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TCU News: Signing Day brings basketball, football talent to TCU

Here are your morning links!

Basketball:

TCU’s signing day recap: Men’s hoops reloads, baseball among nation’s best | The Star-Telegram

It’s a solid group for basketball and baseball, a couple programs that have been steadily moving up the rankings over the last couple of years.

Judging by recruiting rankings, TCU athletics appears to be in good shape going forward.

Wednesday marked the start of the early signing period for all sports other than football for the 2019 classes. And, as expected, TCU didn’t disappoint.

The men’s basketball program has the nation’s 16th best incoming class, according to 247 Sports, and made two of its three commits made it official. Four-star guard Francisco Farabello and four-star forward Diante Smith each signed their letters of intent. Four-star guard P.J. Fuller is the only player who hadn’t for now, but has until Nov. 21.

Choctaw’s Smith signs with TCU | NWF Daily News

Fans should be really excited about this kid.

“Diante’s worked extremely hard in the classroom. He didn’t know how important it was in the very beginning when he was a freshman, but he grind with the books, with the tutoring, with the test prep, and he gets after it.

Smith had previously given a verbal commitment to Alabama in July, but he reopened his recruitment 20 days after making the announcement, citing discussions within his family. The decision caused several teams to sour on him, Smith said Wednesday.

TCU didn’t.

“When I decommitted from Alabama, a lot of schools didn’t recruit me as much as they did before I committed (to Alabama),” Smith said. “I felt like TCU recruited me the hardest.

“I’ve always been taught if something’s meant to be, then it’s meant to be, and they kept recruiting me as hard as they did before I committed. I felt like that’s why I chose them because of their commitment to me.”

Football:

Here’s why you shouldn’t expect TCU’s Gary Patterson to make significant staff changes | The Star-Telegram

Patterson will likely stay loyal.

Patterson will review all aspects of his program on how it can improve this offseason, but a complete overhaul of the staff doesn’t sound like the solution.

“How did I handle things? How did we practice? How did I handle situations?” Patterson said. “If you need to be better at whatever decision that was, then change it. Fortunately for me, for us, we’re having this conversation cause it doesn’t happen very often.”

That seems to be the storyline for the entire 2018 season for TCU. From the unusually high number of injuries to blowing four halftime leads, this isn’t a typical season for Patterson and the Frogs.

Injuries have forced TCU to use 29 freshman (redshirt and true) this season compared to just 12 combined last season. Patterson has adjusted practices, limiting the number of periods to try and ensure the available players are healthy and ready to go on Saturdays.