‘The Last of Us,’ or reality: TCU is favored to defeat Kansas. In basketball.
Less than two months after Max Duggan and his teammates were the story of not just college football but all of sports by reaching the national title game in football, the TCU men’s basketball team is pushing for equal shock value.
On the same night Duggan will become the first TCU player to be awarded the Davey O’ Brien trophy as the nation’s top college quarterback, No. 22 TCU will be the favorite at home against No. 5 Kansas in basketball.
According to Covers.com, as well as a lot of other sports betting sites, TCU is a 1.5-point favorite over Kansas. Some other sites list TCU as a 1-point favorite over Kansas.
Can’t find one that has Kansas as the favorite over TCU.
“It’s been a battle all the way through; I knew what (the job) was and this is what we planned to do,” TCU coach Jamie Dixon said in a phone interview on Sunday evening. “But we still have to do it. We have to go and do something now, stay healthy, and then it’s proven.
“I’ve used the phrase, ‘This is our time.’ I like our chances.”
The people at TCU are pretty, 100-percent sure this is the first time TCU has ever been the favorite to beat Kansas in basketball.
This is both perfectly believable, and incredulously unbelievable.
TCU favored to beat Kansas in basketball almost makes as much sense as TCU is in the national football title game against Georgia.
They don’t necessarily read right, but they happened for a reason.
This is the best team in TCU history; a team good enough to do for the men’s basketball program what the football team did this season when it reached the playoffs, and won the Fiesta Bowl before coming up just (5)8 points shy of defeating Georgia in the national title game.
TCU has Elite Eight/Final Four potential (when healthy).
TCU’s slow charge towards a memorable March
When TCU athletic director Chris Del Conte was tasked to upgrade the football facilities, and specifically the football stadium, he found a flock of eager boosters willing to spend money for the sake of the football team.
What football wants, football gets.
Finding the same kind, or any, audience for basketball at TCU required all of Del Conte’s sales skills.
Only once the school rebuilt Daniel-Mayer Coliseum and turned it into Schollmaier Arena, in 2015, did this program have a chance to be anything more than 10th place in a league as deep as the Big 12.
When TCU hired Jamie Dixon away from Pittsburgh to return to his alma mater in 2016, the athletic department finally gave its basketball coach a real chance to win games that people watch.
TCU versus Kansas at 8 p.m. on ESPN certainly qualifies.
Why TCU should be favored vs. Kansas
You don’t know have to know a single detail about NCAA men’s college basketball to know TCU as a favorite over Kansas feels like a plot detail from the new HBO series “The Last of Us.”
(If you aren’t familiar with “The Last of Us,” that’s on you. It’s a riveting post-apocalyptic series).
At least for this season, this fiction is fact.
If you have watched TCU, the Horned Frogs should be the favorite to defeat the defending national champions. TCU whipped then No. 2 Kansas in Lawrence 83-60 on Jan. 21.
TCU was the first to expose Kansas for what it is this season; talented, and vulnerable to swings consistent with a roster that underwent a major turnover after the departure of the key upperclassmen who led KU to the national title last season.
TCU has the ideal traits of a Final Four team (when healthy).
The team is long. The team is athletic. The team can score in the open court. The team defends well. The team rebounds well. The roster is loaded with upperclassmen, and has played together for multiple seasons.
(Three point shooting, however, is a major concern).
Teams that rely on the five-star freshmen to carry them into March don’t make it too far.
In this era of college basketball, teams that have juniors and seniors win in March.
As long as junior guard Mike Miles and sophomore center Eddie Lampkin are healthy, TCU can beat anybody in the country. Without Miles, TCU will be lucky to survive a first round game.
Mike Miles is back, and TCU is favored to beat Kansas because it should.
Don’t be surprised if TCU sweeps Kansas for the first time in school history.
As previously preposterous as that sounds, it’s just consistent with a school year that has seen TCU’s Max Duggan win the O’ Brien award, and the football team in the national title game.
All of this really happened, and it’s not “The End of Us.”
This story was originally published February 20, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
