One step forward and two steps back: Texas 60, TCU 43

Thank goodness this was on the Longhorn Network where nobody could see it, but still the Frogs went from having a decent game- staying within four points of the horns and occasionally taking the lead in the early goings. Then at about the six minute to go mark the Horns created separation from their purple guests and took a 12 point lead into the half. The lead was almost immediately popped out to 19 points as the Horns came out of the half on fire, and even if Texas hadn't scored the rest of the game, it very well may have taken the frogs more than a half to score 19 points to even things up. The reason for this awful offensive performance? Most teams in the Big 12 have been content to let the frogs take long twos and other bad shots because we're pretty awful at shooting, and so they can rebound and get a chance to run up a good number of points.

Texas took it one step further though, with the logic of "What if they didn't even get to take bad shots?" leading the horns to press and trap throughout the game, forcing TCU into 12 turnovers. Combine that with your general TCU shooting ineptitude (.327 for the game), add it with a worse than usual 3 point shooting performance (.154) and usual crappy free throw shooting (.467: Below .500 arrrrrgh) and you get a butt kicking. Special shoutout to HawkeyedFavorite Adrick McKinney who had a good game from everywhere but the line, but ended up getting swamped in the end of the game for the simple reason that the horns knew the ball was going to him. Connel Crossland also had a great game, going 3-4 and collecting 12 rebounds, but that was balanced out by another abysmal combined performance from Kyan Anderson and Garlon Green.

Anderson put up 11 shots, making two of them, many of them long twos which he had no business taking, and generally not being aggressive (Zero free throw attempts is a major no-no, even as bad as this team is at making them), while Green played sloppy, collected two early fouls and had to sit for much of the first half. Then on coming back into the game he immediately sat back down with his third, which was when Texas expanded their lead- although he did make the only 3s of the game for the Frogs his absence for much of the game was felt much more keenly than his presence in the rest of the game.

What does this mean for the Frogs? In my opinion the Frogs have two legitimate chances to win their first Big 12 game: Texas at home on February 19th and @ Texas Tech on March 2nd. In the meantime, pain is ahead for the Frogs as Kansas comes to Fort Worth this week, coming off of a loss to Oklahoma State- the Jayhawks will absolutely be out for blood, and I anticipate TCU's worst loss of the season coming. Things may get better in the future, but man are we awful now. Baseball and lots of good football recruits, please!

Go Frogs.