Everything TCU coach Jamie Dixon said following program’s victory over Seton Hall
TCU basketball won its first NCAA Tournament game in 35 years on Friday night.
The Horned Frogs overwhelmed 9-seed Seton Hall in a 69-42 victory at Viejas Arena. It’s the program’s first victory since the 1987 tournament when coach Jamie Dixon was a player on the team. Dixon scored 11 points in the Frogs’ victory over Marshall.
Dixon recalled that game and more during his postgame news conference.
Opening statement: “I‘m proud of our guys. I thought just how we prepared this week, how we grew, how we improved and how we made some adjustments, and they handled it well. So we took the two days, Sunday, Monday, and took Tuesday off. I think the additional, what we added, what we emphasized, I think the guys really took to it.
“I can’t speak highly enough about our players and what they did. We’ve been preaching what we could become, what we have been at times defensively. I think today you saw it for 40 minutes. I thought it was a special effort, special performance. You could have brought all 10 of them up, but who else is over there — Damion (Baugh), Emanuel (Miller), they’re terrific.
“I talked to some guys who stepped up defensively for us. And that’s the team we can become. Excited about it.”
On program’s first March Madness victory in 35 years: “Well, I can’t do anything about the last 35, can’t cut it, break it down. I’ve been saying that for a while. We’ve got good players and we’ve been to the tournament. We won NITs, so we’ve done good things since we’ve been back. Hopefully this is the start of more to come.
“I’m just proud of how these guys handled it. It’s taken a while to get it together because of having really 11 new players is really what we’ve taken on. But it’s a good group, great group. They’re very close. So I think that’s the reason.
“As you mentioned, I thought the preparation I mentioned earlier and I didn’t answer, but the seven games in 15 days was an unbelievable challenge for us. I thought we handled it tremendously, but I think it also prepared us. Then these five days of rest — I say rest but to focus on things and practice, because during that time there was no practice.
“We were able to install some things, put new things in, make some adjustments and adapt to our team. But we really hadn’t been able to do that for almost half the year, half the conference schedule. I think that was huge for us, too. I think all those things led to the win. And the last thing would be me.”
On Big 12 going 6-0 in first round: “We’ve been saying all along, and the numbers have shown it. Obviously everybody’s going to pick their side, their group. But we’ve been doing it ever since I’ve been here, six years. Every year we’ve been ranked the highest.
“It’s an unbelievable challenge, it really is. We’ve been moving up and getting better in it. But when you play all these great teams, you just gotta find the way to survive and that’s what everybody has seen. We’ve got so many wins against ranked teams and you feel good. And then you’ve got a ranked one coming right after it. I didn’t even know. I didn’t see the scores. But thanks for letting me know on that. I’m proud of our team.
“All of our group, the six guys that were in the tournament, we’re all texting each other this week to win for the Big 12 and to promote that. So it’s a close group of coaches for the most part. And a lot of respect amongst the group.”
On the key to not letting Seton Hall get back in the game: “Probably our defense. I think we continued to stay with the defense. It was something I really preached. I was coaching them down the stretch, too, and pushing them. That’s what I told them in the locker room. I was more proud of how we handled the last four minutes than we did in the first 30. Got away from us a little bit with, I thought we had a careless turnover, we got over our goal of 12 and that put us at 13.
“Again, it was just a sign of us not being quite mature enough as a young group. If you look at our rosters, they’ve got six graduates. We don’t have any. We’re a young group. Our oldest guy is Chuck (O’Bannon), and he’s only played one year healthy, without COVID, if you can count that with us. We hardly practiced.
“But I was really proud how they handled the last four minutes because that was growing up and obviously we had a big lead and position to win the game. How we handled it with our walk-ons in there, with Harry (Young) in there, even that mattered to me. That was a good sign of us maturing.
“We challenged them all year because we knew we brought in a group of guys that never played together, never been to the tournament except Micah (Peavy), the one time. And we addressed that early. No one thinks you guys can come together. We had all kinds of adversity early, injuries, COVID, shutdown, the usual, which we all seem to get. But we battled through it, got better, and we’re playing our best basketball now.”
On Friday being the most complete game the team’s played: “I would say so. This is a great team we played against, Seton Hall. And I thought — I pointed out to the guys, I was so impressed with the three guys, we really pushed to get better defensively for us. I thought Chuck played tremendous defense, took the early charge, which was huge. I thought JaKobe (Coles) played great defense. And Emanuel played great defense.
“All those guys have had to adjust or get better. They played big inside and making judgment guarding the perimeter. The way we guard, they’ve got to be able to guard the smallest guy on the floor. They did a great job on that. I thought that was a real good indicator of us growing up and getting better.”
On going to the rim on offense, making the extra pass: “I was surprised — I thought our assist numbers would be higher. Only had 15, I think that’s what it says. But I thought we had some great passes. We got to the foul line on some of them. We’ve really worked on making decisions at the end of drives, so I think that led to a couple of passes, a couple of baskets. And also thought we made the extra pass a lot and did it at the right time, right place, but we got a lots of cuts and dives and cuts to the basket as well which we’ve been working on a lot getting better at the same time.
“It’s a combination of a lot of things. But to your point, I thought we had more assists based on how we played, but I guess probably some of them we got fouled on and didn’t turn into an assist. But we were tremendous passing the basketball today.”
On any memories of playing in TCU’s last NCAA Tournament victory in 1987: “Not really. I hadn’t really thought about it. I get asked about it all the time, so I always try to defer that question when we’ve gotten to the tournament before and won games, and they’ve been heading towards postseason. But no, I hadn’t really.
“I was thinking before the game, I thought about my parents who couldn’t be here today because of health issues. Then we drove by University of San Diego and I thought of my sister (Maggie) tonight because she played there. So I thought of her, but I didn’t think about myself or 35 years ago.”
This story was originally published March 19, 2022 at 12:06 AM.
