TCU 59, USC 83- Frogs still not very good at basketball yet

Eleven games into the season and the frogs have a winning record, and there's certainly no shame in losing to USC on the road... even if we are just the third team to do that this season (and the only one with a winning record). TCU will wrap up its pre-christmas schedule on Thursday against Grambling State in a game that the Frogs should have a very good chance of winning (Grambling's next win of the season will be its first), so it's an appropriate time to take stock of just where the frogs are as we enter our final season in the Mountain West Conference. After the game tonight, I think it's safe to put away any bizarre fantasies that we may have had that this was a surprise NIT team or ready to spring some upsets on the big boys of the Mountain West- Tonight felt a whole lot like TCU basketball in general has felt for the past decade or so: not as close as it looked on the scoreboard (and it usually looked bad). The Frogs fouled early and often, going into the half with a large deficit and they were simply unable to build any kind of momentum at all in the second half- a made basket by the frogs would almost invariably be followed by a USC make or a TCU foul, a decided momentum killer and game slower in either case. How this team beat Virginia I have no idea, but there is definitely some talent out there for the frogs, it's just talent that doesn't seem to know how to play good team defense. I'm hoping that the frogs will continue to grow and find more wins to build confidence on in conference play, right now I have the frogs slated for a fourth-fifth place finish in the conference. The Frogs should have a chance at finishing about .500 for the year, which would be a big step forward from the dreadful conference record of last year and give coach Christian momentum headed into the Big 12 next year. Gotta get that defense going though, coach.