Preview: South Dakota
11/14/2017 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Nov. 14, 2017
(2-0)
(2-0)
TwitterFORT WORTH, Texas – After a hot shooting night on Monday, the TCU men's basketball team (2-0) will have a quick turnaround when it hosts South Dakota (2-0) Wednesday at 8 p.m.
The Horned Frogs are looking for their eighth consecutive win dating back to last season when they won five-straight games on the way to the NIT championship.
Wednesday's game will be broadcast on FOX Sports Southwest and streamed online at Fox SportsGo.com. The game can be heard on 88.7 FM KTCU and streamed online through FrogVision and the TuneIn Radio app.
Notes
- TCU has won its last six games with the starting lineup of Alex Robinson, Desmond Bane, Kenrich Williams, JD Miller and Vladimir Brodziansky. Four of those games were the final four of last season and all occurred in the NIT.
- Vladimir Brodziansky is 49 blocks away from James Penny's school-record of 171 from 1995-98. Brodziansky currently ranks fifth in blocked shots with 122.
- TCU is receiving votes in the preseason top 25 poll. The Frogs earned 43 points in the AP Poll, which would be ranked 29th, and 32 points in the USA Today Coaches Poll, which would be ranked 30th.
- TCU returns 79 percent of its scoring and 79 percent of its rebounding from last season. v- One season after winning its first postseason tournament, TCU will try to make the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1998. Since 1985, 58 percent of the teams that won the NIT made the NCAA Tournament the following season.
About South Dakota
- South Dakota has an enrollment of 10,216, similar to TCU (10,394), and is located in Vermillion, S.D.
- The Coyotes went 22-12 overall last season and went 12-4 in conference to win the Summit League.
- South Dakota returns 11 letterwinners, including three starters from last season's team that fell at Iowa in the first round of the NIT. TCU went on to beat Iowa in the second round of the NIT, 94-92 in overtime.
- The Coyotes were picked to finish second in the Summit League this season, behind South Dakota State.
- South Dakota is coming off an 88-79 win at Bowling Green on Monday. Junior guard Matt Mooney scored 26 points and had seven assists and five rebounds to lead the Coyotes. He leads the team in scoring with 19.5 points per game.
About the Series
- This is the first meeting between TCU and South Dakota.
- TCU is 2-4 all-time against current members of the Summit League.
Hot Shooting Frogs
TCU used a hot shooting night to route Tennessee Tech, 100-63 on Monday.
- The Frogs shot 62.5 percent from the field, the ninth best in school history and the best since Dec. 27, 1998 when they shot 65.9 percent against Oklahoma.
- TCU was 16-of-29 from 3-point range, the most made threes since March 13, 2008. On that date, TCU had 17 3-pointers against UNLV to match the school record set against Grambling State on Dec. 30. The 16 made threes was tied for the third-most in school history.
Desmond Bane Goes Off
Sophomore guard Desmond Bane exploded with a career-high 24 points in just 25 minutes of play against Tennessee Tech on Nov. 13. He matched his previous career-high of 19 (vs. Alabama St., Nov. 14, 2016), in the first half. Bane was 6-of 10 from 3-point range, a career high for made threes. It was the most 3-pointers in a game by a TCU player since Hank Thorns hit eight threes against UNLV on Feb. 14, 2012.
They're Back
TCU returns its top six scorers from last season, including all five starters. Altogether, the Frogs return 79 percent of their scoring and 79 percent of their rebounding from last year. Kenrich Williams is the Big 12 Conference's top returning rebounder after averaging 9.7 per game last season. Vladimir Brodziansky's 14.1 points per game is the third-most of a returning player in the conference.
Hot in November
TCU won eight of its final nine games last season. The Frogs hope to continue the momentum in November like they have in the past. Over the last three years, the Frogs have gone 19-2 in the month of November and was a perfect 7-0 last season as they won their first eight games of the season.
Coaching with Experience
This season, Jamie Dixon will be the head coach of a team that returns all five starters for the first time in his 15-year career. In 2010-11, Dixon's Pittsburgh team returned four starters from the 2009-10 season. The 2011 team went 28-6, won the Big East Conference and earned a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.
