Prior to the 2014-15 season, there probably wasn’t very many people who could have realistically said they saw TCU starting the season at 9-0 with a very strong possibility to enter conference play still undefeated.
The Horned Frogs don’t feature very much dominant talent outside of senior point guard, Kyan Anderson, but when you couple a fairly easy schedule to this point with some well-rounded efforts across the board for TCU, you end up with their 9-0 record and some optimism for the rest of the season as Big 12 play inches nearer.
But is the Horned Frogs’ success a product of their schedule or are they a team to be reckoned with this season?
As on now, TCU is one of 10 remaining unbeaten teams in college basketball. In their nine games, they’ve outscored their opponents by a total of 176 points, which is good for 19.5 per game. That’s a pretty convincing win margin, but what’s not so convincing is their opponents combined record of 29-39.
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Of course, you can’t take credit away from TCU for beating the teams that they have on the schedule, nor can you take credit away from a roster that’s seeing tremendous balance with six guys scoring at least 7.8 points per game.
But there is something to be said about the quality of opponents TCU has played and with the Horned Frogs now looking ahead to their next four very manageable games before conference play, all we can do is wait until then to truly know if TCU is for real this season and not just a prisoner of their schedule.
For those who don’t remember, TCU slammed into an insurmountable wall that was the Big 12 last season and went 0-18 in conference play.
They did have three losses to their record by the time conference play began last season, so they should enter with much more confidence and possibly a 13-0 record when they face No. 22 West Virginia on Jan. 3, but this Big 12 Conference is again the best in the country and it’s going to be a battle for every win once the new year starts.
Just as their opponents to this point have a combined record of 29-39, the Big 12 – outside of TCU – has a collective record of 59-13, which, along with TCU makes for the best winning percentage by a conference is college basketball.
This should be alarming for a team that failed to register a single win in conference play last season, unless, of course, they are for real and will hold their own amongst the Big 12 powers.
But until TCU lives up to that feat and starts knocking off conference foes, it’s going to be hard to consider them a legitimate threat. Thus far, TCU has played maybe one team that will make the NCAA tournament.
They’ll see as many as eight teams in their own conference that could be dancing in March and half of the 10-team conference in currently ranked in the top 25.
There’s no question TCU is an improved ball club from last year, but that’s not saying much when they lost 22 games. The only possible way to have that many losses this season would be to lose every remaining game on their schedule.
But that doesn’t change the fact they’ve proven nothing against real competition, and until they do so, it’s not realistic to consider TCU a legitimate threat.