Frogs Ready for Orange
3/15/2018 12:00:00 AM | Men's Basketball
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DETROIT, Mich. -- With a first-round matchup with 11-seeded Syracuse looming, the No. 6 seeded TCU Horned Frogs spoke to the media and held an open practice Thursday at Little Caesars Arena.
All-Big 12 Conference honorees Vladimir Brodziansky and Kenrich Williams answered questions from the media, as did Ahmed Hamdy, the only TCU player with experience in the NCAA Tournament.
"I talk to them all the time," said Hamdy, who played in three NCAA games during his two seasons at VCU before transferring to TCU. "I said it's the most fun part of the season. I told them, `we need to make it to the NCAA Tournament, because they're a lot of fun.'"
While most TCU players are in their first NCAA Tournament, head coach Jamie Dixon will make his 12th appearance when the Frogs take the court Friday at 8:40 p.m. CT. Dixon is very familiar with the Orange. The second-year TCU head coach went 15-6 against Syracuse in his 13 seasons at Pittsburgh.
"Obviously, the Pittsburgh/Syracuse matchup was a rivalry and historic games," said Dixon. "And so many great matchups and so many, over such a long period of time."
Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim also remembers the classic Big East and ACC games and notices the difference between this Dixon-coached team and his squads at Pitt.
"This team is a really, really good offensive team, I think much better than any that I can remember at Pittsburgh," said Boeheim. "This team has got multiple guys that can score and size and really good rebounding team. I think it's a much better offensive team than any of those teams were."
The winner of Friday's game will play the winner of No. 3 seed Michigan State and No. 14 seed Bucknell on Sunday.
