The Fred Hoiberg era has come and gone, and though Hoiberg was named the head coach of the Chicago Bulls just a few days ago, Iowa State is already moving on.

Who will succeed Fred Hoiberg and become the next coach of the Cyclones? And does Hoiberg have any advice for ISU Athletic Director Jamie Pollard on the matter?

“I have talked to Jamie, just really a couple brief conversations with him [about the coaching search],” Hoiberg said at his final ISU press conference Friday afternoon. “I’ll keep what Jamie and I talked about specifically between us. I’m fully confident that Jamie is going to make a great hire here at Iowa State.”

Hoiberg reiterated his vote of confidence for Pollard’s decision-making multiple times throughout the press conference when asked questions about his thoughts on Iowa State’s next coach.

The thought among some is that current ISU assistant coach T.J. Otzelberger is the leading candidate to succeed Hoiberg. Otzelberger coached at Iowa State as an assistant from 2006 to 2013 and then spent two years at Washington before rejoining Hoiberg’s staff at the end of this past season.

Media outlets have reported that Otzelberger has Pollard’s support in becoming the next head coach of Iowa State, but ISU president Steven Leath wants a more splashy hire.

However, recent reports say the conflicting ideas between Pollard and Leath were overblown. 

Hoiberg did not endorse any successor, but did have a few comments on Otzelberger: “There is no doubt in my mind that T.J. will be a terrific coach.” He also added that Otzelberger is a great X’s and O’s coach.

Some rumors have surfaced that Hoiberg brought back Otzelberger earlier this year with the idea that Otzelberger would succeed him if he ever left to coach in the NBA.

“That’s absolutely not the case,” Hoiberg said. “I brought T.J. back because of the great amount of respect I have for him and the great job he did for me here when I was early in my coaching career.”

While Hoiberg did not have much to say about who would replace him, he did comment on the coaching search and the types of candidates he expects.

“It’s obviously going to be a wide range of different types of coaches, different personalities, people with head coaching experience [and] people without head coaching experience,” Hoiberg said.

He also said he hopes the next coach is “somebody who is going to come in here and hopefully build on the success that we’ve had.”

With a projected top-10 team returning for the Cyclones, the next ISU coach will walk into the situation to do just that.