TCU men's basketball starts 2-0, Jamie Dixon is RECRUITING and how much should we worry about Oklahoma State and Kansas State? Killer Frogs writers Nick Girimonte and Davis Wilson discuss it all this week on Frog Fever: A Killer Frogs Basketball Podcast.
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00:00 Welcome back to another episode of Frog Fever, a Big 12 podcast brought to you by KillerFrogs.com.
00:07 My name is Davis Wilson.
00:09 My co-host Nick Geremonti is here again.
00:12 Nick, how are we today?
00:14 I'm great.
00:15 How are you doing?
00:16 I'm doing pretty well.
00:17 We got to watch Big 12 basketball this week, so you can't complain too much.
00:22 We're back.
00:23 We're back.
00:24 I know.
00:25 It feels good.
00:26 We're going to do all the TCU stuff.
00:29 There's a lot of TCU stuff we're going to discuss, but before we get into that, I thought
00:33 we could touch on a little bit of the Big 12 as a whole.
00:36 There are some big games, some interesting results.
00:41 I guess out of the first, some teams have played two games, some have played one.
00:45 Out of the first week, any big takeaways from the Big 12?
00:50 Yeah.
00:51 I mean, if we kind of want to go in chronological order, I feel like there's only three big
00:57 games so far that have implications.
01:01 We're recording this on Friday, too, so San Diego State at BYU tips off tonight, which
01:05 will be interesting to see how good the Cougars are.
01:09 The first game I want to talk about, which happened on Monday, was the big upset in the
01:14 Big 12, which was the pokes of Oklahoma State going down to Abilene Christian.
01:19 Kind of a surprise there, obviously.
01:22 We did our Big 12 rankings last week.
01:24 The pokes weren't exactly at the top of the board.
01:27 Abilene Christian isn't a big gimme, but they should have won this game for sure.
01:32 So I'm going to overreact to one game, I guess.
01:38 They were, Oklahoma State was a 10.5 point favorite at home.
01:45 I'm a big Mike Boynton guy, so it kind of stinks to see, but yeah, that's definitely
01:52 not how they want to start the year.
01:56 I've been looking at the stats right now.
01:58 They didn't get, the rebounding numbers were the same, which I guess is a problem in itself
02:03 that Oklahoma didn't out-rebound Abilene Christian.
02:05 But Oklahoma State only shot 5% worse.
02:09 They shot 41%.
02:10 Abilene State shot 45%.
02:12 I mean, I don't know.
02:14 I don't know.
02:15 Maybe this Oklahoma team is not as good as we gave them credit for, but I would say similar
02:20 to TCU last year, although I don't think Oklahoma State this year is as good as TCU was last
02:25 year.
02:26 I don't think we should react too much, but that is a bit of a concerning loss, right?
02:31 Yeah, for sure.
02:32 I mean, I'm a pokes guy and obviously you don't want to just like write them off and
02:37 just say that they suck after the game won.
02:41 But yeah, as again, I got the stats pulled, but too.
02:43 They had so much roster turnover, I think from last year.
02:48 Their starting backcourt is the same, but other than that, all their big men are brand
02:52 new.
02:53 And you look at like, Bryce Thompson was the only guy that really showed up with 19 points,
02:59 and you don't expect John Michael Wright, their starting point guard, to go 0 of 6 from
03:03 3 every game.
03:05 And so you give them a little bit of a pass.
03:11 Yeah, as we said before, like they're not going to be top of Big 12.
03:17 And you look at their schedule coming up, it should be a lot of winnable games.
03:23 I think they play Creighton in non-conference, which is a big one for them.
03:26 But other leading up to that, like they should not drop another game.
03:30 And it does serve as a little bit of a wake up call.
03:31 Like we saw with the Frog last year, how we dropped one of the first three, which we shouldn't
03:37 have been almost lost the first one.
03:39 So you take a little bit of a deep breath, and you just kind of move on.
03:44 Like they got a big week, they got a big win at OU in football.
03:48 So they probably get their fans off their back a little bit.
03:52 Yeah, when you get to watch Ollie Gordon Jr. run the ball on Saturdays, maybe you can cut
04:01 your basketball team a little bit of slack.
04:03 Yeah, props to Mike Boyden for losing right after that, because then you just kind of
04:06 sweep it under the carpet.
04:08 But once they start to pay attention to basketball down there, you definitely want to improve
04:13 on it.
04:14 Absolutely.
04:15 And then kind of on the other side, Oklahoma State had bad loss.
04:19 Baylor though, a pretty good win, right?
04:21 I mean, it was a neutral site game against Auburn, who's a good team.
04:27 A lot of eyes were on that game because of Jacoby Walter, the true freshman that Baylor
04:33 has.
04:35 And he did not disappoint at all.
04:37 He had 28 points, right, on 7 of 13 shooting.
04:41 10 of 10 from the free throw line is always good to see.
04:45 I know you watch this game.
04:48 What are your takeaways?
04:49 I mean, Baylor looks to be a good team again, no surprise.
04:54 Yeah, every year it seems like Baylor kind of has this turnover in guards when they'd
05:01 like just reload.
05:03 And we saw like Keontae George last year, and I think they've had first round picks,
05:08 like top 15 picks the last three years or something like that.
05:12 But they just reload.
05:15 They're so deep at the guard position.
05:17 When I was watching this game, Jacoby Walter is so...
05:21 Dude is a dog.
05:23 He's so long and lanky.
05:24 I know he didn't have as much success in their second game, but in that Auburn game when
05:29 Baylor needed buckets and they were down the majority of the game, and he just kept providing
05:34 like he's all of 6'5", long lanky, can score at every level.
05:37 Like he could be a top five pick, could be the best NBA prospect in college right now.
05:44 And you know, they run so deep at guard position.
05:47 Obviously their defense is questionable.
05:53 It's about what we knew of Baylor.
05:55 And I think their offense was even better than we expected.
05:58 And Baylor's just going to be a powerhouse in this conference for every year with Scott
06:04 Drew because they just reload, reload, reload with guards.
06:07 Like Ray J. Dennis was good.
06:08 Lanks and Love was good.
06:11 They started none over Lanks and Love, which I didn't think was going to happen, but he
06:15 provided too.
06:16 And that Macy who got the big steal in the Auburn game to put him up, they're just athletic.
06:22 They probably do need a big man and you can probably attack him down low if you have a
06:27 stud big man who can challenge them physically.
06:31 But their offense is as good as we've seen in the nation.
06:34 And I think they're underrated at that 20th spot in AP.
06:39 Absolutely.
06:41 Going back to Jacoby Walter, I mean, that was such a fun game to watch because of him.
06:47 And their second game, I think they played like John Brown, which I couldn't tell you
06:50 one fun fact about John Brown, but he scored only seven points on 33% shooting.
06:57 But I think the bigger takeaway is that he showed up in his first college game ever.
07:03 It was the marquee game.
07:05 Everybody was watching that game and he beat a good Auburn team and like 28 points, six
07:13 rebounds.
07:14 Dude's just an athlete and I'm excited to continue to watch him as the season goes on.
07:19 I mean, yeah, you said it.
07:22 It's really amazing how Scott Drew can reload every year like that.
07:26 And he's clearly found another one of those guys in Jacoby Walter.
07:31 Yeah, it was impressive to me because they were down the majority of the game and that
07:35 was the marquee game of the week and they needed buckets.
07:40 So it was a lot of Jacoby Walter creating his own shot.
07:44 And he can do that to the ability of anybody.
07:47 And almost in a way with him being so long and lanky, it reminds me of like the Brandon
07:52 Miller effect at Alabama last year, how he was just a freshman and they had such a loaded
07:58 offense and he would just whittle them to games at times with his ability to score all
08:03 levels.
08:04 So he's a scary guy to watch in the conference.
08:06 And if you're going to overreact to a game, like Jacoby Walter being a top player in the
08:13 conferences is an overreaction that I had, to be honest.
08:18 Yeah, yeah.
08:19 That was a I mean, you can't have a better debut than that, I don't think.
08:25 And then our third game we're going to talk about in the Big 12.
08:29 The only other game that kind of was, I guess, like you said, had implications was Kansas
08:34 State lost to USC.
08:35 This is another one of those games that kind of was not the standalone game, but the standalone
08:40 kind of marquee game, both good teams.
08:43 We got to see some guys on USC that are exciting and then kind of this new look Kansas State
08:48 team.
08:51 They lost 82 to 69.
08:55 I mean, I'm not sure this is another I mean, it's so early, we can't overreact to anything.
09:00 But the one thing I was encouraged by was, I guess the the play of Tyler Perry.
09:08 I loved I was interested to see how we do kind of transitioning to Kansas State.
09:13 And he wasn't all that efficient, but he scored 22 points for steel six assists, like he kind
09:20 of filled the stat sheet up.
09:22 And I think in a loss like that, you have to kind of find things to take away.
09:28 And I think that he's going to be an exciting player for them this year, for sure.
09:34 Yeah, everybody knew he was one of the top transfers in college basketball, I think he
09:39 was in North Texas last year and just balled for them.
09:42 And but I was surprised to the volume that Tang allowed him to have shooting like he
09:47 just chucked and chucked, which almost at a time I think early in the game wasn't efficient
09:54 for them because he wasn't making early.
09:56 Obviously, you can see the talent and a shot making was there in the second half when they
10:00 kind of made a push at the end.
10:02 But I mean, USC kind of had this game the whole time.
10:06 The thing I took away from this game is that K State was like uncharacteristic on offense,
10:15 like they seemed almost out of sorts at times, which kind of played to how they played last
10:20 year.
10:21 I was like you have Marquise Noel and Keontae and those guys were big, you know, one on
10:26 one guys, like Marquise would make the craziest shots ever.
10:29 And they kind of stuck to that and just kind of put like Tyler Perry in that role.
10:33 And Arthur Kaluma plays as hard as anybody, but he missed one of 11 shots.
10:39 Oh, five from three.
10:41 He's going to be better.
10:43 Cam Carter is probably going to be better.
10:45 They just missed a lot of shots.
10:46 But I would like to see them being more characteristic on offense.
10:49 Like it seemed like USC kind of had this game.
10:51 They were just more in control, more mellow than an out of sorts K State team.
10:56 Yeah, they do really.
10:57 I mean, the problem was inefficiency.
10:59 I think they weren't efficient at all.
11:00 They shot 31% from the field.
11:03 They shot 11 more shots than USC did.
11:06 And USC shot over 50%.
11:09 Like efficiency was a huge problem.
11:11 And I mean, Tyler Perry was not efficient.
11:15 Kaluma was not efficient.
11:17 I think that I mean, I don't know.
11:22 They lost they lost their two guys from last year.
11:25 I think it's going to take some time for them to kind of figure out the team they
11:28 are now.
11:30 I'm not again, I'm not very worried.
11:32 They out rebounded USC, which is nice to see always nice to win a rebound battle.
11:39 But yeah, I mean, USC, it's not like it's not like the Oklahoma State thing.
11:44 USC is a good team that they lost to.
11:48 So yeah, I don't think I think Kansas State has some stuff to figure out.
11:52 But I'm not I'm not concerned.
11:55 Are you?
11:56 Yeah, I wouldn't say panic mode yet.
11:58 Like you do have the Nate Quintana situation, which I don't know what's gonna happen there.
12:03 Like he is probably their best returning player.
12:06 So it's worth noting that he didn't play and USC is a really good team.
12:12 But I would like to see K State get more quality shots.
12:17 Absolutely.
12:18 I think it was it was kind of underwhelming for what you expected out of this team because
12:23 they did as we talked about Baylor like Baylor reloaded and they showed that it was positives.
12:29 I think K State reloaded and you saw you saw signs and it is night one.
12:36 But I would like to see them be more under control and play to the level of a good team
12:40 like USC.
12:41 Sure.
12:42 Yeah.
12:43 Um, now I think we can transition more to our frogs talk about TCL.
12:50 But I think we'll talk about each game a little bit.
12:53 But I think the one thing I want to mention right off the bat, that just like jumped off
12:57 the screen for me is the oh boy.
13:00 And you talked about this when we when we talked last week, but the the it's just the
13:06 improvement of Jacoby Cole's offensively, man, like he was maybe the I mean, he was
13:12 the best player.
13:13 Is that crazy to say he was the best offensive player for us so far?
13:16 I was going to have that discussion to like, I mean, is he the go to guy?
13:20 What do you think?
13:21 I don't know.
13:22 Like I was expecting and you know, no one really played poorly.
13:25 Emmanuel Miller had had an interesting first game because he had some foul trouble.
13:29 But yeah, I still think he's one of those guys offensively.
13:33 Jameer Nelson Jr. showed flashes being that guy.
13:35 But I think Jacoby Cole's man, just the confidence that he had, like you could tell he was more
13:42 confident in his offensive game.
13:45 And that just that blew me away.
13:47 That blew me away.
13:48 Yeah, when I when I was at the game, and they did introductions, Jacoby Cole's was the last
13:55 dude on the bench getting like the wow, like and Jacoby Cole's Wow, like he was the last
14:02 guy sitting.
14:03 So obviously, he is confident.
14:05 Jamie's confidence in him, like if you put him in that spot.
14:08 And dude is just like Jacoby Cole's one of those guys who's just such a sick story, because
14:14 he was at Butler had a horrible injury out for the season transfer to TCU.
14:19 And he really like, to be honest, wasn't great his first year at the frogs.
14:23 Like the fan base was kind of, you know, upset for him.
14:26 He doesn't have like crazy athleticism.
14:29 So if he's not making shots, there's not much to him.
14:33 But he's just taken a big step every single year.
14:36 And this year, he is legitimately a star like he plays under control.
14:41 He can score from all levels now.
14:43 But is it's insane to see the growth?
14:46 Yeah, now the is he the go to guy conversation is gonna start taking over because he is leading
14:52 the team in points and I think 19 a game.
14:56 I probably still Emmanuel Miller.
14:59 Yeah.
15:00 I mean, I'm like, what I like after the I was at the presser with Jamie after the first
15:08 game.
15:09 And we asked him about Jacoby.
15:11 And he said that he thinks that when he's on he is the most complete player for the
15:16 frogs, which I thought was crazy to say because this roster is loaded with talent.
15:21 And frankly, a lot of people who are more talented than Jacoby, but he's just like one
15:25 of the smartest players on the floor.
15:26 He's improved defensively a ton.
15:29 He's under control.
15:30 He can hit a jab.
15:31 He's got pose moves, he hits the fader.
15:33 Like he didn't miss a shot his first seven shots last night.
15:36 He dude is dude is a dog.
15:39 I was really impressed with with him.
15:42 And the the discussion about who's the go to guy offensively.
15:47 That's going to be interesting.
15:48 But one thing that I think is possible with this team just because of the depth is that
15:53 they may have a couple dudes who can just be that guy like Micah Peavy.
15:57 Another guy who took a really, really impressive step in my opinion.
16:01 He had 21 in the first game, I think.
16:04 But maybe this is a team that like, doesn't really have that guy who's going to do it
16:08 like Mike Miles was that guy last year, you know, you knew he was going to get his.
16:13 But maybe this team is just so spread out and deep, that it can be Coles one night,
16:17 it could be Jameer one night, it could be Micah, it could be Avery Anderson, it could
16:21 be all these guys.
16:22 I just think that the depth of this team is super exciting.
16:27 And there's a part that's like, refreshing about that almost like when Mike would get
16:32 hurt in years past, it was almost panic when we'd lose.
16:36 You know, we go on losing streaks, and you just didn't know what to do because the offense
16:40 was so surrounded about him making a play.
16:43 So it's almost more free flowing, not that losing Mike is a benefit at all.
16:48 But the fact that you have so many guys to facilitate, like, I thought Micah was the
16:55 best player on the court that first game, he was doing everything from all angles.
17:01 And obviously, Emmanuel is first team All Big 12.
17:04 So you can't count him out and Jameer.
17:06 And you know, yeah, as you said, we have so many guys who can do it.
17:10 It's gonna be interesting to see when they get into these tough games.
17:14 Who's the guy to take the last shot?
17:16 Like, is it whoever's role in that day?
17:17 Is it a specific guy Jamie loves?
17:20 And we'll see that as non conference comes forward.
17:24 But I think the big thing to take away is that, yeah, like Jacoby stepped up Micah obviously
17:32 improve like these guys we know improved and we've seen flashes already from Jameer and
17:38 Avery and various different guys.
17:40 It's just crazy to me that like you if you told me two years ago that Jacoby Cole's was
17:45 going to be the go to guy for the frogs, I'd call you crazy.
17:48 But he's put himself in that conversation.
17:50 I think that's just credit to him.
17:52 I mean, when I was a Big 12 media day and got to talk to Jamie a little bit, he talked
17:58 a lot about the work that Jacoby put in this offseason.
18:02 And I think that's so evident just in two games.
18:06 Another guy that Jameer was probably the guy I was most excited to watch in these in this
18:11 first week because I you know, he's a he was a scorer at Delaware like he felt he filled
18:17 it up and I wanted to see if he was going to kind of step in and like take that role
18:23 that Mike had.
18:26 And I was all I mean, he didn't necessarily do that.
18:29 But I was honest, I was almost more impressed with what he did.
18:33 Like in the first game, I'm looking at his box score at 14 points, six assists, two blocks,
18:40 five steals.
18:41 He shot 75% from the field 100% from three.
18:45 Like, well, first of all, like, if someone told you that, with like, with guys like Xavier
18:52 Cork and Ernest Sude, Jr. that if someone told you that Jameer was going to be the leader
18:57 team leader and blocks in game one, what would you have said?
19:00 Like, I think he's an athlete.
19:01 And I think he's like, just one of those guys, he's going to do it all for TCU.
19:06 Yeah, the blocks he had were sick to like, he wanted the hell out of this guy in the
19:12 second game.
19:13 And he's just an exciting player.
19:16 It'll be interesting to see how we look because I look at him compared to Tyler Perry, which
19:22 is probably like the two guards who are some of the top transfers in the country.
19:26 And obviously, when you look at TCU and Kansas State rivals, pretty much, they took different
19:33 approaches to start their career with their new team, like Tyler Perry shot the ball,
19:37 I don't know, 20 times.
19:40 And Jameer kind of had that top scoring role at Delaware.
19:44 So you would think he might come in and try to be the Mike guy, but he's just found his
19:47 place in the offense kind of let the game come to him.
19:50 You know, he hasn't been like, anything insane yet.
19:54 But as you said, he's feeling the stat.
19:56 He's playing hard on defense.
19:58 He's just being a good, solid point guard.
20:00 And he'll have his games where he puts up 20 or so and leads the team in scoring.
20:05 But I like how he's let the game come to him.
20:07 He seems calm.
20:08 He seems fit with the team and a great fit for the Frogs.
20:11 Yeah.
20:12 And I think the another thing that Jamie mentioned at Big 12 Media Day a couple weeks ago was
20:20 Jameer came in as the scoring guard and less of a point guard.
20:25 And something that Jamie talked about a little bit was how he wanted him to, or he expected
20:30 him to be more of that point guard.
20:32 And I think that we really saw that.
20:35 And this first week, he's like you said, he's just not, he's not forcing anything.
20:41 He's letting things come to him.
20:42 He's, I mean, against Southern, he distributed really well.
20:46 I mean, he has eight steals already.
20:49 Like I think he's just the growth from him too.
20:53 Like we didn't know what he would be like on a team like TCU that's more talented, obviously
20:58 in Delaware.
20:59 So he has more guys to pass to, I guess, but I don't know.
21:04 I think it's really encouraging to see that like, if he's not scoring, he can still be
21:12 really, really effective and a huge positive for TCU.
21:18 He's been so efficient too.
21:21 I think he's shooting the 50% from three and over 50% from the goal.
21:26 And he's, yeah, as you said, he's got four steals a game.
21:29 He's just doing everything, like, yeah, letting the game come to him and just being that guy
21:37 that you can depend on.
21:39 This TCU team is also so short in ball handlers too.
21:42 I'm really only comfortable with like Jameer and Avery Anderson handling the ball right
21:47 now.
21:48 He almost has to take that step back where he knows he's got to set up the offense.
21:52 He knows he's got to be a pest on defense and be able to handle a transition and stuff
21:57 like that.
21:58 And he's done that great so far.
22:02 Two game sample size, obviously take it with a grain of salt, but dude's been impressive
22:07 in a way that maybe we didn't think he would be.
22:12 The last guy, the last, I guess, new guy that I want to talk about, I mean, we know about
22:16 Emmanuel and Micah.
22:17 They both played well in the first week, but the new center, Ernest Duday Jr., who
22:25 for me at least was, it was tough because, you know, him or Jameer, but Ernest may have
22:29 been the most excited I was for a transfer just because of the massive needs that he
22:37 addresses for TCU, rim protection, rebounding.
22:42 He hasn't really done a ton of rim protecting yet.
22:45 I mean, at least blocks wise, his huge presence is felt down there, even if he's not going
22:51 to block shots.
22:52 But the rebounding, I mean, he had 11 versus Omaha.
22:58 He had some moments last night against Omaha where he was just kind of all over the court,
23:06 like he was doing everything a little bit.
23:08 He had that, his one bucket was a rebound put back where he's falling away.
23:17 What are your impressions on his first two games and what will he add or what's going
23:23 to look better as the season goes on in his game?
23:26 Yeah, I asked Jamey about the big men after the game, after the first game, because he
23:35 played all of them around the same, which was surprising.
23:37 The guy thought, in terms of disappointments, probably Ernest is top of the list because
23:42 he was five star All-American.
23:44 He got some minutes at Kansas last year, so you kind of expect him to take that next step
23:49 here, especially with our shortage of centers.
23:53 But yeah, I mean, he's still such a raw talent, I think.
24:00 We probably expected him to be better at the start, and you see these flashes of him just
24:07 being so athletic and what he can do.
24:10 But foul trouble is probably going to be an issue.
24:14 And Jamey seems like he's still, like, Ernest started the two games, but he seems like he's
24:19 still going back and forth with who he wants to play at center.
24:25 And all three have kind of like shown a flash.
24:28 Like I thought Cork had a good first game.
24:29 I thought Mostafa showed a lot of good flashes last game.
24:32 So that's going to be a conversation of who to go with at center, who's going to get these
24:37 big minutes, because right now, they're just kind of rotating all three.
24:42 So like, who do you think has been the best out of the three so far, and who should we
24:46 go with forward?
24:47 Well, I think that the fact that he kind of played them all around the same amount of
24:53 time, I mean, that may just be what it looks like this season, who knows.
24:59 But I imagine one guy will separate himself eventually.
25:03 But I did like, I liked things that all three of them did.
25:06 I was impressed at times, more in the Southern game, I think, with Xavier Cork.
25:12 I think he had moments where, I mean, that's a guy that I feel like just plays really hard.
25:19 And he's not always going to, like what he does is not always going to show up on the
25:25 stat book, like after games.
25:29 But I think he's just a guy that likes playing.
25:33 He had eight points against Southern, yeah, he had six rebounds.
25:37 I don't know, we kind of knew what he was, but it's nice to see that, I mean, I don't
25:43 know, I think he's a good center.
25:46 He's nothing super special, but I think he's just, I think he's improved a little bit.
25:51 And I think that with guys like Mustafa and Ernest to kind of take the pressure off of
25:56 him, I think that that'll be beneficial.
26:00 Because at the end of the year last year, he was literally the only center on this roster
26:03 pretty much, because Eddie Lam can quit.
26:08 And it was just Xavier.
26:09 So I think that the pressure was there.
26:13 And now that there's two other guys who can come in for him, I don't know, I'm excited
26:17 to see what his season looks like.
26:20 And you mentioned Mustafa had moments.
26:25 What was it?
26:26 Did he score seven last night?
26:27 Was that?
26:28 Yeah, he had like two back to back, like offensive rebounds, putbacks too.
26:32 I like the flashes out of him.
26:33 Yeah, I just think that overall, the center position and the depth is so much better.
26:39 And I think that especially when big 12 play comes along, that's going to be super evident.
26:44 And I think TCU is going to really, really feel that, that they have more depth than
26:51 they really have had in the last couple of years at that position.
26:55 I would say if there's one thing to watch in the remainder of these non-conference games
27:00 that are kind of, you know, just work on your own thing, is that you kind of want to see
27:10 if someone's going to emerge or not, or if we're just going to go with this like, three
27:14 headed monster, I guess.
27:16 Because I think Corky had a decent game.
27:18 And we kind of know what a ceiling is.
27:21 And Mustafa should flash his last game, obviously.
27:23 And you kind of know what his ceiling is, too.
27:26 Like they're both not the most huge athletic guys.
27:30 They're both kind of solid.
27:32 And I feel like I find myself almost rooting for Ernest to emerge, because you know his
27:40 ceiling is just insane if he can emerge.
27:44 But so far, I mean, he's probably been the most subpar of all the three.
27:49 So I'm interested to see.
27:51 I'm almost hoping that Ernest takes that next step to where he can find himself playing
27:57 big minutes for this team down the stretch.
27:59 Yeah, I agree with that.
28:00 Because I think if Ernest does kind of, you know, present him or show him he ends up as
28:08 the guy at the center spot, I think that means that he's improved a lot.
28:13 Because I don't think the other two centers are bad.
28:15 Like that's the thing.
28:16 If Ernest, like all of a sudden is getting most of the minutes, I think that means that
28:19 he's a really good player and he's improved a lot.
28:22 So I'm rooting for that as well.
28:24 I think overall, it's just really nice as someone watching this team.
28:29 It's nice to know that like that is not a super glaring issue anymore.
28:34 Yeah, I think the rebounding numbers last game are 52 to 25.
28:38 We out rebounded.
28:39 And that's been a strong suit of us the past couple of years is like rebounding and defense
28:43 and our defense was kind of subpar the first game, but we improved in the second game.
28:47 So to get on the backbone rebounds and defense, you just get out and transition fast, like
28:52 Dixon teams are so good at transition.
28:54 And it's obviously huge to have these big men racking up the boards.
28:58 Yeah.
28:59 Looking forward for TCU, there's not I mean, it's not a super exciting schedule.
29:05 I think it's exciting just in the fact that some of these guys are going to get opportunities
29:09 to play and kind of show themselves a little bit.
29:12 The first the first kind of meaningful game is at Georgetown in December, but coming up
29:19 UT Rio Grande Valley, Mississippi State Valley both this week.
29:25 I mean, I don't I don't know.
29:27 I don't think there's a ton to talk about.
29:28 I think it's similar to how we kind of talked about the upcoming schedule last week.
29:33 Like these games shouldn't be a problem, but like Oklahoma State showed us, anything can
29:39 happen.
29:40 But yeah, I guess you mentioned you wanted to you're intrigued by the center position,
29:46 but what else would you like to see this week in these two games against teams that TC really
29:51 shouldn't have much of a problem with?
29:53 Yeah, it's very similar.
29:55 This week, I think when your opponents you should be by a lot and just just working on
30:04 on your own stuff, like seeing who's going to emerge, seeing how guys gel with the offense.
30:12 But to be honest, I like what I saw out of week one.
30:18 Maybe see who's going to become the go to guy if you have one.
30:24 But if not, I mean, I just want to see how this team gels together and just kind of give
30:28 more reps and just keep everybody healthy.
30:29 Yeah, to be honest, I'm more looking forward to some of the big 12 games like we have San
30:34 Diego State beware tonight just to see how it goes.
30:37 And then Kansas, Kentucky is next.
30:39 Oh, man, Tuesday, I believe.
30:41 So there's some good big big 12 games coming out.
30:44 That's big for TCU fans to keep their eye on.
30:47 For sure.
30:49 Yeah.
30:51 The last thing we have for TCU is pretty cool.
30:58 Jamie Dixon just signed the highest ranked recruiting class in TCU history.
31:03 He has he just signed the number 11 class in the country, which like I've been watching
31:10 TCU basketball for a long time.
31:13 And if and I've been kind of I always kind of followed recruiting, but it wasn't ever
31:20 it was never like this.
31:21 Like this is crazy.
31:22 11th in the country for TCU is just really cool.
31:27 And they got some dudes in that class.
31:32 What is your takeaway?
31:33 Like, how important are classes like these for TCU and Jamie Dixon?
31:40 Yeah, it's interesting because Jamie has built this program a lot on transfers.
31:46 And it's interesting to see him.
31:49 Like homegrown guys, a lot of them, and just building it from the ground up is huge for
31:55 the program.
31:56 Like the dude is just changed this thing a ton.
31:58 And if you can see this being consistently, you can be one of the top programs in the
32:03 country if you just keep building talent and talent and maybe get some guys in the league
32:06 and have stuff like that.
32:08 But we got some dudes that I think fit what Jamie is trying to do well, athletic guys,
32:13 you can run and all kinds like wings and guys from Texas and stuff like that.
32:21 So yeah, some some kind of fun facts about this class to kind of put it into perspective
32:27 how massive of a class this is.
32:31 Three of the four signees, Michael Robinson, David Punch and Malik Yalow are all in the
32:36 top 10 TCU commits of all time.
32:39 Michael Robinson is third punches eight Malik is nine.
32:44 That's crazy.
32:45 Just like, really unbelievable that three of the top 10 are in this one class kind of
32:53 unheard of for TCU.
32:54 And then number 11th in the country, the only current big 12 school ahead of TCU in these
33:04 rankings is Kansas there.
33:06 They have the fourth ranked class, but that means TCU is ranked ahead of Colorado, Baylor,
33:12 Texas, Cincinnati, like, I think that just kind of and like you said, a lot of these
33:19 teams are transitioning more to prioritizing the transfer portal rather than high school
33:24 kids.
33:25 But regardless, like beating teams like that is how you're going to beating teams like
33:30 that on the on the recruiting trail is how you're going to beat these teams on the basketball
33:35 court.
33:36 So I just think like the job that Jamie has done, capitalizing on some recent success
33:44 in this program has been a he's been he's done a really good job.
33:47 And it's, it's really unbelievable to, to see how good this class ended up being.
33:53 Yeah, we've seen in the past few years, slowly taking the next steps.
33:59 It's like, look, we won the NIT X many years ago, you make the tournament you, you know,
34:06 back to back tournament wins in years, you just keep going up and up and up.
34:10 And this is kind of the next step and where top recruits are buying in like, yeah, punch
34:15 was a top 100 guy, I believe, Simmons was a Robinson was a top 100 guy.
34:21 And they're getting guys that fit the system like D allo was a top 100 guy.
34:25 And I pieces written about these on killer on killer for X, June, I know you did a piece
34:31 summarizing the whole class.
34:32 So yeah, for instance, I got check it out.
34:34 But yeah, go check it out for sure.
34:37 Yeah, it's it's definitely a big next step in making TC basketball legitimate program
34:42 is getting these top guys.
34:45 And hopefully, we'll just keep going up and up and up.
34:48 Yeah.
34:49 I think it's worth mentioning, we didn't really touch on Ashton Simmons, because he
34:53 was not one of those top 10 all time TCU recruits.
34:56 But nonetheless, like, he is the 208th best player in the country is the 15th best player
35:02 in Texas, a couple years ago, landing Ashton Simmons would be headline news for TCU.
35:09 So I don't think that I mean, he's a point guard, he's a combo guard, he kind of feels
35:13 that need especially if you think about some of the guard losses TCU may have next year,
35:19 but Ashton Simmons is a good player, I watched some film on he's a good player.
35:25 And I think that all four of these guys are just I mean, it's clear that he's addressing
35:32 needs out of high school, which is interesting as the game kind of changes.
35:36 But yeah, it's a lot to be excited about right now for TCU basketball.
35:40 Yeah, obviously, this will be kind of a hybrid to like, we're like, Jamie's gonna keep bringing
35:47 transfers and you're gonna need to compete in the big 12 year after year.
35:51 But something I love is it's so big college basketball to fit your system.
35:55 And obviously, Jamie's got a unique system where he likes to run and have athletic wings
36:01 that you can do a lot and stuff like that.
36:03 And these guys all fit what he's trying to do.
36:05 And sometimes it's not just stars, but who fits with the coach.
36:11 And these guys all seem to have a great relationship with them.
36:14 So yeah, I love what this class has to offer.
36:16 And it'll be interesting to see how our rosters formed in the in the next coming years.
36:21 Yeah, I think that there's a chance that this roster looks a lot different next year because
36:26 of some of the some of the guys we have right now are just old.
36:30 So I do think that he'll still utilize that portal, but it's really encouraging to see
36:35 him kind of dominate and out of the high school area.
36:40 So that's great to see.
36:42 It's big to dominate your where your surroundings to like we've seen in football a lot like,
36:48 oh, you need to be able to recruit out of DFW, you need to get these Texas guys and
36:53 Jamie's gotten them.
36:54 So I love what he's got to see.
36:56 Yep.
36:57 It was a pretty exciting week for TCU basketball to know the 11th best class in the country.
37:05 Nick is writing a lot on killer frogs calm about all this I'm writing some on killer
37:09 frogs calm.
37:11 Go check those out.
37:13 Once again, we'd like to thank you for listening to this week's episode of frog fever killer
37:18 frogs basketball podcast.
37:20 Nick, it was fun.
37:22 You can find us on whatever your preferred podcast platform is.
37:29 Once again, I'm Davis Wilson.
37:31 That's Nick Germonti and we will see you next week.
37:35 Thank you.
37:36 See you next week.
37:37 See you.
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