Tournament seeding implications huge in TCU women’s final three games

The beginning of March has always been Raegan Pebley’s checkpoint.

Throughout the season, the TCU women’s basketball coach preached that her team would see its biggest steps toward improvement during February.

But things are about a week behind schedule after the Horned Frogs dropped three consecutive road games (West Virginia, Kansas State and Oklahoma) to start the month.

Those losses have put an emphasis on TCU’s final three games of the regular season.

TCU (15-11, 7-8 Big 12) sits in a three-way tie for fourth place with Iowa State and Texas.

The gap between the sixth and seventh seeds for the conference tournament is huge because the top six seeds get byes.

This week the Horned Frogs host the two teams just below them in the standings, No. 7 West Virginia at 7 p.m. Tuesday and No. 8 Kansas State on Saturday.

“I think every single game in our conference these next three games, every single one of them is crucial because the standings are so tight and everyone is going to be fighting to get that first-round bye in the tournament,” Pebley said.

West Virginia and Kansas State are 1-6 in league road games while TCU has a 5-2 conference record in front of loud Frog-friendly crowds in the University Recreation Center.

“It’s always nice when your players can be sleeping in their own beds and shooting on friendly rims,” Pebley said.

This story was originally published February 23, 2015 at 3:35 PM with the headline "Tournament seeding implications huge in TCU women’s final three games."