WACO — Something is becoming clear about the present TCU basketball season.
The team is good at home. It’s not good on the road.
Saturday night’s 90-64 loss at Baylor, TCU’s worst in Jamie Dixon’s three seasons, left the Horned Frogs 0-5 on the road in the Big 12.
“We got hammered tonight, so there’s not a lot of things to feel good about,” coach Jamie Dixon said.
Well, they do get to come home Wednesday night to play Oklahoma State.
There is that.
And they’ll play six of the next 10 at home, a chance to make headway in the conference for a team now residing in the bottom half.
“Morale’s fine. Morale’s fine,” Dixon said, asked about his team’s psyche following a week on the road that also included an 84-65 loss at Texas Tech. “We know we’ve lost on the road. It’s one loss. We’ve got to find a way to –“
The thought stopped. Immediately, it was replaced by the bright side.
“We’ll be healthy on Monday and Tuesday and be ready to go on Wednesday,” Dixon said.
Presumably, Alex Robinson will be healthy. He left Saturday’s game late, holding his wrist after a fall. When he exited, he had 16 points and six assists, which puts him three away from matching the school career record.
His return to health — everybody’s — would be nice. It might mean more points. Desmond Bane, who was held scoreless in the first half for the second straight game, missed two practices last week because of illness. That hurts all the more because the Frogs are down in manpower, left in the lurch by four players who opted to leave the team.
“We didn’t have good practices,” Dixon said. “He wasn’t there. You take him out, it doesn’t allow us to do much stuff.”
Points would have been useful Saturday night at the Ferrell Center. Baylor’s Makai Mason scored 40 points by making nine of 12 shots from 3-point range. At one point, he had 32 points to TCU’s 37.
As presently constituted, the Frogs don’t have the firepower to keep up with a career night from anybody.
“We got down, we extended ourselves out, that didn’t work,” Dixon said. “We tried different defenses that we’re not very good at. I think he got some more on that. We’re not good at certain things we tried tonight in desperation down 20, and he just kept going.”
A week earlier, TCU left for the road so confident in its defense. The Frogs had held Texas to 61 points and Florida to 51.
Where is that confidence level now?
“It hasn’t wavered at all,” Bane said. “We’re in the Big 12, the best conference in the country. There’s going to be ups and downs throughout the whole thing. We know who we are and we know what we have our identity in. We’ll get back to defending on Wednesday.”
Circle the calendar. Wednesday is a home game.
(Baylor University photo)
