The TCU Horned Frogs men’s basketball season comes to an end following an 88-72 loss to Utah State in the first round of the NCAA tournament. TCU veteran seniors Emanuel Miller, Chuck O’Bannon Jr., Micah Peavy, Xavier Cork and JaKobe Coles never got to dance past the round of 32 under head coach Jamie Dixon.
Even though the Frogs won the rebounding battle 41-30, mistakes poisoned TCU’s gameplay with 14 turnovers and shooting only 17-22 from the free throw line.
“Tonight just wasn’t our night,” said Dixon. “We got off to a good start, but still didn’t feel like we were doing what we needed to do defensively and as it went on, they just continued to get layups, continued to out-execute us, and simply put, we were outplayed.”
Utah State only missed one free throw shooting 14 of 15.
The Aggies dominated in the paint from start to finish, outscoring the Frogs 46-26 led by 6-8 Great Osobor and 7-0 Isaac Johnson.
Johnson seemed unguardable for the Frogs as he could drill buckets over TCU’s tallest guards but also be fed down low to score. The beast finished with 19 points, second to Ian Martinez with 21.
“Coach came to me before the game and said, shoot the ball and be confident. So I took his advice,” said Johnson. “When I have these games, I think it teaches me the player I can be, and I’m just going to try to continue to believe in myself and rely on my coaches and teammates during the ups and downs.”
The Frogs operated with their standard four-man out offensive scheme but it was quickly shut down by Utah State’s 1-3-1 zone. TCU was unsuccessful in breaking apart their defense allowing Utah State to lead by as much as 18 points in the second half with just over seven minutes left.
During the quarterfinals of the Big 12 championship, TCU outrebounded Houston, the number one team in the nation, and they replicated that tonight. In the first half alone, the Frogs had 21 rebounds, 13 defensive and eight offensive. The Aggies only had 14, 12 of which were defensive boards.
“We are just not finishing with those [rebounds] as well as we needed to and it’s been kind of a problem of ours,” said Dixon.
The TCU men’s basketball team will look a lot different next year as the main core of players are seniors and won’t be returning.
“What we started here is special. What we’re leaving behind is special,” said Miller. “The freshmen, the guys coming in, I know the program’s going to be in good hands.”
