TCU Athletics
Seemingly everywhere JaKobe Coles and TCU tried to maneuver, a Baylor defender was there to cut off the angle.
TCU men’s basketball coach Jamie Dixon brought his book of lists into the media workroom after the Horned Frogs penned a disappointing chapter to their centuries-old saga with the bitter archrivals on Monday night.
“There were some transition opportunities we blew. Some of the passes we made were unbelievable,” Dixon said. “We were impatient. Decision making wasn't very good. Overpenetration was one of them. Passes were too late. Missed some open ones. Didn't get to the foul line enough. I mean, there's a variety of reasons. And then, at the end of the day … we got killed on the glass.”
TCU only had seven offensive rebounds. And it’s not like the Frogs didn’t have plenty of opportunities, shooting only 33% from the field, including 26% from the 3-point line.
Oh, the final score. Yes, there’s that. No. 15 Baylor, which led by as many as 18 in the second half, topped the Frogs 62-54 in rare anticlimactic Big 12 theater at Schollmaier Arena that left the home team, its coach, and its fans chagrined.
Baylor most certainly had more than a little something to do with all of it.
When you come that way up the interstate, as a guest, you’re supposed to bring kolaches from West. The Bears instead brought a zone defense that was tantamount to a bad rash.
Baylor’s five spiderwebbed its zone from the 3 on in. It was like gum on the bottom of a shoe. Difficult to shake.
They stayed in it for 40 minutes, stymying the Frogs’ offensive ambitions.
Jameer Nelson led TCU (19-9 overall, 8-7 Big 12) with 11 points and four assists. Emanuel Miller added 10 points and five rebounds.
Ja’Kobe Walter, a freshman, and Yves Missi each had a game-high 16 for Baylor (20-8, 9-6), both scoring most of their totals in the second half. Jalen Bridges had 15, most of it (12) in the first half. Guard RayJ Dennis had devilish nine points, nine assists, and nine rebounds.
Entering play on Tuesday, TCU sat in sixth in the Big 12 with a game at BYU coming on Saturday. Baylor was fourth.
“They played hard on defense. They threw the zone out for 40 minutes and we just had no answer,” said Miller. “To put it point blank, we had no answer. This loss hurts, it definitely stings a little bit, but guess what, we have BYU Saturday, right? So just got to learn from this game, got to understand that teams are going to be watching this game. They're going to see that we struggle against zone. We're going to go over this. It won't happen again. We just get better from it.”
The game took on a completely different tenor than the teams’ previous game in Waco at the end of January. TCU beat the Bears 105-102 in an exhausting triple overtime game.
It’s not as if Baylor will submit its own offensive demonstration to the Naismith museum for posterity.
The end of the first half was difficult. By my count, both teams went a combined 0 for 12 in the final five minutes with six turnovers.
Overall, the Bears shot just a little bit better than TCU at 38%, but they opened up a 17-point lead in the second half while TCU’s offense went on shore leave. The Frogs went six-and-a-half minutes without a field goal.
And overall, Baylor outrebounded TCU 41-29.
Degrees in leisure will get you beat in the Big 12, no matter whom you’re playing. Some of it was serendipity. Every long rebound in the second half seemed to fall into Baylor’s hands. Good fortune always has a role to play.
“I think it's the mindset we had coming into the game, being that we lost to them in the triple overtime,” said Walker, a native of McKinney. “We had a lot of motivation and just wanted to really focus on defensive end and then just get out and score on the offensive end. I don't think they were surprised [by the zone], but I think we were just executing very well.”
Twice this season in conference play, the Frogs have dropped two consecutive games. Right now on the short list of things to do is to avoid that in Provo on Saturday.
“Obviously we're very disappointed by how we performed,” Dixon said. “I thought we had as good a day of preparation in between [Saturday’s game] as you could possibly have. Give Baylor credit. We knew they were going to play some zone. They played a bunch in the last game. We've seen it before. We just didn't get it done in a variety of ways.
“I'll take responsibility. What we tried to do in attacking the zone was ... we didn't do anything that we wanted to do. And so that's on me.”
