Men's Hoops Final: TCU 61 Southern Utah 52

[GuardianFrog]

Sorry guys, parent teacher conference, plus having to put my three year old down with my wife at work meant I had to watch this one on a delay.

Stats

Scoring
Anderson 21
Abron 17 (Career high)
McKinney 7
Green 7
Montigel 5
Ray 2
Hill 2

FG 49% 3pt 33% FT 71%

Frogs gave SUU enough second chance rebounds to keep it a little too close for comfort much of the game before the Frogs pulled away late.

SUU won the rebounding battle 29-28, but the Frogs do a better job taking care of the basketball winning the turnover battle 14-12.

For the second game in a row Kyan Anderson has proved to be the offensive spark plug on this team going 6-9 from the floor and hitting 8-9 free throws. He is averaging 28 ppg in his last two outings after averaging 6.5 points in the previous 4 games.

Aside from Anderson's offensive explosion, the other positive to draw from this game was the center position where Devonta Abron scored a career high 17 points on 6-9 shooting and going 5-6 from the line. When Abron had to sit due to some foul trouble, McKinney again filled in admirably contributing 7 points and 7 rebounds and demonstrating some nice moves in the post.

Positions 2,3,4 did not have a good night. Ray had more offensive fouls than points, Green took himself out of a good chunk of the game with fouls, and Crossland missed all three of the shots he took. Butler was out to night with an injury, and should be back for the Houston game. His presence was missed as his absence forces TJ to have to use some funky lineups out there.

 

[frogbyproxy]

Sorry guys, parent teacher conference, plus having to put my three year old down with my wife at work meant I had to watch this one on a delay.

Stats

Scoring
Anderson 21
Abron 17 (Career high)
McKinney 7
Green 7
Montigel 5
Ray 2
Hill 2

FG 49% 3pt 33% FT 71%

Frogs gave SUU enough second chance rebounds to keep it a little too close for comfort much of the game before the Frogs pulled away late.

SUU won the rebounding battle 29-28, but the Frogs do a better job taking care of the basketball winning the turnover battle 14-12.

For the second game in a row Kyan Anderson has proved to be the offensive spark plug on this team going 6-9 from the floor and hitting 8-9 free throws. He is averaging 28 ppg in his last two outings after averaging 6.5 points in the previous 4 games.

Aside from Anderson's offensive explosion, the other positive to draw from this game was the center position where Devonta Abron scored a career high 17 points on 6-9 shooting and going 5-6 from the line. When Abron had to sit due to some foul trouble, McKinney again filled in admirably contributing 7 points and 7 rebounds and demonstrating some nice moves in the post.

Positions 2,3,4 did not have a good night. Ray had more offensive fouls than points, Green took himself out of a good chunk of the game with fouls, and Crossland missed all three of the shots he took. Butler was out to night with an injury, and should be back for the Houston game. His presence was missed as his absence forces TJ to have to use some funky lineups out there.

Sorry guardian! I posted after you did so hope they can delete or combine with yours! I guess I type a little slower! :tongue:

 

[rifram09]

How are we in comparison to this time last year?

 

[IamFroglash88]

How are we in comparison to this time last year?

I would wait a year before I would ask that question. It's going to be a long season, but we have some horses coming in next year. The W's are going to be hard to come by, but I already see players starting to develop. Abron is getting more and more comfortable out there.

 

[rifram09]

I would wait a year before I would ask that question. It's going to be a long season, but we have some horses coming in next year. The W's are going to be hard to come by, but I already see players starting to develop. Abron is getting more and more comfortable out there.

That's sort of what I figured. :/ What should be realistic best case scenario expectation for next year? Post season play of some sort?

I'm going to have to rely on you guys for good bball analysis. A little bball knowledge deficient.

 

[GuardianFrog]

I wish I could have some big positive answer for next year, but even I want to be cautious about being too rosy. Desipite what should be a huge talent injection, Shepherd, Parrish and Williams will be true freshmen adjusting to the college game. There is also the question of Amric Fields knee. If he can come back 100% that would obviously go a long way towards providing the team with some much needed upperclassman leadership and offense. The other thing to consider is that we still have two open spots in this class and we could really use some bolstering at the 3 and 4 spots with the departures of Green, Crossland, and Butler. If TJ can land a 3 like Juco SF Elgin Cook, who is proving to be a 20 ppg Juco scorer, and maybe a transfer we are looking at the potential for a vastly improved roster for the 2013-2014 season.

TJ doesn't sugarcoat much of anything, so when he says he feels good about the future of the program I tend to believe him.

 

[jake102]

I also read from Alex Apple that Abron came back out after the game and took 200-300 shots... hard worker.

 

[Portland Frog]

I have noticed the team as a whole appears to be shooting free throws a lot better the last couple of games compared to earlier in the season. Is this the case or is it my imagination? I didn't look at the team % last night, but I bet it was decent.

 

[GuardianFrog]

Not your imagination Portland, especially Abron and McKinney. Anderson is always pretty solid at the line, but has been stellar the last two games.

 

[full house frog]

This team will struggle to score because they're lacking scoring threats. If Anderson, Abron and Green aren't scoring then the team is always subject to struggling.

We're fine and will be better next year.

 

[mark32]

I keep hearing about a possible transfer, but no one has mentioned any names? Is there someone out there that we are looking at or is it just speculation. The Cook kid would be a nice pickup. He can fill it up! For those who do not know who Guardian and I are talking about, Cook is a 6'6 forward from Northwest Fla. St. Junior College. Thus far, he is averaging nearly 20 points, 6 rebounds, 2 assists, and over a block a game. He is shooting over 65% from the floor for a team that has not lost a game yet. He will remind you of Crossland, but with a much more offense to his game.

 

[geno]

I've been at all our home games, and while we've won, what?, all but one of them (SMU), this is a hard team to watch, and a hard style of basketball to watch. And has any coach ever been unluckier than Trent, to lose what were probably his two best players before the first two weeks of the season were over? It's one thing to recognize that we are getting better, but another to remember that it won't be Southern Utah after the new year comes. Texas Tech January 5 and then the rest of the Big 12. But we're where we want to b e, and I have every confidence in TJ to give us a competitive team next season.

 

[full house frog]

If Cook can play then I'm all for signing him. My preference is to not sign JuCo's unless they immediately are your first or second best player. I still think we need to get more bigs ie. PF or C but haven't heard of anybody yet.

 

[GuardianFrog]

I think that TJ would rather not sign Jucos either, but now that the November signings have mostly gone off the board that high school talent pool is significantly shrunk. Plus you have to look at your roster and look at class distribution. If you fill up the class with 5 true freshmen and add that to the three freshmen signed last year it makes for a very young roster.

 

[love me some Frogs]

6-2 is smoke and mirrors. I'm not trying to flame here, but I think this is our worst team yet in my TCU fan era (since 1997). We have no one that can create their own shot (which is nothing new since Santee and Tuffy were really the only guys that could since Tubbs left). When conference play starts, it's going to get ugly. We are undersized (as always) and we don't have anyone that is automatic when wide open from deep. I think getting an extra year from Fields (albeit in an unfortunate way) will benefit the program because this will be a lost year (add it to the list). I don't see us getting much past 10 wins.

 

[RandomGuy]

This team is so much better coached than it has been in a loooooong time. Yes it's going to get ugly in the Big 12, but if you watch the team play, it should be obvious that this thing is at least pointed in the right direction. Need to upgrade talent (thank you Captain Obvious), and get much better play (and buy in) from the point position.

 

[jake102]

and get much better play (and buy in) from the point position.

Isn't Kyan by far the best player on the team right now?

 

[jake102]

Tuffy were really the only guys that could since Tubbs left).

I know everyone hated him and he was toxic, but I enjoyed the hell out of watching him play. He could score.

 

[FeistyFrog]

6-2 is smoke and mirrors. I'm not trying to flame here, but I think this is our worst team yet in my TCU fan era (since 1997). We have no one that can create their own shot (which is nothing new since Santee and Tuffy were really the only guys that could since Tubbs left). When conference play starts, it's going to get ugly. We are undersized (as always) and we don't have anyone that is automatic when wide open from deep. I think getting an extra year from Fields (albeit in an unfortunate way) will benefit the program because this will be a lost year (add it to the list). I don't see us getting much past 10 wins.

Certainly this is not an exciting team to watch right now and certainly the 6-2 record includes some weak opponents and a "stolen" win or two. But this is hardly the worst team in the last 15 years or so.

Bottom line is we have someone in charge of the team who is not going to get out-coached. That may not matter too much this season or even possibly next but as he builds this program that will make a huge difference. I won't say TCU will win the conference any time soon, but CTJ will get us where we will be in position for tournament spots and getting one or two extra wins due to his coaching could mean a huge difference in that spot.

Expectations are realistic now and more importantly they are there and doable.

 

[love me some Frogs]

I think it's going to end up being the worst, considering Wyo and AF aren't walking thru that door. Which is really saying something because this was an awful, awful team: http://tcureview.com/texas-christian-basketball/roster/2005-2006

Certainly CTJ is a coaching upgrade of CND. My coach at the YMCA when I was 10 would be an upgrade over him. Fair comparison since they both gave their kids way too much clock.