How TCU’s basketball future rests on Jamie Dixon’s ability not to coach but fund raise
The job Jamie Dixon accepted as TCU’s basketball coach in 2016 is not the job he currently has, because the profession barely resembles the one he entered in 1989.
Major NCAA basketball is now a prettier, much more expensive, form of JuCo ball. All players are on the expiring years of a contract that does not exist. All players are available to a higher bidder, at any point.
Building a roster, and a team, is a one-year venture; coaches who sell earning a diploma and a four-year experience to a recruit are begging to be fired.
These changes for most veteran coaches are hard enough. The hardest change is that many of these coaches are now full-time fund raisers. It’s one thing for a head coach to be invited to a steak dinner, or a golf outing, with influential boosters but what coaches like Dixon are required to do now exceeds the previous butt kissing norms.
In this current era of major college sports, TCU has a decision to make with its basketball team. A similar decision the school made a decade ago when then athletic director Chris Del Conte acknowledged the men’s basketball team had no shot in its condition.
Spending the money to turn Daniel-Meyer Coliseum into Schollmaier Arena gave an irrelevant basketball program a chance. Hiring Dixon away from Pittsburgh was another investment, and the program developed into a point of sale for the athletic department, and university.
If TCU is to at least remain where it is with its basketball program, which is competitive for NCAA Tournament appearances, and to hopefully advance in that bracket, it has to find more cash on top of the money it’s already spending.
This means Dixon has to take off his hat and sing, “Alms for the poor.”
On Wednesday night, one of the sport’s big payroll teams made its annual visit to Fort Worth and the No. 12 Kansas Jayhawks left with a 74-61 win.
TCU led 24-10 with just under 10 minutes remaining in the first half, and 35-33 at the break. But, talent happened. This is not one of Kansas coach Bill Self’s better teams, as even the Hall of Famer navigates the same types of problems that hound Dixon’s team.
“We’ve had to go get immediate help, but it hasn’t been like what Jamie did this past year where he had to sign 10 or 11 (new) players,” Self said after the game of this current era of NCAA basketball. “It’s much more hit or miss (in recruiting). Whatever you pay through the NIL world, those guys have to deliver.
“Before, at least with Kansas, you recruit two freshmen and hope one of them pans out early on, and the other one stays in the program and develops. Those days of staying in the program and develop, that’s not going to happen nearly as often. It’s going to be coaching more like a junior college, where you have reload every year and you may get a guy for two years.
“I don’t know if you can bank on getting a guy more than that; if he doesn’t really play in his first two years, why would he want to stay a third? It’s challenging in many ways, and we don’t have it mastered or figured out yet.”
The difference is Kansas can easily attract five-star and NBA-hopeful players whereas a program like TCU is not going to land that type of talent.
In Dixon’s coaching career, he has never had a roster flip like this season, where nearly every player is new. In the previous offseason, TCU won a few recruiting battles in the transfer portal, thanks to money.
It also lost out on at least three decent players, thanks to money. Of the three notables they lost, one is doing quite well at a Big 12 school.
TCU spent some money, and, after a road loss at Central Florida on Saturday afternoon, the team is 10-9, and 3-5 in the Big 12.
“It’s never easy; we knew there would be some challenges. We knew we would be young,” said Dixon, who is in his ninth season in Fort Worth. “We knew with the NIL transfer thing you’re going to be put in certain situations in certain places. I wouldn’t use the word ‘hard.’ You just have to find a way.”
It will be a hard struggle up Mt. Denali-McKinley for TCU to finish .500 or better this season; a fourth straight NCAA Tournament trip will require a miracle. In Dixon’s first eight years as TCU’s coach, the program finished with a losing record once, in the 2020-’21 season that was wrecked by COVID, COVID protocols and COVID restrictions.
This season offers no such once-in-lifetime migraines, masks, or excuses. This season’s challenges have included one major injury to the team’s best player, guard Frankie Collins, who suffered a season-ending broken foot on Dec. 8.
There are parts to this team that work; the rebounding and defense are solid. There are issues at point guard, and scoring is a challenge.
The other challenge is a roster that features five freshmen who should be the core of what can be a good team. The type of team TCU and Dixon expect.
If they stay. What’s the best way of ensuring they stay?
In this case, TCU doesn’t have to pray but rather just pay.
This story was originally published January 23, 2025 at 9:40 AM.
