TCU Men's Basketball Preview: West Virginia

TCU is looking to bounce back after two straight bad losses.

It may seem like TCU is lucky to get to play a bad West Virginia team right after two of the team's most deflating losses of the season. Yes, the Mountaineers are terrible and the Horned Frogs already beat them easily. Yes, West Virginia has won one game since February 1. But this is still the Big 12 where every game is tough. The Mountaineers have the best home court advantage in the country per KenPom.com and beat Kansas at home earlier in the year. TCU should win this game, but anything can happen. Here's what the Frogs need to do to avoid an upset. 

Give Emanuel Miller The Ball!

This doesn't seem like something I should have to say, but when you give the ball to your best player, good things typically happen. Miller shot the ball just six times in the Horned Frogs' loss to Baylor last Monday, and TCU had its worst offensive output of the year. He shot the ball 10 times and scored 14 points in the Frogs' win over West Virginia last month. Don't make things more complicated than they need to be. This team's offense is better when Miller is the focal point. 

Feb 26, 2024; Fort Worth, Texas, USA; TCU Horned Frogs forward Emanuel Miller (2) drives to the basket on Baylor Bears guard RayJ Dennis (10) and guard Ja'Kobe Walter (4) during the first half at Ed and Rae Schollmaier Arena / © Raymond Carlin III-USA TODAY Sports

Play Some Defense

Again, this feels obvious, but TCU is coming off of a complete defensive meltdown against BYU on Saturday, allowing 58 second half points to the Cougars. The strength of this team is not defense, but we have seen that it is capable of playing strong defense for stretches of time. Now is the time to enter a new stretch. March is coming, and if you can't defend it's hard to win. West Virginia has the 159th most efficient offense in the country according to KenPom.com so now is the time to get it together. 

Take the crowd out of it and then don't let it back in

I am not really sure what kind of crowd 9-20 West Virginia is going to offer for a Wednesday night game against TCU, but as I mentioned above, Mountaineer fans are some of the best in college basketball. The Horned Frogs have displayed a bad habit of starting games slow, and it has hurt them before. When it does start well, TCU tends to finish poorly. You can't let either of these things happen on Wednesday night, or West Virginia's crowd could make the Frogs pay. The two times in Big 12 play that TCU has played a complete, worry free game of basketball was against Cincinnati and West Virginia. It would be helpful if they could do it again on the road against the Mountaineers.

How to Watch, Listen, and Stream: West Virginia vs. TCU

• Tipoff - 6 p.m. CT, Saturday, March 6
• Television - Big 12 Now on ESPN+ with Chuckie Kempf and Tim Welsh
• Radio - AM 570 KLIF with Brian Estridge and Bingo Merriex (also available on Sirius XM Channel 81, HFTV, TuneIn, and Varsity)

TCU Basketball: Know Your Foe - West Virginia's RaeQuan Battle

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