Men's Basketball: Horned Frogs Host Kansas in a Top-25 Monday Night Matchup

Two of the Big 12’s best will face off on Monday evening as TCU men’s basketball welcomes the third ranked Kansas Jayhawks to town. The Frogs will be trying to complete the season sweep of the Jayhawks after it came out on top when these teams last played each other in January.

The Horned Frogs are coming off a convincing win over Oklahoma State, which was one of their most impressive performances of the season. TCU clobbered the Cowboys 100-75 in Mike Miles’ first game back from injury. The Frogs shot 68.4% from the field against a Cowboy defense that is one of the best in the country.

As you would expect, Jamie Dixon’s squad is completely different with Miles. The Frogs entered Saturday’s matchup with the Cowboys having lost four games in a row, all of which were without the star point guard. During that stretch, TCU averaged 65.25 points per game. In Mile’s first game back, the offense scored 100 points, which is the first time a TCU team scored triple digits in a conference game since 2002. In the two games before Miles’ injury, the Frogs averaged 81 points per game.

It was officially on Feb. 26, 2002! TCU beat Tulane 106-87 on the road in their second-to-last CUSA game that year. Billy Tubbs was different, man.
— Colin Post (@colinp_3) February 18, 2023

Kansas comes into Monday night’s game having won 7 of its last 8 games, including an impressive comeback victory over Baylor last Saturday. DFW-native Jalen Wilson is averaging 20.4 points per game and 8.3 rebounds per game, leading the Jayhawks in both categories. In TCU’s win over Kansas earlier in the season, Wilson kept the game a lot closer than it should have been. He dropped 30 points and grabbed 7 rebounds in the loss while no other Jayhawk scored over 10 points.

For the Frogs, it was an even scoring effort in the blowout victory in Lawrence . Shahada Wells led TCU with 17 points on 7-8 shooting. Miles scored 15 and Damian Baugh scored 11. No other Frog finished with double digits, but every other player that played had at least 4 points. As a team, TCU had shooting splits of 54.4/53.3/81.3. The defense held Kansas to 39/33.3/63.6 splits. It is easily the Frogs best win of the season.

The Frogs’ game plan should be simple… do exactly what you did earlier in the season in the 83-60 trouncing of the Jayhawks.

That will be harder to do than it sounds, but it is at least a possibility with TCU back at (semi) full-strength. Both Miles and Eddie Lampkin are healthy, but guard Rondel Walker will miss the game with an elbow injury. All other Frogs are expected to play.

TCU's Rondel Walker (elbow) is OUT for tonight's game against Kansas, per Jamie Dixon. Has missed the last few games. Averages 2.1 PPG.
— Jon Rothstein (@JonRothstein) February 20, 2023

In the team’s previous win over Kansas, TCU scored 19 fastbreak points, 39 bench points, 20 points off turnovers and 42 points in the paint. The defense held breakout freshman Gradey Dick (averaging 14/7 ppg) to just 8 points on 3/13 shooting and point guard DaJuan Harris (averaging 8.3 ppg) to 0 points on 0/4 shooting. The team also outrebounded by 6.

In my opinion, rebounding will be key. The Jayhawks outrebounded Baylor by 3 in their comeback win on Saturday, but overall, they are not a great rebounding team. They rank 137th in rebounding margin (TCU ranks 157th) with an average margin of +2. Due to Lampkin’s recent return, the Horned Frogs are now equipped with both of their top rebounders (Emanuel Miller and Lampkin) and have an opportunity to exploit a Kansas weakness. The tallest starter for Kansas is 6’8 while TCU’s tallest starter, Lampkin, is 6’11. The Frogs will have the size to dominate on the glass. In addition to winning the rebound battle overall, TCU must also prevent Kansas offensive rebounds. A big part of Jamie Dixon’s scoring attack is points in transition and the first step of all transition buckets is a defensive rebound.

TCU has an opportunity to do something that few teams have accomplished and that is sweep a Bill Self-led Kansas team. The Schollmaier will be packed and the environment will likely be the best of the season; this one certainly has Big 12 game of the year potential.

TCU and Kansas tip-off at 8 pm and you can watch the game on ESPN.

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