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Football:
What could help TCU against OU this time? Maybe more than X’s and O’s | The Star-Telegram
The Frogs strongly feel they gave a less than 100% effort in round one. They’ll need that, and more, to secure a W today.
“The only explanation is lack of focus,” left tackle Joseph Noteboom said this week as the Frogs prepared for Saturday. “We come out in the second halves saying, ‘Oh, crap, we’re losing.’ If we go in there starting with that feeling that this is our second chance, we’re one of the best teams in the country.”
Linebacker Sammy Douglas said the Frogs don’t believe they put their best foot forward on Nov. 11.
“I feel like we didn’t have a lot of attention to detail like we were supposed to be doing, and actually we weren’t doing what we were supposed to be doing, and we need to do that more. And we might come up with a victory.”
Spitballin…Oklahoma Vs. TCU Round 2…Big XII Championship Edition | The Football Brainiacs
With the way Rodney Anderson dominated in round one, Mark Andrews wasn’t needed much. But he could play a big role today.
Who has the biggest game? I expect the Sooners to try to run the football, but I also think that Flowers, Andrews and Calcaterra, the H-Back/Tight End group to have big games. If they sell out to cover the backs and limit the run game, the play action game will be big. I don’t think TCU can cover the Sooners pass catching targets if Baker has protection, and I believe he will.
I also expect Lamb & Brown to have big games. The play action will be there, because I really don’t think Patterson will give up the run game two games in a row.
I don’t expect this to be easy. Don’t be shocked if it’s a low scoring affair or even if TCU is ahead early in this game. Bottom line is that football is an emotional game, and TCU got embarrassed in Norman. I would bet on them coming out playing hard, fast and physical.
TCU’s defense gets chance to stop OU short of College Football Playoff | Austin-American Statesman
The veteran players on the defense have to come up big.
TCU’s Gary Patterson, a defensive-minded square peg of a coach in a league of offensive creativity, said there’s really no secret to the Horned Frogs’ second-half success. It’s about fresh players.
“I think they just settle down,” Patterson said. “You change up a couple of calls, but you kind of get them on the same page. I think one of the things that’s happened to us is that we’ve been able to rotate, especially up front, a lot of players, so what happens in the second half, we’re not worn out. Last year, we’re playing Oklahoma State and Kansas State and even Georgia — at halftime really close ballgames — and the second half, at least by the fourth quarter, we just didn’t have enough people left.
“As I’ve always said, older teams play better. They play a little bit differently than the confidence level of the next guy up.”
Value of TCU in the Top 10? ‘It’s priceless. It’s immeasurable.’ | The Star-Telegram
The Rose Bowl changed everything. And it hasn’t stopped changing, since.
Before TCU’s Rose Bowl championship season in 2010, the school was receiving 6,000 applicants for about 1,600 spots, Del Conte said.
“Now we’re well over 23,000 for 1,600 spots,” he said. “There are so many people now talking about TCU. There is a direct correlation between the success of our football program on the national stage and a variety of areas. One is applicants. Two is the amount of people wanting to give back. I tell everyone, a rising tide floats all boats.”
Additionally, California makes up the second-largest percentage of students at TCU after Texas, in large part because of the Rose Bowl championship, Del Conte has said. And it is one reason TCU has scheduled football games in the Golden State in 2020 at Cal and 2024 at Stanford.
Basketball:
#23 TCU look to extend nation’s longest winning streak to 13 vs. Yale | Fox Sports
With six returners, it’s easy to think of the Frogs as a veteran team. But Jamie Dixon wants to remind you that they’re a young group - albeit one that keeps winning.
“We’re a really young team. We have six returning guys that played. We’ve got to finish games better and play 40 minutes of great basketball — which is an impossibility, but we have to sustain.”
Through games of Nov. 30, Yale was 17th nationally in assists per game (19.1) and seventh in total 3-pointers made (86 of 243. 35.4 percent).
While the Bulldogs will present some problems for TCU’s defense, those challenges aren’t what they could be. Yale has been playing without talented sophomore forward Jordan Bruner (out for season with a meniscus injury) and guard Makai Mason, a former first-team All-Ivy performer who missed last season because of injury and is still recovering from a preseason stress fracture in his left foot. He likely is out until mid-January.