By James Zwilling skiff staff The TCU men's soccer team's players watched their hopes of an NCAA playoff berth fade away last weekend as they ended their home season with two defeats. Losses to Tulsa and Drury College extended the team's losing streak to five games. The Horned Frogs fell 3-2 Friday at the TCU Soccer Complex to Tulsa after a scoreless first half. Assistant coach Blake Amos said the coaching staff tried to motivate the team during halftime.
Junior forward Nic Finn scored the first goal of the game in the 59th minute off an assist by sophomore midfielder Josh Rife and freshmen midfielder Nick Browne. Amos said the team needed to score the first goal. "For someone like Nic to step up and score the first goal of the game is very important because we have lacked scoring in the last few games," Amos said. Tulsa's Kyle Smith answered with his first goal of three one minute later. After Smith's second goal, sophomore midfielder Nick Baker scored to tie the game at two. The game was not decided until the final minute of the game when Smith scored his final goal for Tulsa. Amos said the last goal made the difference in the game. "The biggest disappointment of the game was letting the last goal in with less than one minute to play," he said. "It hurt us mentally because any time the game is tied with less than a minute to go you need to be able to push the game to overtime." Amos said the last few losses have been very disappointing. "We have lost our assertiveness," he said. "We have become the victims instead of making our opponents the victims." TCU fell 2-1 Sunday in their final home game against Drury. Finn again opened scoring for the Horned Frogs in the 24th minute of the game off an assist by freshmen midfielder Matt Lopez. Freshman Eric Jorgenson answered in the 34th minute for Drury to tie the game at one. Drury junior Ryan Ferguson finished the scoring for Drury with his goal in the 59th minute. TCU failed to convert on any of the shots for the remainder of the game ending the game 2-1. Amos said it will be hard to motivate the team for the rest of the season. "There is no (Western Athletic Conference) title, no division title, no tournament," Amos said. "It makes play seem meaningless, so it is hard to motivate players." Amos said TCU needs victories over Fresno State and San Jose State this weekend and will go into the games looking for an emerging personality. TCU will lose only one senior this season, midfielder Tyler Krueger, so Amos said it is a time for the team to rebuild. "Right now, it is time to go back to the drawing board," he said. "We need to find out what we are made of and make sure we aren't going to come out and do the same thing next year."
James Zwilling
By Matt Stiver staff reporter The scoreboard flashed 63 as the players trotted off the court at half-time on Dec. 1, 1998, with their biggest half-time point total. Try as they might, the Frogs would not equal that performance. But they came close with 61 in the second half on Saturday night. Junior shooing guard Ryan Carroll, junior shooting guard Vladimir Jaksic and senior power forward Marquise Gainous each hit for 22 points as the TCU men's basketball team opened its season with a 119-74 exhibition victory over MBK-Odessa Ukraine. Head coach Billy Tubbs said the Frogs improved their production and hustle from last season. "I saw a lot of things I like in this team," Tubbs said. "I like our hustle, and I like our team effort. We talked about people getting more production in less time. Carroll probably produced more in 20 minutes tonight than he was producing in 35 last season." During one stretch in the first half, Carroll scored 12 of 15 TCU points. Carroll, who averaged 13 points in 33 minutes last season, said his play was inconsistent against MBK-Odessa. "I had some spurts where I did good, and then I had some spurts where I don't know what I was doing," Carroll said. "I think once I (have) calmed down a little bit, I'll play more regular."
Jaksic started the run with three-pointer then followed with a lay-up. After red-shirt freshman Rebel Paulk converted a jumper and free throw, Jaksic nailed another three. Freshman shooting guard Bingo Merriex, after making four free throws, hit a three-pointer to give the Frogs a 29-14 lead. TCU players hit 13-20 three pointers. Jaksic finished the night a perfect 6-6, including four in the second half. Tubbs said Jaksic's shooting was especially key in the second half when MBK-Odessa changed defensive schemes on the Frogs. TCU used 11 players against MBK-Odessa. Tubbs said the added depth will allow players to play hard. "Hopefully the way we're playing people, it will give us the chance for a guy to go all-out for 20 minutes when he couldn't go all-out for 40," Tubbs said. "The thing that impressed me most was in one of our particular defenses that (Merriex) has to go trap in, he went from trapping over here to trapping over there as quickly as anyone we've had."
Matt Stiver
By Rusty Simmons sports editor Many of the college basketball magazines published during the preseason predicted junior Larry Allaway, a transfer from Howard County (Texas) Community College, would step in as the Frogs' first-string point guard. But when the public address announcer shouted out the starters for the first exhibition game against MBK-Odessa Saturday, junior Thomas McTyer bounced out onto the court at the point guard position. Despite the on-going challenge for supremacy at the position, head coach Billy Tubbs said he is more excited about the possibility of the combination of players at each position than naming starters. "We're looking for more production in less minutes," Tubbs said. "It is important to look at the production we get from a position rather than an individual player." In the 119-74 win over MBK-Odessa, Allaway and McTyer combined for 15 assists while turning the ball over only two times. Tubbs said he thinks he also has the ability to go to multiple players at other positions this year. "We have a little more depth this year, Tubbs said. "There are some exciting guys coming off of the bench." Senior power forward Marquise Gainous and junior shooting guard Ryan Carroll, the top two returners in scoring, tallied 22 points each against MBK-Odessa, but their substitutes put up big numbers as well. Junior center Derrick Davenport, a transfer from Lawrence North (Florida) Community College, came off the bench and played 19 minutes to relieve Gainous. He scored 10 points, grabbed three rebounds and made three steals. Junior shooting guard Vladimir Jaksic, was perfect from three-point territory in his 27 minutes of play as a replacement for Carroll. He hit 6-of-6 from behind the arc for 22 points and made four steals. Freshman shooting guard Bingo Merriex added 15 points, three rebounds and a steal in his 19 minutes of action. The eight steals by Davenport, Jaksic and Merriex were made possible by a tenacious Frog full-court press that was played for the entirety of the game. Again, McTyer said the team aspect was the key to the success of the press. "Rotation was really good (on the press)," McTyer said. "It was better because a lot of people hustled and played together." On two consecutive plays in the first half, McTyer drew charges on the defensive end of the court giving TCU possession of the ball. "I'll do whatever it takes to win a game," McTyer said. "If I can take a couple of charges then maybe it'll come." McTyer said his teammates feel the same way, because both times he hit the hardwood floor, a Horned Frog player was there to help him up.
Rusty Simmons |
"We talked about the struggle we've had the last few
weeks, and how we lost with one minute left to them earlier in the season,"
Amos said. "There's an intense rivalry between these two teams, and
we wanted them to remember that when they stepped back out on the field."
An exhibition team from Odessa, Ukraine, consisting of players
as old as 34, MBK-Odessa hung with the Frogs for the first 3:52 of the
game. After Gennadiy Upenskyy hit a jumper to pull MBK-Odessa within 10-9,
the Frogs went on a 19-5 run and never led by less than 13 points the rest
of the way. | The TCU Daily Skiff © 1998, 1999 Credits |