Jamie Dixon’s tenure at TCU is shaping up like his time at Pittsburgh
If Jamie Dixon left TCU today he can confidently say he left the program in much better shape than when he arrived. He took over the worst job in major college basketball and the team is now consistently competitive.
Twenty win seasons. Decent conference record. National relevance. Nice regular season wins. NCAA Tournaments. Produced some NBA players.
Now he’s at that point in a coaching tenure where all of this feels like not enough.
TCU’s season ended late Friday night in Indianapolis with a loss against Utah State, 88-72 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. TCU was the nine seed, so technically this is not an upset.
Don’t buy that upset talk. TCU is the Big 12 team, and was a 3.5 point favorite.
Utah State, of the Mountain West, had lost 10 straight NCAA Tourney games.
After leading by eight points early in the game, TCU’s defense vacated the building. Other than offensive rebounding, TCU did nothing.
For TCU this is an embarrassing end to a decent season; TCU lost six of its final nine games to finish 21-13. There were so many times during this season TCU had the look of a Sweet 16 team, but in the end they were your standard mid power conference team that flamed out in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
Where does Jamie Dixon go from here?
Under Dixon, TCU has established itself as a threat. The program has made the NCAA Tournament three straight years for the first time in school history, but has yet to reach a Sweet 16, or win a Big 12 regular season, or Big 12 tournament, title.
Dixon’s best TCU team remains from his second season in Fort Worth, in 2017-’18. The team had future NBA players Kenrich Williams and Desmond Bane, and was a six seed in the NCAA Tournament. That should have been a Sweet 16 team, but it drew Syracuse and its zone defense in the first round. TCU lost by five.
Since the players from that team moved on, Dixon has built some pretty good rosters, with decent players. He had one complete team for about the length of a season.
When he had guard Mike Miles and center Eddie Lampkin on the floor together, healthy, in the previous two seasons at the same time TCU was solid. That didn’t happen often enough.
Dixon has had bad luck with point guards. Jaylen Fisher couldn’t stay healthy, and left. Kendric Davis had maturity issues, and also left.
The roster in 2023-’24 showed flashes, but the guards ultimately were exposed. They had too many twos, and not a one. If the team was unable to get out and run, it was in trouble.
The bulk of this roster will not return next season, which in this era of basketball is standard. The transfer portal has turned NCAA Division I basketball into juco ball.
Dixon has adapted to this era well enough.
Despite the additions of the portal, NIL and collectives, his time at TCU is starting to look like his time at Pittsburgh.
He has used the same formula at TCU as he did at Pitt; assemble a meh non-conference schedule that is basically nine or 10 guaranteed wins. Do well enough in conference play. Make the NCAA Tournament. See what happens.
A lot of coaches follow the same plan.
Speaking of Pitt, the program has made the NCAA Tournament once since the school basically let him go to TCU in the spring of 2016. Pitt fans may recall his tenure quite fondly now.
Frustrated TCU fans need to look at the record book to see just how awful this team was for decades before his arrival.
TCU and Dixon are in a brutal league that will only improve next season with the additions of Colorado, Arizona, Arizona State and Utah; it’s not as if this job will be easier next season.
Dixon needs a real point guard, and a quality big who can do something near the rim. He has recruited good guys, and decent talent, but there is an obvious gap.
That TCU basketball is finally good enough to be disappointed at results in the NCAA Tournament is a major step.
It’s also time to take another one.
