TCU winning streak ‘brings notoriety to a place that needs notoriety’

TCU coach Jamie Dixon shrugs off the idea of a potential school-record winning streak becoming a burden, instead embracing its benefits.

The Horned Frogs have won 15 straight heading into this week’s games against Texas Southern on Monday and William & Mary on Friday, needing one more win to tie the school record and two to break it.

“It’s a good thing. But you know why? Because it brings notoriety to a place that needs notoriety for their basketball program and their athletic department,” Dixon said. “You can say we’ve won in football, but they still don’t get the attention they deserve. So I think it’s good.”

The Frogs’ winning streak includes their 10-0 record from this year and the five straight they won in the NIT to finish last season. The school record for consecutive victories is 16 from Jan. 8 to March 5, 1998.

“At the end of the day, our goal is to win every game anyway,” senior guard Kenrich Williams said. “I don’t want to lose any games. So no, there’s no pressure.”

The old adage says teams learn more from losses than victories. But Dixon said his team learned plenty from victories against SMU and Nevada two weeks ago.

On Dec. 5 at home, the Frogs led SMU by 13 with 6:30 left and won 94-83. On Dec. 8 at the Basketball Hall of Fame Classic in Los Angeles, they led Nevada by 16 with 9:58 to go and won 84-80.

“In our minds, we should have won both those games by 20,” Dixon said. “So hopefully we learn from that. You want to be the team that learns from wins, not the team that learns from losses.”

The Frogs’ record for victories to start a season is 13, from Nov. 14 to Dec. 29, 2014.

Following the two non-conference games this week, TCU opens the Big 12 schedule on Dec. 30 with a 1 p.m. home game against Oklahoma.

This story was originally published December 17, 2017 at 10:31 AM with the headline "TCU winning streak ‘brings notoriety to a place that needs notoriety’."