Despite losing skid and COVID issues, TCU basketball ‘locked in’ for Kansas game
TCU basketball has lost its last three games by a combined 93 points. The Frogs are also dealing with a number of COVID-related issues, including the last three scheduled games being postponed and coach Jamie Dixon testing positive for the virus last week.
The team has faded to the background without many believing there’s hope for TCU to get in the March Madness conversation. Frogs junior guard RJ Nembhard brushes that notion off.
“We’ve hit adversity, just like every team does throughout the season,” Nembhard said. “People will write you off. That’s their job. It’s all opinionated. Our job is to stay as one. We’re locked in. We’re accepting the challenge.
“We’re in the toughest conference in America. Every game we have a chance to get better and better and one or two wins can put us right back near the top. A lot of teams have four losses in our league, so we’re right there. Now it’s time to regroup and come back with a whole different mindset in the second half and make this NCAA Tournament push.”
TCU can make a major statement at No. 15 Kansas on Thursday night. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. at Allen Fieldhouse.
The Frogs (9-5, 2-4 Big 12) have never won in Lawrence as they’re 0-9. But the Jayhawks (10-5, 4-4 Big 12) are riding their own three-game losing streak and are surprisingly not among the top contenders to win the league’s regular-season title.
As Nembhard alluded to, the Big 12 is a logjam behind undefeated Baylor. Every team behind Baylor has multiple losses with four teams sitting with four losses (TCU, KU, Oklahoma State, Texas Tech).
The Frogs have the fewest wins of those teams with two, but they could make noise by getting on another winning streak.
“We’re very confident,” said Nembhard, the Big 12’s third-best scorer with 17.17 points per game. “We’ve had a couple strong practices, flying around with a lot of energy. The last time we played Kansas, we weren’t at our best at all. It was one of the first times we got punched in the mouth like that and we didn’t handle it well. But we’re ready for this game.”
TCU struggled in all facets in the first meeting with KU. The Jayhawks dominated on the boards, winning the rebounding battle 41-20, and shot 56.5% from the field. KU ended up with an easy 93-64 victory.
That started the losing skid for the Frogs, who went on to fall to Baylor (67-49) and Oklahoma (82-46). They’ve had to sit on the losing skid for two weeks, too, with three games postponed due to COVID-19 issues.
As far as Dixon is concerned, TCU is better than those results suggest. Yes, the margins are ugly but this is a team that had a five-game winning streak going into the first KU meeting.
“We felt good, but they looked like the team that was on a roll,” Dixon said. “They came out and just hammered us. They completely pushed us around. It was certainly disappointing and led to our three-game losing streak of similar situations.”
Dixon went on to say his team has to play “completely better basketball” going forward. The offense has to improve after scoring fewer than 50 points in consecutive games. Part of that starts on the defensive end, he said.
“When things don’t go well, every one of our guys thinks offense first,” Dixon said. “That’s their No. 1 thing. Against a really good team, we’re not going to win by outscoring them. All three of those teams were good defensive teams and that’s what got their offense going.”
