Frogs Abroad: TCU Basketball’s European Exhibition

Bienvenue à la saison 2023-24 du basketball des Grenouilles Cornu!

The TCU Horned Frogs Men’s Basketball team got to kick off their 2023-24 season with a preseason exhibition tour in Europe, showing off the new squad with games in Paris, France and London, England. College teams are allowed an exhibition tour abroad once every four years, which includes ten additional practices ahead of the season, in addition to the chance to see the sites of a foreign city and compete against some top foreign talent

TCU got started on Monday night in Paris with a match up against the Areus All-Star. The Frogs briefly trailed with five minutes remaining in the first half, but a second half surge propelled TCU to a 110-75 victory. Micah Peavy led all scorers with 16 points on 67% shooting from the field in just 14 minutes on the court. Forward Essam Mostafa, the transfer from Coastal Carolina, impressed in his first Horned Frog action with a perfect 5-5 performance from the field, while cleaning up six rebounds off the glass. Jameer Nelson Jr. was also a major contributor is his first game with the Frogs, dropping five assists to go with his 14 points and three rebounds.

The next afternoon, TCU would again take the court in Paris, this time matched up with Elite Basket Congo, and again the Frogs ran away with a dominant victory, with a final score of 124-78. Mostafa was again the star of the show, amassing 16 points on 70% shooting in just 13 minutes of game time. Nelson & Trey Tennyson got the start at the Guard positions and combined for 18 points on 8-9 shooting. The Frogs played stifling defense, forcing 25 total turnovers with 18 steals and eight blocked shots, including two swats from Kansas transfer Ernest Udeh Jr. Udeh and all the TCU bigs were monsters in the paint on both ends, outscoring the opposition an insane 92-40 Avery Anderson led the distribution from the guard position, dishing out seven of the Horned Frogs’ 34 assists.

After a travel day from Paris to London, TCU was set to take on Barking Abbey Academy on Thursday, emerging with a 20-point victory. The star of the show Thursday was Trey Tennyson, shooting the lights out, making all eight of his FG attempts including a perfect 5-5 from beyond the three-point arc, while adding six rebounds and five assists. JaKobe Coles also turned in a star performance, leading the Frogs with nine rebounds while pouring in 17 points. The Frogs once again owned the paint on the offensive end, scoring 74 points down low.

Friday saw the Horned Frogs wrap up the four-game Euro Trip versus the Surrey Scorchers. The Scorchers held a lead with just over two minutes before halftime, but the Frogs went into the break with a six-point advantage. However TCU outscored Surrey 32-12 in the 3rd quarter to sprint ahead to a big advantage, eventually closing with a 101-61 final score to remain undefeated for the preseason exhibition tour. TCU had four players score in double digits, led by Ernest Udeh’s 15 points, followed by Mostafa, Nelson, and Peavy.

Across the four games in Europe, the Horned Frogs shot 54.5% from the field, but just 29.6% on three-pointers and 63% on free throws. Last season, the Frogs ranked sub-300 nationally from long range (31%) and sub-250 from the charity stripe (70%), both issues that appear to have continued during these overseas exhibition contests and will look to be improved upon when as the regular season approaches.

The Frogs will have one more exhibition prior to the regular season, on October 30th vs. Texas Wesleyan back home at Schollmaier Arena. TCU begins its journey to a third consecutive NCAA Tournament with the regular season opener in Fort Worth on Monday November 6th vs. the Southern University Jaguars.