After shocking Baylor, TCU seeking another upset vs. No. 12 Kansas
TCU has a massive opportunity Wednesday night when the Horned Frogs host No. 12 Kansas.
Coming off of the first Quad 1 win of the year in Sunday’s dramatic 74-71 win over Baylor in Waco, TCU could inch closer to getting onto the bubble for the NCAA Tournament if the Horned Frogs can pull off another Big 12 upset.
The Jayhawks started the year as the preseason No. 1 team in the country and while they haven’t quite lived up to their preseason ranking, Kansas is still easily one of the best teams in the country.
“We’ve got Kansas here, it’s a big one, it’s a home game,” coach Jamie Dixon said on Tuesday. “We’ve played some very good teams and we have another one coming in. We need a great crowd, a great atmosphere for this game because this is going to be big for us.”
For TCU to knock off the Jayhawks, it will start in the paint. Kansas is led by All-American Hunter Dickinson, who is averaging 15.8 points, 10.2 rebounds and 1.5 blocks. Kansas also has former five-star big man Flory Bidunga, a 6-foot-9 freshman with plenty of upside.
With those two leading the way, Kansas ranks top-50 in the country in rebounding with almost 40 rebounds a game. Dixon made it clear that matching Kansas’ intensity on the glass will be crucial to beating the Jayhawks.
“It’s been obviously a challenge for us rebounding wise (this season),” Dixon said. “It’s always been a strength of my teams, but it’s been a bit of a challenge. But (rebounding) it’s what we have to do, there’s no other way for us to do it. (Kansas) is big, they’re physical, they’re talented. But so was the last team we just played and there are highly recruited guys across the board on both teams.
“We certainly responded the last game and we have to build off that, it is the most important thing simply put.”
Handling the frontcourt of Dickinson, Bidunga and veteran KJ Adams will be a tough task with the youth of TCU’s bigs, but former Kansas big man Ernest Udeh is coming off his best performance as a Horned Frog with 16 points and 15 rebounds against Baylor.
Udeh also set the key screen to get Brendan Wenzel open for the game-winning 3-pointer in Waco. Udeh having another double-double against his former team would increase TCU’s chances of pulling off the upset.
However, the Jayhawks also have quality guards that TCU will have to account for. Veteran point guard Dajuan Harris is back for another year and is averaging 10.1 points and 5.4 rebounds. Harris has been one of the best defensive guards in the Big 12 during his career and nothing has changed this season.
Harris is joined in the backcourt by South Dakota State transfer Zeke Mayo, prolific 3-point shooter that is averaging 15 points per game despite the jump up in competition.
The Jayhawks also have the luxury of bringing Alabama transfer Rylan Griffen and Wisconsin transfer AJ Storr off the bench. Both players averaged double figures last season, but have bought into smaller roles with Kansas.
“Those three same guys (Harris, Dickinson, Adams), the challenge is their continuity,” Dixon said. “They’re returning players, they got others on the bench back. They added top recruits, Mayo is a local kid that everybody wanted (along with) the Storr kid. They brought in the top big man in the country this year with Flory.
“Their defense is their strength this year. They’ve always been good, but I think they’re trying to play more guys that play better defense and they’re big when they have Flory in there with Dickinson.”
Kansas is elite across the board defensively with a top-15 scoring defense, a top-10 field goal percentage defense and a top-15 3-point percentage defense.
The Jayhawks have only allowed six of their 17 opponents to score more than 70 points and Kansas is only 3-3 in those games. If TCU can score 70 points, that also increases the chances of another Quad 1 win, but the Horned Frogs will need to execute like they did in the final minutes against Baylor for the entirety of the game against Kansas.
The stakes are always high when Kansas is involved, but if TCU wants to keep its hopes of making a fourth straight NCAA Tournament alive then this is the type of game that is a must win.
