TCU seeks to gain ground in tight Big 12 race with win at K-State

The TCU men’s basketball team returns to Big 12 competition Wednesday night against Kansas State, dragging a four-game losing streak but staring at a set of league standings that are heavily packed below the top two spots.

Both the Horned Frogs (14-7, 3-5 Big 12) and Wildcats (15-6, 4-4) are among eight teams within three games of one another in the league standings as the midpoint of the conference campaign approaches. All eight are in pursuit of the co-leaders, No. 2 Baylor (20-1, 7-1) and No. 3 Kansas (19-2, 7-1), and remain within striking distance of claiming one of six first-round byes at the Big 12 conference tournament, March 8-11 in Kansas City, Mo.

How well the Frogs finish the regular-season slate, starting at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday in Manhattan, Kan., will determine if TCU becomes one of those top six seeds at the conference tournament. If so, it would mark the first time in TCU’s five seasons as a Big 12 member to earn a first-round bye at the event.

The Frogs head into Wednesday’s game tied for sixth place in the Big 12 standings but knowing their final 10 games of the regular season will have a significant bearing on their postseason possibilities. That is why coach Jamie Dixon is urging his players to focus on the future, not the team’s slide, as they return to league play after Saturday’s 88-80 loss to Auburn in the Big 12/SEC Challenge.

The Frogs, after all, were one of five league teams that fell to an SEC opponent. K-State dropped a 70-58 decision to Tennessee and enters with a two-game losing streak of its own.

“You’ve just got to keep coming at them and keep working. You’re going to have setbacks, as everybody has,” Dixon said. “There are no undefeated teams in this league.”

The Wildcats, in fact, dropped a home game to Baylor on Jan. 14. TCU won a road game at Texas on Jan. 11. But the Frogs have battled a shooting slump during their four-game losing streak, with the most recent example a second-half stretch in which they were outscored 25-2 by Auburn.

Dixon said the team may need to adjust its mindset on the offensive end to overcome its recent woes from the perimeter, which has included a 20-for-78 mark from beyond the arc (25.7 percent) in the team’s last three conference games: losses to Oklahoma State, Texas Tech and Baylor.

“We’ve got to turn that into a positive and say, ‘Hey, we’re due’ rather than, ‘We haven’t shot it well,’ ” Dixon said. “You take it on as a challenge.”

This story was originally published January 31, 2017 at 3:52 PM with the headline "TCU seeks to gain ground in tight Big 12 race with win at K-State."