What was that? TCU left shaking its head after last-place Oklahoma State routs Frogs
Jamie Dixon met his team near midcourt.
The coach was finally encouraged after a first half of mostly agonizingly inconsistent play that had his TCU Horned Frogs trailing for almost the entire opening 20 minutes against Oklahoma State Wednesday night.
Dixon slapped high-fives with Desmond Bane, patted RJ Nembhard on the back and urged on Kevin Samuel, whose fast-break dunk had just forced an OSU timeout early in the second half.
But the momentum vanished moments later and the game went south for the Frogs, who were left with a head-shaking 72-57 loss to the last-place Cowboys in a barely half-full Gallagher-Iba Arena.
Stillwater, of course, has never been an easy place to win, especially for TCU over the years. But the last-place Cowboys were 0-8 in the Big 12 before taking the Frogs to the woodshed over the final 15 minutes of the second half. TCU is now 2-13 all-time in Stillwater.
TCU (13-9, 4-5) has lost four consecutive games, including three in conference to close out the first half of the Big 12 season. They’ll try to snap out of it against No. 3 Kansas at 11 a.m. Saturday at Schollmeier Arena.
“Once again, we just can’t seem to sustain,” Dixon said. “Really disappointed with how we finished the game. Couldn’t seem to do anything right offensively.”
Dixon was particularly vexed by the Frogs’ defense and the timing of some of their fouls, late on the shot clock. They turned the ball over 17 times, an issue that has plagued the team of late. Their outside shooting struggled again as well. TCU started 1-for-7 from the 3-point arc, finished the first half 2-of-12 and was 4-of-19 for the game.
“Certainly we’re on a run here where we’re not performing at a high level,” he said. “If you’re blaming, blame me. If you’re complimenting [someone], compliment the Oklahoma State guys. They did a great job.”
After TCU took a 43-40 lead with just over 14 minutes remaining, OSU flipped a switch and went into another gear.
The Cowboys went on a 19-2 run and left the Frogs spinning. It was an ugly combination of an offense struggling to knock down shots and a defense too easily overpowered inside.
“They were hitting shots, we weren’t. We didn’t handle adversity well,” said Nembhard, who led the team with 16 points and had six rebounds, four assists and two steals. “I’m not sure what happened there. We didn’t bounce back quick enough.”
Dixon struggled to pinpoint just one thing during the run.
“[It was] a whole lot of things. They hurt us with different guys posting up. We didn’t defend well enough,” he said. “There’s not a lot good about how we played.”
Even when TCU wasn’t making one of its 17 turnovers, passes were deflected out of bounds or turned into loose balls as the Frogs struggled to find a semblance of consistent rhythm offensively. Is this just a rough stretch for TCU or are we seeing who they are? Dixon is hoping it’s the former.
“[Turnovers] have been a concern from the beginning, with so many new guys,” he said. “We haven’t been very good. We thought we would be better against [OSU’s defense]. We have some offensive struggles. Decision-making was [not good]. We get sped up.”
This story was originally published February 5, 2020 at 10:50 PM.
