TCU has surprised the so-called pundits, including this one, by starting the Big 12 basketball season at 3-0, the first time the Horned Frogs have started conference unbeaten after three games since the 1996-97 season.
Granted, the Horned Frogs (12-3) haven’t done it by beating No. 4 Baylor, No. 3 Kansas, No. 22 Texas Tech or No. 17 West Virginia, all four among the best teams in the conference. But anybody silly enough to get in on a prop of the under at five Big 12 victories probably ought to be working on the basic math skill of subtraction because there is going to be a debit from the personal bank account ledger.
Saturday’s 52-40 victory over Oklahoma State won’t be remembered as picture-perfect, but don’t expect any apologies for winning basketball games in a conference in which it’s hard to do that.
The Frogs were just a little better offensively (TCU shot 33.3% from the field, OSU was at 30%) against a Cowboys team that literally couldn’t throw it in Benbrook Lake, the pride and joy of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
In the past two games, the Cowboys (9-6 overall, 0-3 in the Big 12) are 3 for 39 from the 3-point line, including 2 for 19 on Saturday. You read that right, and I checked my math because, well, because I’m not very good at it. Leading scorer Lindy Waters registered a goose egg in points, the first time he hasn’t scored a point in a game in a long time, and that’s all the more significant — sort of … not really — when you consider the Norman, Oklahoma, native’s Kiowa name, Pao, means three.
TCU had something to do with that on Saturday. The Frogs were guilty, in this case in the best sense of the meaning, of workplace harassment on the perimeter.
“They’re a good team,” Oklahoma State coach Mike Boynton said. “I don’t know how much people are paying attention to them. They’ve got a lot of good parts and everybody plays within their roles.”
The sum of its parts is a good way to describe what TCU has done early in the Big 12. The total effectiveness of the group is greater when working in intimate interconnection rather than acting in isolation from one another.
You’d think would define every basketball team, but you’d be surprised.
Desmond Bane, the senior leader, had 20 points, nine rebounds and six assists on Saturday. Kevin Samuel was held scoreless, but remained a presence defensively. Offensively, RJ Nembhard was held down, but he was the key defender on Waters.
“I’m not really surprise. I knew what kind of team we had,” Bane said. “We’ve seen a little bit of everything, and I think we approached the Big 12 the right way.
“It’s great to be off to a 3-0 start. It’s still early, though. We’ve got to grow and keep getting better. We gotta keep our eyes up and keep working.”
One part making good contributions has been 6-foot-2 freshman guard Francisco Farabello.
He has logged a lot of minutes and in crucial moments down the stretch. He played 31 minutes off the bench on Saturday and was a plus-16. He has a great shooting stroke. No one ever doubted he could shoot the ball. That alone makes you an asset. He had 10 points against Oklahoma State, but he also had six rebounds, many of them long retrievals off Cowboys’ 3-point gongs.
His value, however, is in not making mistakes. And he’s a better defender than anybody — well, this writer — thought he’d be. Say what you want, but when TCU opened the season against Division III Southwestern, it was hard to imagine him guarding Big 12 guards, but, so far, he’s doing it.
“I thought Francisco gave us really good minutes,” TCU coach Jamie Dixon said. “We’re more and more comfortable with him on the floor. He’s mistake free, makes free throws, makes open shots. That’s a good combination.”
Farabello has turned into a key part of this sum-of-their-parts deal the Frogs have working.
The first real test for this Big 12 basketball engine is Tuesday at West Virginia in Morgantown.
(Photo: TCU Athletics)