Drew’s Desk: TCU -men Basketball Winning Third Right In Waco

The last seven days have been very eventful for TCU-men’s basketball when the frogs lost at home to a medium-sized Utah team Wednesday with a score of 73-65 before walking the road Sunday and beating number 25-ranked Baylor of a score on 74-71. The frogs now sit at 10-7 on the season and 3-3 in the BIG 12. The composition of these two games highlighted the frustrations of a young team and the talent and the potential on the guard schedule.

The meaning of Ernest UDEH

When TCU replaced almost all their rotation from last season, the frogs needed Ernest UDEH to take a step forward and become one of the better centers at the conference. Fortunately, for Jamie Dixon and TCU, Udeh did just that, especially on the defensive end of the floor. The engine and athletics were always there with Udh, but last season he could be lost in rotations and fight to recover from her husband after defending a ball screen. These mental lapses are now scarce as Udh has done a good job of helping with ball screens, timing his recovery back to her husband and cutting down on mistakes.

UDEH average just over two violations per Match while playing over 27 minutes per Battle, an impressive rate for an aggressive shot blocker. UDEH Average also more points, rebounds, assists, blocks and stealing than he did last season. He was instrumental in leading the comeback against Baylor and ending with 16 points, 15 rebounds and four blocks while walking 6-8 from the Free Castle Line. Udh’s development has been huge for the frogs.

Off-ball movement from Brendan Wenzel

TCU has struggled at times this season to generate a good look in Halfcourt overgrowth, partly due to a lack of primary ball handling after the injury to Frankie Collins. An underrated adaptation that Jamie Dixon has done to fight this was to prepare more sets of acting to create the look for Brendan Wenzel. Wenzel is not a primary ball trader who typically creates his own shot from Pick and Roll, but Wenzel moves well with the ball and is a deadly three-point shooter. Wenzel shoots 45% from three in 4.6 trials per year. Match this season and scored in double digits in both last two games from the bench with 12 points against Utah and 17 points against Baylor.

Teams have started to close harder on Wenzel to try to drive him out of the three -point line, and Wenzel has shown a solid ability to attack the curve from the catch when a defender closes too hard. Credit to Dixon and Coaching staff to find a way to generate more semi -court violation despite the limitations due to injury.

Offensive slurv

Each of the matches last week from the frogs had elements of creepy violation that need to be fastened. In the home game against Utah, TCU 10 went for 21 from the free -throwing line as a team. It is a free throwing percentage of 47.6. The frogs missed 11 free throw in a game they lost by eight points. In short, if TCU makes their free kick, they win the game and the conversation around the team would be very different. In the game against Baylor, free throwing shooting was much improved as TCU knocked 76.5 percent of their trials from the strip.

Unfortunately, another problem pop up when TCU turned the ball over 17 times against the bears. This number looks even worse in the context of TCU having only 14 assists as a team. The frogs are a young team, but to have uniform opportunities to win in the BIG 12, TCU has to limit spilled possessions that move on.

Beat the bears

With the victory in Waco on Sunday, the frogs have now won three straight road battles against the bears on three clutch shots to take late leads. Bears have a great program and consistently has solid fan support, especially when faced with a big-time rival that makes winning three right in Waco into an even more impressive feature from Jamie Dixon.

The highlight of the week

Wenzel for the victory!

Looking ahead

The frogs take the number nine ranked Kansas Jayhawks In Fort Worth at. 18.00 on Wednesday and travels to Orlando to play UCF at. 15.00 Saturday.