You come at the king, you best not miss.
The legendary quote from HBO’s hit show “The Wire” is timeless and can fit last night’s situation, when the TCU Horned Frogs had their shot to sweep the king of the Big 12 for the first time in program history.
In many ways the Horned Frogs did enough to secure the historic achievement. The 63 points Kansas scored is the fourth-lowest this season and the Jayhawks were held to 39% shooting.
Likely Player of the Year Jalen Wilson was held to a mere seven points after going off for 30 in TCU’s win in Lawrence. The Horned Frogs won the turnover battle and held Kansas without a field goal in the final 4:45 of Monday’s battle.
If I told you all those things were going happen, surely you’d expect TCU to leave the sold out Schollmaier Arena with a victory, right? But it was the Jayhawks who survived Monday’s night thriller, 63-58, and Kansas deserves plenty of credit for gutting out a win.
The Jayhawks defended like a team that was blown out by 23 a month ago, the Jayhawks played like a team that had been in this situation before. That championship pedigree, the institutional knowledge of knowing how to win was how the Jayhawks were repeatedly able to hold off TCU.
It seemed like every time TCU had cut it to one or had a chance to retake the lead in the second half, Kansas would make the necessary play and respond with a quick 5-0 or 6-0 burst.
“I think sometimes in those situations you get lucky, because they missed the same look that you make,” KU coach Bill Self said. “I thought defensively we were good. It seemed like to me whenever they had a chance we got a stop, it led to run out or a foul. It led to something that led to an easy basket.”
On three separate occasions in the second half, TCU was tied or trailed by one to Kansas. Each time the Jayhawks ripped off a mini run including a 5-0 run, 7-0 run and a quick 4-0 burst after TCU tied it at 48 at the 10:14 mark.
While Kansas was ripping off those runs, TCU went a combined 0-for-9. That doesn’t even include the final four minutes where TCU went without a field goal. Some of that is due to Kansas, but the other chunk of it falls squarely on TCU.
“They shot 39% and came in and got a win,” TCU coach Jamie Dixon said. “We had opportunities, our offense was pretty bad. We didn’t turn it over alot, our shot selection wasn’t there. That combination will put you in a close game and you’ll come up short.”
And sure there were some bad bounces on a few shots like the usual sure-handed Xavier Cork not being able to throw down a putback dunk and yes, it seemed like there were more than a few loose balls that just happened to end up in the hands of a Kansas player.
Luck is apart of the game, but every coach will you that you can create your own luck on the floor. If you’re relentlessly attacking the glass, then odds are you’re going to get some lucky bounces as the game progresses. Like when Gradey Dick had the mental awareness to rebound his own miss and thrown down a dunk after the TCU defense fell asleep.
Or take Wilson, whose shot wasn’t falling, but he turned into a machine on the glass with a game-high 13 rebounds. While Kansas was creating its own luck, TCU was giving into frustration.
“I think we let the refs get in our heads too much this game,” JaKobe Coles said. “I thought we ran some really good sets, but we were being a little selfish on offense as a team. I think we took some bad shots. I thought we played good defense, but weren’t coming together on offense.”
Can you understand some of the frustrations the Horned Frogs had with officiating? Sure, there were at least three or four times where it seemed like Damion Baugh or Mike Miles Jr. took a heavy dose of contact trying to go to the rim.
But, if you take out the last three free throw attempts by Kansas when TCU had to foul, the Horned Frogs shot 21 free throws to just nine for the Jayhawks.
TCU missed eight free throws and shot 62%. If the Horned Frogs were just average at the free throw line (75%) the outcome would’ve likely been different. So while you can certainly gripe about the officiating, the Horned Frogs didn’t make the most of the opportunities they had when the refs called fouls.
Those missed opportunities are the most frustrating aspect of Monday’s defeat. But that frustration comes from new expectations that Dixon has brought to the program.
TCU was favored over the Jayhawks and at many times looked like the better, deeper and bigger team.
“They’re so talented offensively,” Self said. “We were very fortunate they didn’t shoot it well.”
There’s a lesson to be learned in defeat. The Horned Frogs once again proved they have the roster to go toe to toe with anybody in the country including a potential No. 1 seed like Kansas.
The biggest hurdle for the Horned Frogs’ chances in March might not be the opposition, it could be themselves. The moment was too big for TCU on Monday, but it’ll have more chances to rise to the occasion.
The Horned Frogs just have to get out of their own way.
