The last time TCU opened the season with a 2-0 record was in their 2012-13 campaign, and they finished that season 11-21.
In fact, the Frogs have a fairly established routine of hitting that mark and then missing the big dance.
They haven’t started 3-0 in three years, but reached that mark after last night’s victory over New Orleans.
With another win, the Frogs are looking at their best start since the 2007-08 season.
TCU made the CBI Tournament in 2011-12 and the NIT in 2004-05, but those postseason games are a mere consolation prize in the grand scheme of college basketball.
Making the top 68 teams selected for March Madness requires a much better record than the Frogs have posted in the better half of the last two decades.
The Frogs have failed to make a March Madness appearance since the 1997-1998 season, when they lost in the first round to Florida State.
That’s 17 seasons without an appearance, a drought nearly as old as freshman standout recruit Chauncey Collins.
The 17-14 regular season finish that got them to the CBI Tournament in 2012 wasn’t good enough to catch the eye of the March Madness selection committee.
Even the 23-9 record that cross-town rival SMU posted last season couldn’t get them into the big dance.
The Frogs have started 2-0 seven times since the NIT in 2005, so Coach Johnson is not taking the start too seriously. However, they have started 3-0 just four times, and 4-0 just once.
“It’s early, we’ve played two games,” Johnson said sternly. “You move on to the next one.”
But the Frogs did look good their first three wins, winning by 17 against Prairie View A&M in the season opener Friday, by 27 against a Pac-12 team in Washington State Monday and by 15 against New Orleans on Thursday.
“We’ve got some talent,” Jonson continued. “What’s going on right now is what I expect. When it gets tough, you’ve got to stay the course.”
The men’s basketball team has three more games at home in the next week where they will be favored – against Mississippi Valley State on Monday and Radford on Wednesday.
A 5-0 start would be the Horned Frogs’ best in the past 15 seasons.
