Three takeaways from TCU men’s victory: Is NCAA Tournament bid secure?
TCU men’s basketball completed the season sweep of Kansas State with a 77-68 win on the road Saturday night.
The Horned Frogs (19-10, 9-7) have now won six of their last seven games and continue to move closer to locking up an NCAA Tournament bid.
With 5:07 remaining, TCU maintained a 67-62 lead despite Kansas State (11-18, 2-14) shooting 50% from the field. It was a frustrating second half as TCU would extend its lead to five or seven points, only for the Wildcats to respond with timely 3-pointers to make it a one-possession game.
The decisive 9-0 run would come in the final moments as the Horned Frogs made two critical defensive plays on back-to-back possessions after the Wildcats cut the lead to 67-65. After a pair of Xavier Edmonds free throws, Micah Robinson forced a turnover in the half court.
In transition, Brock Harding found a trailing Edmonds for a layup that made it 71-65. Then Edmonds ripped the ball away from a Wildcat and went full court to score another basket in transition as TCU led 73-65 with 3:37 remaining. The lead would grow to 76-65 before Kansas State scored with just 40 seconds remaining.
TCU will travel to face No. 16 Texas Tech at 6 p.m. Tuesday.
Here are three more takeaways from the win:
Lock for March Madness?
February was kind to the Horned Frogs as they went 6-2 to play their way on the right side of the NCAA Tournament bubble. The recent run may have done more than that as the Horned Frogs could see the latest projections move them off the bubble entirely.
After spending the week being projected as one of the last four teams in, recent results pushed TCU up into the “Last Four Byes” category by ESPN bracketologist Joe Lunardi. That means TCU would be one of the last teams to avoid playing a First Four game in Dayton. Lunardi had TCU with a greater than 90% chance of making the field before Saturday’s game.
Those projections should only grow more favorable to the Horned Frogs after they have taken care of their business on the road. A loss to the Wildcats would have undone all the work completed this month. But now with this trap game out of the way, TCU feels like a safe bet to make the field.
Balanced approach
TCU was able to overcome its inability to get stops with its balanced scoring approach as four different Horned Frogs scored in double figures. Tanner Toolson and Liutaurus Lelevicius were particularly effective off the bench with 14 and 12, respectively.
Toolson hit timely 3-pointers all game, like when he knocked down a 3 to increase TCU’s lead to 57-53 with 10:11 remaining. Lelevicius is the one typically known for his shooting, but he missed all three of his 3-point attempts, but still found a way to produce by crashing the glass to generate multiple putbacks. He had another important basket when he blew past a defender to hit a nice mid-range shot that put TCU ahead 66-59 with 5:59 remaining.
Edmonds continued his impressive run with 15 points and 13 rebounds, his ninth double-double in the last 10 games, while sophomore forward David Punch added 13.
Former Frog slowed down
Former TCU guard PJ Haggerty has become one of the nation’s top scorers since transferring from the program after the 2022-23 season. Haggerty scored 30 points in the first matchup against his former team and initially looked set to have a similar performance.
Haggerty started fast with 14 points in the first half as he did most of his damage in the paint. Haggerty isn’t the most explosive athlete, but was still able to get to his spots with his crafty footwork to find space through the TCU defense. K-State scored 26 points in the paint in the first thanks mostly to the penetration by Haggerty.
But it was a different story in the second half as TCU limited Haggerty to just four points as the defense was successful in limiting his shot opportunities. Haggerty also had a critical turnover during the Horned Frogs’ 9-0 run that decided the game.
Haggerty finished with 18 points as TCU became only the second team to hold him under 20 points in February.
This story was originally published February 28, 2026 at 8:20 PM.
