Twenty years ago today: A look back at the world the last time TCU danced
It was 20 years ago today — literally to the day on Tuesday — the last time TCU men's basketball played in the NCAA tournament.
Many current students on campus weren't even alive yet, including four players on the Horned Frogs' roster.
TCU (21-11) opens the Detroit Regional of the NCAA tournament at 8:40 p.m. Friday at Little Caesars Arena against the winner of Wednesday's play-in game between Arizona State and Syracuse.
TCU, and specifically the athletic department, has gone through a massive transformation since March 13, 1998, the day TCU lost to Florida State 96-87 in the first round of the Midwest Regional in Oklahoma City.
Titanic was still setting records in movie theaters and Celine Dion's opus from the film "My Heart Will Go On" was still soaring incessantly on radio.
Leonardo DiCaprio's follow-up to Titanic, "The Man In the Iron Mask," was already out but it couldn't knock "Titanic" from the top of the box office in its first week. Independent counsel Kenneth Starr's Whitewater investigation into then President Bill Clinton was ramping up. John Grisham's "The Street Lawyer" and James Van Praagh's "Talking to Heaven" were the top books on The New York Time's bestseller lists.
Former Frogs' great Lee Nailon led all scorers with 32 points.
The Frogs were a No. 5 seed after winning the Western Athletic Conference regular-season title with a 27-6 and 14-0 record under Billy Tubbs, who was in his fourth of eight seasons in Fort Worth.
At the time, of course, it seemed like the Frogs would soon return. The next four seasons Tubbs had a winning record but finished fourth in the WAC each year. TCU earned an N.I.T. berth in 1999 but didn't make it back to the postseason until 2005, when the Frogs earned another N.I.T. berth under third-year coach Neil Dougherty.
That was the last of four seasons in Conference USA. In 2006, TCU joined the Mountain West. Seven years later, in Jim Christian's fourth and final season at TCU, the Frogs earned a berth in the College Basketball Invitational. TCU went 1-1 in the CBI and entered the Big 12 in the 2012-13 season under Trent Johnson. TCU went 8-64 in its first four seasons in Big 12 play under Johnson, who was replaced by Dixon in March 2016.
Where was Dixon in 1998? He was an assistant coach at Northern Arizona, which played in its first NCAA tournament that year. Like TCU, the 15-seed Lumberjacks lost in the first round to No. 2 seed Cincinnati. Dixon was an assistant at Hawaii the next season before settling in at Pittsburgh, as an assistant for the first first four years and then as head coach.
"Seinfeld" was the king of "Must See TV" on NBC as it prepared for its series finale two months later. "Friends," "Frasier" and "ER" were all Top 20 shows for NBC.
TCU had a total enrollment of 7,395 in 1998. Today's enrollment is just under 10,500. President Clinton went on a diplomatic trip to South Africa where he met with President Nelson Mandela.
This story was originally published March 12, 2018 at 2:49 AM with the headline "Twenty years ago today: A look back at the world the last time TCU danced."