TCU’s Dixon seeking strides from team in two key areas

Among the short list of areas that TCU men’s basketball coach Jamie Dixon seeks to improve before Saturday’s game at Iowa State will be the Horned Frogs’ defense against dribble penetration and the team’s offensive execution late in the shot clock.

Both areas, he said, were substandard during Wednesday’s 71-68 loss to Oklahoma State that caused TCU (17-9, 6-7 in Big 12) to fall 10 spots to No. 49 in Thursday’s updated RPI rankings. TCU plays Saturday at Iowa State (16-9, 8-5) in another contest filled with March Madness ramifications for both teams.

During the loss to Oklahoma State, Dixon said the Frogs’ inability to stop the penetration of point guard Jawun Evans (16 points, 12 assists) proved costly. The Cowboys made 50.9 percent of their shots from the field, with Evans scoring 10 of the last 14 points, capped by a game-clinching jumper with 13 seconds remaining.

“I felt like we should have won. It just came down to Evans making plays,” Dixon said during Thursday’s conference call with Big 12 coaches. “He’s a great player. But at the end of the day, you can’t let a team shoot 51 percent and give up so many driving layups. That’s a team thing, not one guy. It’s something we’ve got to address.”

On the offensive end, Dixon was frustrated by the team’s struggles to generate quality looks late in the shot clock.

“We took tougher shots and didn’t handle the end of the clock situations very well,” Dixon said. “It seemed like we wanted to shoot jump shots at the end of the clock rather than drive when we had a whole empty side of the court. We’re looking to do that and it’s something we’ve got to get better at. We want to drive the close-outs.”

This story was originally published February 16, 2017 at 2:26 PM with the headline "TCU’s Dixon seeking strides from team in two key areas."