TCU will face either Nevada or Arizona State in NCAA tournament
The TCU Horned Frogs will face either Arizona State or Nevada in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
TCU landed a No. 6 seed in the West region and will play the either Arizona State or Nevada at the Ball Arena in Denver. Arizona State and Nevada will play in Dayton on Wednesday for the right to play the Horned Frogs.
If the Horned Frogs win on Friday, they’d play in the Round of 32 against either third-seeded Gonzaga or 14th-seeded Grand Canyon.
A Sunday win would send the Horned Frogs to the Sweet 16 and the West Region semifinals in Las Vegas the following week.
The Horned Frogs enter the tournament 21-12 and advanced to the semifinals of the Big 12 tournament before falling to eventual champion Texas.
It’s the second straight tournament appearance for TCU, a feat that hasn’t been accomplished since the 1952 season. TCU advanced to the second round last season and almost upset No. 1 seed Arizona in the Round of 32.
“I like playing in Denver, that’s as close as we were going to get (to Fort Worth),” coach Jamie Dixon said. “We feel good, we’re healthy. We had treatment today and there weren’t a lot of guys there getting treatment.”
With most of that team returning led by second team All-Big 12 guards Mike Miles Jr. and Damion Baugh, TCU expects to contend for the program’s first trip to second weekend of the tournament since 1967-68.
The road to the tournament was not without adversity as injuries to players like Miles forced TCU to constantly shuffle lineups and play short-handed at times. The Horned Frogs also recently lost center Eddie Lampkin Jr., who stepped away from the program.
“I think this program we’ve been through a lot of challenges from the very start,” forward Emanuel Miller said. “I think a lot of the other teams in the country they haven’t gone through what we’ve gone through, so I think the obstacles, adversity I think that’s what’s going to help us in the long run.”
However, TCU was able to overcome that picking up signature wins against the likes of Kansas and Texas. Now the Horned Frogs will try to make it back to the Round of 32 and potentially further.
“We’re excited, these are exciting times ahead of us,” Miller said. “To be going back-to-back years within the TCU program, we’re all just soaking our emotions in and hopefully we have great things ahead of us.”
This story was originally published March 12, 2023 at 5:29 PM.
