Watching game film with TCU’s Jamie Dixon illustrates the issues college coaches face
Watching game film with TCU basketball coach Jamie Dixon, it’s easy to see why so many people in this profession are no longer right in the head.
The morning after TCU defeated Winthrop on Dec. 11, Dixon sits in his office to watch the game on his computer. He doesn’t looks like he’s slept much, and he’s already watched this game once.
“This is unbelievable,” Dixon said as we watches the game’s first play, which resulted in a TCU turnover. “We worked on this for, like, three days straight. The play got all screwed up.
“They should have gotten it to (center) Kevin Samuel. We spent all week on it getting to (the center). And he gets tangled up, which happens. We get into the game, we’re not making the right read. Even after he gets tangled up, he comes back and does what we tell him not to do.”
On the ensuing possession, Winthrop scores on a dunk. On TCU’s second possession, senior guard Desmond Bane missed on a forced, contested 3-pointer.
“This is unbelievable,” he said. “The two things we worked on the most these last two weeks we did wrong in the first 19 seconds of this game.”
It’s impressive that Dixon didn’t smash his monitor with a brick. He’s gone over this time and again with his team, and these are the immediate results.
TCU won the game comfortably by 10 points, but in reviewing some of this game with Dixon, it’s evident just how difficult it is to do this job — and how much ground this program has to cover.
They aren’t dumb kids. They aren’t bad kids. They are kids.
Dixon is in his fourth year at TCU, and this buildup remains a work in progress, beginning right here in front of game film and the painful process of eliminating error.
Identifying mistakes
Ninety seconds into the game, TCU scores its first points on a 3-pointer by Bane.
As the video rolls, Dixon is a series of observations, critiques and mental notations.
It’s not meant to sound like a comedy routine, but the material is funny.
“I don’t know what R.J. (Nembhard) is doing,” Dixon said.
“This is a bad drive. He is starting to dribble too much. He doesn’t dribble with purpose, and he dribbles into trouble.”
“Our defense is atrocious.”
“That’s one of the worst moves in the history of college basketball right there.”
“He made the right play, but he just traveled. This is exactly what we wanted. Our best shooter is shooting the 3, and he travels.”
This is the beauty of watching coaches work — unfiltered assessment. This isn’t a coach standing in front of the media, offering polite wisdom and lying through his teeth.
This is a coach offering what he sees. Before they start coaching, there is the critique, which can often sound a lot like a fan.
But what can sound like a rant is actually coaching.
“He’s not getting above the defender’s foot here when he catches the ball,” Dixon said, “So Jaire (Grayer) is taught to be on the other side, so he should switch, and he’s not quick enough to react.”
It’s one thing to review film and quite another to get it. Not everyone gets it. Film sessions aren’t long, maybe 10 minutes.
“A lot of them don’t get it,” Dixon said. “If you’re not smart, you can’t get better. It doesn’t make sense to you.”
Building a brand
When Dixon looks at this game footage, at least some of the problems are because the team is still relatively new. With players leaving early to play professionally, and countless others leaving because of playing time, rosters now turn over at record rates.
“Everybody is going through this,” he said. “Everybody has a different team every year now.”
As he reviews this game, the performance improves. The defense plays better. The offensive execution is more good than bad. TCU built a large second-half lead and coasted to the win.
TCU is a decent team. Kevin Samuel and Desmond Bane are both high-end Big 12 players.
As the game film shows, there is good and bad here.
TCU is now 8-2 and will host Xavier on Sunday.
“Win or lose, I generally don’t sleep much after a game,” Dixon said. “We just have to get better.”
