TCU Men's Basketball Preview: Oklahoma
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Take a look around. Pat yourself on the back. It's March. We have finally made it to March.
The TCU Horned Frogs will get their first postseason action at 2 p.m. Wednesday in Kansas City when they will take on the Oklahoma Sooners. TCU finished its season with a 20-11 record, 9-9 in the Big 12, and is coming into the tournament having lost three of its last four. Oklahoma also finished 20-11 on the season but was slightly worse than the Frogs were in Big 12 play, finishing 8-10 in the conference. The Sooners are also entering Wednesday's matchup having lost three of its final four games.
TCU's cold stretch to end the season did not do any favors for the team's NCAA Tournament positioning, but ESPN's most recent NCAA Bracketology has the Horned Frogs as a 10 seed. I think they are in regardless, but a win over Oklahoma would solidify their spot in the bracket. Here's what Jamie Dixon's group needs to do to get the win.
Find Emanuel Miller
Miller earned All-Big 12 Second Team honors this week, and there is a reason for that. He is TCU's best player. The forward has scored in double digits in every single conference game this season (he's the only player in the Big 12 to do so), and you may recall that when Oklahoma and TCU matched up earlier in the regular season, Miller dominated, scoring 27 points and grabbing nine rebounds.
In March, you need to have a guy that can take over and get a bucket for your team at any point in the game. Miller is capable of being that guy for the Frogs, as we have seen it before, but it has been inconsistent. Miller has March experience, so the senior forward should be comfortable. Get him the ball and let him work and things get a lot tougher for Oklahoma.
Limit Javion McCollum
McCollum is the guy for the Sooners. The junior guard is averaging 13.3 points per game for Oklahoma, and he scored 17 points against TCU back in January. If you look at his game logs, you will see that McCollum's point outputs are inconsistent. Last game, he scored five points, but before that he scored at least 12 points in three of the previous four games. He is not an excellent three-point shooter, but he takes a lot of them and will hurt you if you let him.
I expect one of Jameer Nelson Jr. or Micah Peavy to be tasked with guarding the skilled scorer, and both of those dudes are capable of slowing him down. The Sooners don't have a ton of reliable scoring outside of McCollum, so if TCU's defense can limit him, it's a good thing.
Execute in the Half Court
Half court offense has been an Achilles heel for TCU all season. Sometimes, the half court offense looks great, and sometimes, it looks truly terrible. The Horned Frogs have shown a tendency to rely on their fast-break offense a little bit too much, and in some games, you just don't get chances in the fast break, so your half court offense has to be good.
TCU only scored 14 half-court points in its first meeting with Oklahoma. That is a decent amount, but the team put up 80 points, so the bulk of scoring had to come elsewhere. The Sooners have a pretty solid defense and over the last few games, teams have laid out a blueprint on how to slow TCU's offense down. Oklahoma is going to want to make the Frogs play slow and the Frogs are going to have to be OK with that.
How to Watch, Listen, and Stream: Oklahoma vs. TCU
- Tipoff - 2 p.m. CT, Wednesday, March 13
- Television - Big 12 Now on ESPN+ with Rich Hollenberg and Chris Spatolo
- Radio - AM 570 KLIF with Brian Estridge and Colin Boddicker (also available on Sirius XM Channel 388, HFTV, TuneIn, and Varsity)
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