TCU Frogs vs. Arizona basketball: March Madness lineups, TV, time, score, prediction
TCU basketball is looking to make more history this season.
The Horned Frogs ended a 35-year drought between NCAA Tournament victories on Friday night, rolling past Seton Hall, 69-42. Now they’re looking to become the program’s first team to win multiple games at the Big Dance.
It won’t be easy with 9-seed TCU facing 1-seed Arizona in a South Region second-round game on Sunday night. The Wildcats are the best offensive team the Frogs have faced this season.
Arizona ranks third in the country in scoring offense at 84.6 points per game and is led by projected NBA Draft lottery pick Bennedict Mathurin.
The Frogs got a first-hand look of the high-scoring Wildcats on Friday night, watching some of Arizona’s 87-70 victory over 16-seed Wright State from the stands. Mathurin finished with 18 points for the Wildcats.
“We know what they have,” TCU sophomore guard Mike Miles said. “Obviously we needed to know. That’s why we were watching the game. We’re going to prepare and scout them, but we gotta just play the same defense we did today. That will put us in a good position against them.”
Here’s everything else you need to know going into the game:
The Details
When/where: 8:40 p.m. Sunday, Viejas Arena, San Diego
TV/radio: TBS (Lisa Byington, Steve Smith, Avery Johnson, Lauren Shehadi); Westwood One (Dave Pasch, PJ Carlesimo); KLIF (570 AM) with Brian Estridge and John Denton.
Records: TCU 21-12; Arizona 32-3
Line: Arizona favored by 9.5 points, over/under 142.5, per VegasInsider.com on Saturday
Series: TCU is 2-0 all-time against Arizona ... but the schools haven’t played each other in almost 70 years. The schools played in what was called the All-College Tournament in Oklahoma City during the 1939-40 season, which the Frogs won, 37-32, on Dec. 29, 1939. Then TCU had a 63-48 victory over Arizona in Dallas on Dec. 30, 1952.
About TCU: TCU coach Jamie Dixon has never faced Arizona in his time as a head coach. ... Dixon is 13-12 all-time in the NCAA Tournament. Friday was his first victory in March Madness since 2014. ... TCU held Seton Hall to 28.8% shooting from the field. It was the lowest by a TCU opponent since Jan. 17, 2015 when it held Texas Tech to 22.9%. ... The Frogs are 4-1 in games played in the state of California during Dixon’s tenure. ... TCU has won two games in its history at Viejas Arena, Friday night versus Seton Hall and in 1998 when the Frogs defeated San Diego State in Western Athletic Conference (WAC) matchup. ... Going into this year’s tournament, a 9-seed has defeated a 1-seed in the second round only six times since 1985. Only one 9-seed has advanced to the Final Four in tournament history, Wichita State in 2013.
About Arizona: The Wildcats are on a seven-game winning streak and won the Pac-12 regular-season and tournament titles. ... Arizona is coached by Tommy Lloyd, a longtime assistant at Gonzaga who took over the program last offseason. ... Arizona is in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2018. ... The victory over Wright State on Friday night was Arizona’s first NCAA Tournament win since defeating Saint Mary’s in the second round in 2017. ... Arizona has the strongest fan support in San Diego as it’s less than a six-hour drive from Tucson.
Projected lineups
TCU: Mike Miles, Damion Baugh, Chuck O’Bannon Jr., Emanuel Miller, Eddie Lampkin Jr.
Arizona: Justin Kier, Dalen Terry, Bennedict Mathurin, Azuolas Tubelis, Christian Koloko
Prediction
The good news for TCU is that it should feel like it’s playing with house money at this point. The Frogs accomplished something that hasn’t been done in 35 years on Friday night. But TCU remains turnover-prone and continues to get off to slow starts. That won’t bode well against a high-scoring team such as Arizona. This feels like a game where TCU will be playing from behind from the start. The Frogs will make it interesting, but ultimately see their season come to an end. Arizona 78, TCU 70.
