We were in Spain, so it’s probably all a little bit different because we were out of the country.

“I didn’t have a problem with how the situation was handled.”

The Antigo police department, which dealt with the incident, was not immediately available for comment on Thursday afternoon or Friday.

The Antigo Daily Journal reported that Noskowiak and a female member of his family were driving down Highway 45 when the woman said Noskowiak grew “angry and verbally” abusive.

The woman, who was driving the vehicle, sped up to between 85 and 95 mph in an effort to reach any location from which she could contact Antigo police for help.

According to court records referenced in the report, Noskowiak tore both the signal lever and windshield wiper lever off of the steering column, throwing them out the window along with a broken console.

The records also alleged Noskowiak, who was not wearing a seat belt at the time, opened the car door while the vehicle was moving at high speeds and attempted to kick the door off the frame.

Along with the felony, court records showed Noskowiak was also charged with two misdemeanors stemming from the incident on Aug. 9: criminal damage to property and disorderly conduct.

Noskowiak’s documented legal troubles began when he was charged May 15 of this year for refusing a blood test to check for intoxication based on suspected drug use after a traffic stop earlier in the month.

On May 20, he was hit with charges for a first-offense OWI and an unsafe lane deviation violation. Those offenses occurred in Waukesha County, Wisc., according to court records.

The misconduct in May did not violate the student conduct policy because Noskowiak was not yet officially an ISU student at the time. The August charges are classified as policy regulations, and it is due to those issues that the suspension was rendered.

Any additional punishment will be doled out at Prohm’s discretion. But the coach appeared less concerned with punitive measures than with asserting his desire to provide support to his young recruit.

“We’ll just deal with it. I want to help Nick and I want to help his family. That’s our job,” Prohm said, adding that he had reached out to Noskowiak’s family and believed he would speak to Noskowiak’s mother Friday night.

Prohm said he has not yet spoken to Noskowiak himself, but that he did not expect Noskowiak would be in attendance for the first day of classes on Aug. 24.