We’ve heard the term before from college basketball coaches around the country — get old, stay old. For Jamie Dixon, it’s what he’s done most of his career, in 13 seasons at Pittsburgh and now at TCU. Think of his teams from the past couple seasons. Emanuel Miller, Micah Peavy, Mike Miles and Damion Baugh — all senior leaders who helped TCU have regular season and postseason success.
This season, though, things are shaping up much differently. The squad will feature six freshmen (Isaiah Manning, Micah Robinson, Ashton Simmons, David Punch, Adam Stewart, Malick Diallo, Jace Posey) and the Horned Frogs return just two percent of their scoring. Dixon admits this isn’t necessarily the recipe for success, but in this new era of college basketball, his formula has gotten much harder to implement.
“Our whole thing is get old, stay old,” Dixon said at Big 12 media day. “But it was because we retained players. Kids didn’t transfer. They didn’t leave us. They liked what we were doing. They grew. And now we’re in a whole different world where they can like you a whole lot, but they’re going to look at what the best opportunity is, and obviously (for) one important reason.”
Dixon knew TCU was going to be young. Last season, the Horned Frogs had five guys earn degrees from the masters program and eight players were seniors. The logical move would be to sign older players out of the transfer portal, but TCU’s NIL resources are lagging behind those of its competitors. Five seniors are on the roster for this season, but other than that Dixon will have no choice but to give heavy minutes to his 10 freshmen and sophomores.
“Some of that has to do with, honestly, monetarily, financially where you’re at, and what you have to do,” Dixon said. “And then we felt there would be some guards that we could bring in as experienced guys. We’ve really targeted a couple different guys and come up with two really good ones with experience, but we’re going to play some young guys at those other spots. That’s part of this.”
NIL is a huge part of staying old in today’s era and retaining key players. But TCU isn’t exactly one of the big names in the NIL space, unlike Kansas, for example, who was able to retain three starters from last season including All-American Hunter Dickinson. Dixon’s task, then, is to find some way to keep TCU competitive.
“There’s no question about it, we are younger,” Dixon concluded. “I can see why we’re picked a little bit lower. But I think we can surprise some people.”
Inside the SEC: Wade Taylor IV Ready for Final Run at Texas A&M
“We’re excited to see him put on a show this season.”Big 12 Coaches React to Tony Bennett News
When Virginia coach Tony Bennett announced his retirement from college basketball, he highlighted the changing dynamics of college basketball, like NIL and the transfer portal, as one of the reasons why he moved on. Several Big 12 coaches indicated during the league’s media day that they can relate. “I totally understand where he’s coming from and maybe why he made the decision that he made,” Colorado coach Tad Boyle said. “But it was a sad day for me because you want to keep good coaches and good people in our business.”
Coming on the heels of recent retirements by Hall of Famers Roy Williams, Mike Krzyzewski, Roy Williams, Jim Boeheim and Jay Wright, Bennett’s surprise announcement raised the question of, who’s next? That one is hard to answer, but the consensus among his now-former peers is that there are more coming. “Absolutely,” Oklahoma State coach Steve Lutz said. “Our game has changed and everything about it in terms of recruiting has changed. So there’s going to be certain people that it doesn’t resonate with them and therefore they want to move on.”
Added Houston coach Kelvin Sampson, “I’m not Nostradamus so I can’t predict. But he won’t be the last one.”
Around the Rim
- How does Sampson get his Houston Cougars to play so hard? Here’s an example.
In practice, Houston has something called the “loose ball drill.” Sampson blows the whistle and throws a loose ball and two players compete for it. Well, last season at UCF, Houston was trailing 31-28 at halftime. Sampson aimed to cure it by giving the drill a unique twist.
“We weren’t playing up to his standards,” redshirt junior guard Emmanuel Sharpe recalled. “So he got two of our assistant coaches and they did the loose ball drill. He rolled it out in the locker room and had the coaches dive on the ball during halftime. It was probably one of the craziest things I’ve ever seen in my career.”
Houston outscored UCF by 11 in the second half and took home a 67-59 win.
Another classic story comes from fifth-year big man J’Wan Roberts. During his redshirt season in 20-21, he turned the ball over in practice, which is a big no-no for Sampson. “Coach got mad at me and he made me run laps around the court,” Roberts said. “And he kind of forgot about me. I was running the whole practice until coach Kellen [Sampson] had to tell him like, ‘Coach, you know ‘Wan is still running?’ And he was like ‘come here ‘Wan.’ And I was able to practice again.”
- TJ Otzelberger, who returns his four leading scorers from last season, said retaining players in today’s era of college hoops is important.
“That’s been huge for us,” Otzelberger said. “I think for anybody, when you can have continuity, that’s a key component and driver of success for many programs and something that’s going to continue to be a top priority for us is to make sure that we’re developing the young men in our program, that they’re having a great experience and opportunity, they’re bettering themselves as men, as students and athletes at Iowa State, and they continue to see that value and that benefit and move forward with us. Fortunate for that continuity.”
- Tommy Lloyd said he wants Caleb Love to be “excited” to play his final year of college hoops. He added Love should challenge himself to grow in other areas of his game.
“The conversation Caleb and I have is I want people to notice a difference. I don’t want to talk about a difference. I’m excited for him to be able to showcase that. Obviously we have a great schedule to start off with and we’re going to be playing in a lot of high profile games and hopefully people see a Caleb Love that’s committed to a growth process and maybe doing a few different things out on the court.”
Five Games to Watch in Week 1
Monday, Nov. 4, 11:30 p.m. ET — Baylor vs. Gonzaga (Spokane)
The opening night of college hoops was in need of a marquee game. It’ll be interesting to see how Baylor’s guards Jeremy Roach and V.J. Edgecombe perform in game one against a quality opponent. Gonzaga returns stars Graham Ike and Ryan Nembhard and has added Khalif Battle, a high-scoring guard from Arkansas.
Friday, Nov. 8, 7:00 p.m. ET — North Carolina @ Kansas
A rematch of the national championship game from three seasons ago? I’m in. Kansas will likely be fully healthy by tipoff, which means we’ll get one of our first looks at Hunter Dickinson this season. The Jayhawks struggled against Arkansas’ trio of guards in a charity exhibition contest. KU will need to be better defensively to keep North Carolina’s strong trio of guards — RJ Davis, Elliot Cadeau and Ian Jackson — at bay.
Friday, Nov. 8, 8:30 p.m. ET — Santa Clara vs. Arizona State (Vegas)
The Sun Devils have a lot to prove after getting shredded by Duke in Bobby Hurley’s return to Cameron Indoor Stadium. A game against Santa Clara will tell us a lot about where Hurley’s young squad is. Santa Clara was picked third in the WCC preseason poll behind Gonzaga and St. Mary’s, so this won’t be an easy game for Jayden Quanitance and company by any stretch.
Saturday, Nov. 9, 7:30 p.m. ET — Baylor vs. Arkansas (Dallas)
Arkansas smoked Kansas, 85-69, in a charity exhibition contest. Can Boogie Fland, D.J. Wagner and Johnell Davis keep up the momentum and defeat another top-10 opponent? Also, shout out to Scott Drew for giving us two must-watch games in the opening week of the college basketball season. I tip my cap.
Saturday, Nov. 9, 9:30 p.m. ET — Auburn vs. Houston (Houston)
Both of these teams are featured in the preseason top-12 of the AP Poll and both feature a veteran big man. The battle between Houston’s J’Wan Roberts and Auburn’s Johni Broome in the paint will be key. But don’t count out the guard play, especially from Houston, which brings back L.J. Cryer and Emmanuel Sharpe. The last time these two programs met, Houston came out on top, 81-64, in the Sweet Sixteen of the 2023 NCAA Tournament.
