Rocked, Chalked and Jayhawked: Kansas 74, TCU 48

The game was over when the crowd roared at the opening tip.

The frogs are a team that has struggled on the road, and so expecting them to go into arguably the toughest place to play in the nation and come out with a win was a reach- their only hope would have been to take the crowd out of it early. An 8-0 Jayhawk run to start the game, punctuated by a thunderous dunk was not the way to take the crowd out of the game, and after a bad miss by Kyan Anderson failed to find net, backboard or rim the chant started. "Air ball, Air ball, Air ball." It was merciless, every time Anderson touched the ball in the first half the chant started- and Kyan absolutely melted under it. So much of TCU's performance in the first game against Kansas was keyed by Kyan's quick passing and well timed three pointer it was easy to tell that things weren't going to go TCU's way as Anderson went 0-6 in the first half. Anderson was not the only TCU starter to put up a goose egg though, as the entire TCU starting lineup didn't contribute a single point in the first half, and without the sterling contribution of Devonta Abron the Frogs would have scored exactly two points in the first half of play, compared to 38 for the Jayhawks. As it was, Devonta Abron had by far his best game as a frog and for much of the game looked like the best player on the floor. Abron went 7-11 for a career high 18 points, went an un-TCU like 4 of 6 from the free throw line and collected 9 rebounds while playing against Jordan Withey, the best center in the conference.

In the end, of the keys to the game I highlighted, TCU didn't accomplish a single one, as Kansas jumped on the Frogs early, Anderson melted under the pressure in the first half (He had a decent game the second half when the KU lead was thirty-ish and the pressure was off), Garlon Green didn't score a single point in the first half- which was in some part due to early foul trouble for Green. Even HawkeyedFavorite Adrick McKinney had an awful game, putting up just two points with three minutes left in the game- both free throws, so he didn't even make a bucket.

Games like this are tough to swallow for any team, but it's Kansas, it's at Kansas and TCU just isn't a very good team. Still, the Frogs fought back and outscored the Jayhawks in the second half, Devonta Abron was a revelation and TCU has one more winnable road game ahead: @ Texas Tech. Performances like today can make you want to throw in the towel on the Frogs, but when you do that you don't get to experience when something truly magical happens- like the first game against Kansas. I think it's worth it.

Go Frogs!