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Frogs
continue Jekyll and Hyde Whether said in jest or in all seriousness. The post-game statements made by junior guard Greedy Daniels signify the season that has been TCU men’s basketball. TCU has lost to Rice twice in games that featured a Horned Frog team that played more like the Washington Generals in comparison to the team that showed up Thursday at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum. “We’ve had that problem,” Daniels said. “We’ve played down to the level of the competition. We’ve not been as excited to play (teams like Rice). That’s been the problem. TCU was certainly excited to play against Fresno State probably because the Frogs are realizing they are fighting for their postseason lives. In which case, the Horned Frogs dominated a lackluster Fresno team that entered play Thursday at No. 20 in the Associated Press top 25. The 102-88 final score was not indicative of how the game was dominated by the Horned Frog defense. The TCU defensive pressure forced 30 turnovers, picked up 21 steals and scored 17 points off turnovers, virtually eliminating the possibility of any half-court offense. The Bulldogs managed just three points off only 14 TCU turnovers. In the Frogs last performance, they lost their own lackluster game to Rice. Games like that against Fresno are great. Everyone’s happy except Jerry Tarkanian who called his team’s performance embarrassing and a nightmare that he never would have expected. However, it’s going to come time when head coach Billy Tubbs will have to get his team ready to play teams other than Southern Methodist and Fresno State. If you do the math, the majority of the Western Athletic Conference is not made up of teams like SMU and Fresno. After the Frogs win, Tubbs said he’s not surprised about how his team seems to take on a Jekyll and Hyde sort of mindset from game to game. How can he not be surprised, if not fed up? At 17-8 overall, bad losses to Rice, Tulsa, Butler and College of Charleston are going to keep this year’s version of “Billy Ball” out of the NCAA Tournament. “Fresno State is a different kind of team,” Tubbs said in reference to how his team responds to different levels of competition. “We get in trouble when we play teams who don’t think they’re good.” I’m confused. Teams who play with no confidence should be road kill. Good teams run over teams who play like with a lack of confidence. Good teams don’t let bad teams dictate the game at home or on the road. Tubbs continued, “We’ve struggled in games where our defense couldn’t get the game going.” The scores in the games against Rice were 76-72 and 73-66, both in the Owls advantage and both enormous struggles for TCU. With all that said, Daniels seems to believe the Frogs will beat Rice by 50 the next time the two meet up, possibly in the WAC Tournament. But before that, TCU has five remaining conference games, three of which are against Nevada, San Jose State and Hawaii. One of two things will happen. TCU will run them over or, like Daniels said, they’ll just play down to their level and pick up another three bad losses.
Associate Editor Danny Horne is a senior broadcast journalism
major from Carrollton. |