TopFrog
Lifelong Frog
Peter Keating
The profile is also highly effective if a team can build that many possessions and excel at perimeter defense as a lower seed—like TCU in 2022, when the ninth-seeded Horned Frogs blew out eighth-seeded Seton Hall.
After the Horned Frogs made it to the second round last year, they added guard Jameer Nelson to a group already heavy with seniors, and he has nabbed steals on 4.5% of opponent possessions, the 15th-best rate in the country.
TCU’s 21-12 record this year looks a couple of games worse than it should, thanks to five losses by 2 points or fewer or in overtime. The Horned Frogs appear fast because they push the ball up the court, but that’s deceptive: They hold opponents to an average possession length of 18.1 seconds, which ranks 309th in the NCAA. They don’t shoot many threes but are more than 4 percentage points better at making them (35.6%) than in 2023. They beat Houston in January.
Whether it’s in the first or second round, what overdog should feel safe against them?
theathletic.com
TCU could be a sneakily scary team
Last year, TCU belonged to a cluster of teams called “Gambling Giants,” which work to seize buckets of turnovers and clamp down on opponents’ long-range shooting while also hitting the offensive boards. History says teams with that combination of traits — Houston and Baylor are other recent examples — do very well as overdogs in the tournament’s opening rounds. Indeed, the Horned Frogs forced more turnovers, grabbed more offensive rebounds and took 10 more shots than Arizona State when beating the Sun Devils in the first round last year.The profile is also highly effective if a team can build that many possessions and excel at perimeter defense as a lower seed—like TCU in 2022, when the ninth-seeded Horned Frogs blew out eighth-seeded Seton Hall.
After the Horned Frogs made it to the second round last year, they added guard Jameer Nelson to a group already heavy with seniors, and he has nabbed steals on 4.5% of opponent possessions, the 15th-best rate in the country.
TCU’s 21-12 record this year looks a couple of games worse than it should, thanks to five losses by 2 points or fewer or in overtime. The Horned Frogs appear fast because they push the ball up the court, but that’s deceptive: They hold opponents to an average possession length of 18.1 seconds, which ranks 309th in the NCAA. They don’t shoot many threes but are more than 4 percentage points better at making them (35.6%) than in 2023. They beat Houston in January.
Whether it’s in the first or second round, what overdog should feel safe against them?
TCU could be a sneakily scary team
Last year, TCU belonged to a cluster of teams called “Gambling Giants,” which work to seize buckets of turnovers and clamp down on opponents’ long-range shooting while also hitting the offensive boards. History says teams with that combination of traits — Houston and Baylor are other recent...
theathletic.com
