Before the season began, the TCU men’s basketball team knew it would face Grambling State on Monday night.
The Horned Frogs didn’t know that on Dec. 22, 12 games into the season, they would be undefeated and ranked as the No. 25 team in the country.
TCU thrashed an outmatched Grambling State team that has yet to beat a Division 1 opponent this season Monday night.
The 80-39 victory against an inferior opponent wasn’t overly impressive, but TCU’s 12 straight wins to start the season have helped to boost the Frogs into the Top 25 for the first time since January of 1999.
The Frogs have had an easy road so far, their strength of schedule ranks as the 328th most difficult in the country, but seven out of the ten Big 12 teams are currently ranked in the Top 25.
With that in mind, Big 12 conference play will show whether this TCU men’s basketball team deserves a trip to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1998.
The Frogs will either beat enough quality Big 12 opponents to warrant a postseason berth, or struggle in the league for a third consecutive year.
But for at least one more night, Horned Frogs fans saw their team dominate an opponent in Wilkerson-Greines Activity Center.
TCU held Grambling State to just 39 points on 23.9 percent shooting from the field. The Tigers also committed 20 turnovers.
The Horned Frogs led 42-17 at halftime after closing the period on a 18-2 run. TCU shot 48.3 percent from the field and 47.4 percent from three-point range.
Senior point guard Kyan Anderson led all scorers with 17 points in just 22 minutes of play.
His counterpart at the point guard position, freshman Chauncey Collins, connected on all four of his three-pointers, and was the second-highest scorer with 13 points.
Every player on the TCU roster saw at least four minutes of playing time, and the Frogs led the Tigers in all meaningful statistical categories – including rebounds, assists, steals and blocks.
The 39 points allowed were a season-best for TCU, and the Horned Frogs are now 27-4 when leading at the half under coach Trent Johnson.
TCU has one more non-conference game before the start of Big 12 play, and that will be next Monday’s matchup against Tennessee State at 7 p.m.
The Frogs will likely remain in the Top 25 for a second consecutive week, as they are one of only a handful of teams to still be undefeated at this point in the season and next week’s rankings will be released before their next game.
TCU could complete a perfect non-conference schedule with a win over Tennessee State on Dec. 29 at Wilkerson-Greines Activity Center.
