More physicality.
That’s what TCU men’s head basketball coach Jamie Dixon wants to see from the Horned Frogs after their 74-66 loss to No.24 Clemson in Toronto on Saturday knocked them from the ranks of the unbeatens.
“We got, hopefully, a lesson learned,” Dixon said as he met with the media on Tuesday. “I felt we weren’t playing well enough going in there [but] hoped that we would. We got what we deserved. They were the better team — more physical inside and on the glass. Our offense was stagnant, and we got what we deserved.”
Clemson used its advantage with its big men to win the game as the Tigers frontcourt combined for 42 of the team’s 74 points and 26 rebounds. While the overall team stats do not show a particularly large margin between the teams, Clemson clearly used its size and skill efficiently, which Dixon knew could be an issue.
“Somehow, I did not get us to understand how good Clemson was and understand their physicality, their offensive execution, and their patience on getting the ball inside, and we just seemed like we did not understand the mental toughness, the tempo, [and] the commitment they had to do those things,” he explained. “They consistently got the ball inside against us, which is what we spent all week trying to avoid.”
“They physically dominated us in the post,” Dixon later added. “Their team is different because they post up the four and the five, and that’s where we got most dominated. … Mainly, it was defending in the post and also rebounding-wise were the most obvious, glaring things.”
Now, the attention turns to a familiar opponent. TCU defeated Arizona State in the NCAA Tournament on a JaKobe Coles buzzer-beater last season and welcomes the Sun Devils to Fort Worth as the teams meet in an off-campus game at Dickies Arena on Saturday night.
“I thought it was great that we could schedule them and get them back here bases in such a great game last year in the NCAA Tournament on the big stage where everyone was watching,” Dixon told the media.
This season, Coles has become one of the Horned Frogs’ leaders, averaging 14.5 points and 5.1 rebounds per game. He did not have a great game against Clemson, scoring just six points with four rebounds before fouling out, but he is determined to help the team put that performance behind them and continue to improve as the season progresses.
“We started this week of practice having the mentality of not being lackadaisical, focusing on details, and basically just playing with heart,” Coles told the media. “We played some not-so-good teams at the beginning, so that [Clemson] was the first pretty good team we’ve played. We know where the intensity needs to be for that. We’ve been working all week on it, and we’ll be prepared for it on Saturday.”
TCU (7-1) and Arizona State (6-3) tip off at 9 p.m. CT on Saturday from Dickies Arena.
