Can't Close the Gap- KU 81, TCU 72

The formula for a road win (and an upset) is consistent across all levels of basketball.  Keep it close, slow the game down whenever you can, make your free throws and just stay within striking distance so you can steal the game late.  TCU followed the script pretty well to the letter tonight, but sometimes it's just not enough to be close at the end- you have to get stops, and there just weren't enough of them from the Frogs tonight.  Credit absolutely must be given to KU's Devonte' Graham who simply couldn't miss as he went 7-7 and ended several Frog runs with a marvelous play, as well as to Perry Ellis, who went 9-10 and gave every indication that he'll grow up to be my least favorite player in the world if he plays anywhere but Dallas in the future.  The Frogs tried several defensive looks and were by and large quite effective on the defensive end for everyone bar those two, but sometimes a player just takes over a game and Graham did that tonight.  On the TCU side, Trey Zeigler did a tremendous job of keeping the Frogs in it, driving hard and collecting fouls (though he wasn't great at the line tonight, just 6-10) and scoring 20 points, but off nights from Kyan Anderson and Amric Fields, who both went 4-14 (Kyan was even missing his bread and butter layups) meant it was going to be tough for the Frogs to stay in it- though somehow they did.

The biggest indicator of how this team has grown, however, is that they didn't wilt in the stretch, even when things started going KU's way and a 4 point lead stretched to 10, the Frogs fought and answered back to cut it back to four twice, and didn't show a bit of fear in playing in one of college basketball's most feared arenas.  It didn't happen this year, but I think before too long a TCU team is going to be celebrating in Allen Fieldhouse, and on that day a whole lot will change.

Go Frogs.