‘We are a better team than we played tonight.’ Inside TCU’s loss at West Virginia
TCU saw its NCAA Tournament dreams take another dip on Tuesday night. In painful fashion.
The Frogs had opportunities to win it twice at the buzzer, but didn’t get a shot up. Eventually, a short-handed TCU team ran out of gas and West Virginia pulled away in triple overtime for a 104-96 victory at WVU Coliseum.
It’s a bad loss for TCU (18-10, 6-9 Big 12), a team that is looking to solidify its tournament status and is now 1-7 in conference road games. West Virginia (11-17, 3-12 Big 12) is ranked No. 120 in the NCAA’s NET rankings and entered on a five-game losing streak.
“We were in a pretty good spot going into it, this is a road loss, granted so we’ll see,” said TCU coach Jamie Dixon, who coached his 100th game with the program on Tuesday.
“We need to win every game, so we won the last one, didn’t win this one. I just wish we would’ve played better and maybe I would’ve felt better. I think we are a better team than what we played tonight.”
TCU likely has to pull off at least one upset with Texas Tech and Kansas State visiting Fort Worth next. The Frogs close the season at Texas on March 9.
Dixon hopes his team learns from what could be a season-altering defeat.
“Get some accountability and put some guys in situations where we’re more successful and finish plays,” Dixon said.
It was TCU’s first triple overtime game since 2009.
TCU had a chance to win it a couple different times at the buzzer.
The Frogs had the ball with 12 seconds left at the end of regulation coming out of a timeout. But junior guard Desmond Bane turned the ball over and West Virginia’s missed a potential game-winner at the buzzer.
With 4.9 seconds left in double overtime, TCU inbounded the ball to senior forward JD Miller, hoping to run a similar play it did for the buzzer-beater victory over Oklahoma State at home. But Miller stepped out of bounds, and West Virginia had a couple looks in the final seconds that didn’t drop.
Asked about those end-game situations, Dixon said: “We wanted to score a basket, but we obviously didn’t execute. That might be on me. We ran a little different play than what we practiced [at the end of regulation], of course our personnel was different too. I thought that was the simplest way to do it, just didn’t make the right read.
“The other one, the JD one, obviously similar setup [to Oklahoma State game] … obviously didn’t make the right read there. It’s on me to find a way to make a shot and make a play at the end.”
It wasn’t the prettiest of games from start to finish.
TCU turned it over a season-high 23 times and were called for season-high 25 fouls. Kevin Samuel fouled out with 3:31 left in the first overtime, and Kouat Noi fouled out with 4:46 left in the second overtime.
TCU also was just 11-for-20 from the free throw line, including a 2-for-9 night by senior guard Alex Robinson.
Asked about the missed free throws, Robinson said: “It was frustrating, but the game is over now. I’ve got to move on and focus on Tech.”
Miller led TCU with a career-high 24 points. Bane and Noi each finished with 17 points, and Robinson had 16. Noi had his second-straight double-double with 10 rebounds before fouling out.
TCU, which is playing with a seven-man rotation, had four players play at least 43 minutes. Bane played a team-high 53 minutes followed by Robinson (50), Miller (48) and Noi (43).
West Virginia’s Jordan McCabe had a career night with 25 points. The Mountaineers had four players at the 50-minute mark with McCabe (50), Jermaine Haley (52), Chase Harler (51) and Derek Culver (50).
For TCU, as Robinson said, it’s on to Texas Tech on Saturday.
“This is just one game,” Robinson said. “Look forward to Saturday and prepare.”
This story was originally published February 26, 2019 at 8:58 PM.
