TCU basketball hangs tough, but foul trouble dooms it in loss at No. 6 Kansas
Jamie Dixon opened his postgame news conference by saying he was proud of his team. He was proud of how they responded from an early 12-point deficit. He was proud they won the rebounding battle. He was proud of how they shot the ball at a higher clip than No. 6 Kansas inside Allen Fieldhouse.
But he wasn’t proud of the final score: KU 72, TCU 68.
The Frogs (19-10, 8-9 Big 12) remain winless at Allen Fieldhouse in 11 trips, while the Jayhawks (24-6, 13-4) avenged their loss Tuesday night in Fort Worth.
“Simply put, they beat us at the foul line,” Dixon said. “That’s troubling. We’ve got to adjust to that. Fifteen turnovers? I think we had three travel calls. They beat us in that area too. They didn’t have any travels. We had three. Those possessions cost us, but I’m proud of our guys. We battled. We fought.
“They came out very aggressive. They let them play tonight. They let them play, and that was what we saw and we expected. We’ve got to get to the line more and give them less, so I don’t know how we handle that, fix that. We’ve also got to cut down on the travels, and we’ve got to force more travels on them.”
Reading between the lines, of course, it’s clear that Dixon wasn’t too pleased with the officiating throughout the night. KU took more than twice as many free throws, going 18 of 23 compared to TCU’s 10 of 11.
The Frogs were also called for 10 more fouls during the game (22-12). TCU’s best player, Mike Miles, picked up his fourth foul with 10:45 left. TCU’s best big man, Eddie Lampkin, was called for his fourth foul with 7:03 left.
The Frogs were leading when Miles and Lampkin were called for their fourth fouls. The Jayhawks regained the lead shortly after those calls.
Asked if the foul trouble had more to do with TCU’s discipline or KU’s ability to draw them, Dixon said: “One of the things we said is we were very disciplined. I like how we played with some things. I really thought we did some good things on switching. I thought we contained penetration well. We went inside a lot. Emanuel (Miller), we went to him. We really want to get him to the foul line. He was really good, and it was hard for him to stop. Usually, he gets to the foul line, but he didn’t.
“We went inside to Eddie, Xavier (Cork), and Emanuel, and even to Mike on a couple of possessions. I thought we were aggressive on the offensive end. We really did some good things with that.”
Despite the foul trouble, TCU had a chance at the end. Trailing 71-68 with 9.4 seconds left, Miles drove to the basket for a quick layup but had it blocked by KU’s Dajuan Harris.
Miles and Dixon both felt there was enough contact to draw a foul, but it was a no call.
“Coach Dixon told me to go get a layup. That’s what I tried to do,” Miles said. “It was the right play. We didn’t really need a 3 and I saw I beat him. I probably got fouled but we weren’t getting them all night. You know, it’s cool. We beat them one time. That’s what we wanted. We’re on to West Virginia.”
In the end, there were more positives than negatives coming out of the loss for TCU. The Frogs could’ve wilted away early when the Jayhawks jumped out to an early 12-point lead, but they settled in and battled back to tie the game at 35-35 by halftime.
Then, when Miles and Lampkin got in foul trouble, the team found ways to stay within striking distance to the end.
Miller finished with a game-high 18 points for the Frogs, while Damion Baugh added 14 points and Chuck O’Bannon Jr. had 10. KU’s Ochai Agbaji led all scorers with 22 points.
“We fought extremely hard. The coaches fought for us as well,” Miller said. “We left it all on the court. Kansas is a great team. Early on we were looking for fouls. We weren’t getting it, but we’ve got to realize that we’re still dogs. We’ve got to play through every foul, every contact, every play. We’ve just got to move on.”
TCU closes out its regular season at West Virginia (14-16, 3-14) on Saturday. Tip-off is set for 1 p.m. in Morgantown. TCU has never won at West Virginia in nine all-time trips.
This story was originally published March 3, 2022 at 9:12 PM.
