What to know about TCU’s potential first round opponents, Arizona State and Nevada
TCU will have to wait until Wednesday night to know who it will face in the opening round of the NCAA tournament.
A No. 6 seed in the West Region, the Horned Frogs will play either Arizona State or Nevada on Friday at 9:10 p.m. CT (TruTV) at Ball Arena in Denver. Arizona State and Nevada will face each other in one of the First Four games in Dayton, Ohio.
“I’ve watched Arizona State a few times, I’ve watched Nevada a few times on the late night games,” coach Jamie Dixon said. “Lot of familiarity with the teams we could play.”
The first four play-in games started back in 2011 and Arizona State and Nevada are two of the four teams vying for the two available No. 11 seeds.
Here’s a quick look at the potential opponents for the Horned Frogs.
Season in review
The Sun Devils enter the First Four at 22-12 and went 11-9 in the Pac-12. Their moment of the season came when Desmond Cambridge Jr. hit a 60-foot buzzer beater to take down rival Arizona on Feb. 25. That was likely the win that got Arizona State into the field.
Other notable results include a win over Creighton and the Sun Devils reached the semifinals of the Pac-12 tournament.
Nevada was 22-10, going 12-6 in the Mountain West. The Wolf Pack beat a ranked San Diego State team at home and also pushed Kansas State to overtime.
Starpower
Cambridge’s heroics against Arizona is something he’s been doing all season for Arizona State. The 6-foot-4 senior guard leads the Sun Devils in scoring at 13.7 points per game. He’s a bit of a volume scorer that likes to chuck it from deep, but Cambridge is shooting 50% on shots inside the arc. Cambridge played two seasons at Nevada before transferring to Arizona State.
Fellow guard DJ Horne is right behind him at 12.1 points, but shoots below 36% from the floor. Nevada also has an experienced backcourt led by senior Jarod Lucas. Lucas was voted second team All-Mountain West after averaging 17.3 points per game. Kenan Blackshear also made second team All-MWC.
A bigger guard standing at 6-foot-6, Blackshear averages 14.4 points a night and is one of Nevada’s leading rebounders.
How they matchup
Nevada is methodical type of offense that ranks in the bottom third nationally in possessions per game. Slow and steady has been the Nevada’s offensive approach and it’s worked pretty well as the Wolf Pack are the top-100 in offensive efficiency according to TeamRankings.com.
There are few teams better at getting to the free throw line than the Wolf Pack, who convert nearly 80% of those. Nevada also does a good job of sharing the ball with over 14 assists a game. Arizona State prides itself on its defense. The Sun Devils are in the Top 50 in defensive efficiency and are limiting opponents to just 44% on 2-point attempts.
That’s good for top-10 nationally. On paper Arizona State is one of the better rebounding teams in the country, but those numbers are inflated by the non-conference schedule. The Sun Devils were just ninth in the Pac-12 in rebounding. Arizona State also struggles with its 3-point shooting.
Nevada isn’t a great rebounding team and gives up a lot of 3-point attempts, but will Arizona State be able to exploit that advantage?
This story was originally published March 12, 2023 at 6:52 PM.
