How Utah State embarrassed TCU, sending Horned Frogs home from NCAA tournament

Dreams of advancing to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament must wait another year after TCU was dispatched 88-72 by Utah State in the first-round matchup on Friday at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.

It was a jarring performance as the Aggies bullied the Horned Frogs in the paint and always had an answer for whatever TCU tried to establish.

“Tonight just wasn’t our night,” coach Jamie Dixon said. “We got off to a good start, but still didn’t feel like we were doing what we needed to do defensively. As the night went on they just continued to get layups and out-execute us. Simply put we were outplayed.”

The Horned Frogs only trailed 43-41 early in the second half when Ernest Udeh threw down an alley-oop dunk with 18:24 remaining. TCU didn’t know it at the time, but that would be the closest the Horned Frogs would get the rest of the way.

With TCU trailing 51-47 with just over 15 minutes remaining, the Horned Frogs allowed Utah State 7-foot center Isaac Johnson to knock down two straight 3-point goals. The Horned Frogs showed signs of making a comeback as Avery Anderson scored four straight points to pull within 59-53 with just over 12 minutes remaining.

Instead of turning up the energy on defense, TCU got lost in transition and gave up a wide open 3-point goal by an Martinez and then Darius Brown added another as the Horned Frogs found themselves back down double digits, 65-53, with 11:24 remaining. The Horned Frogs never got back within single digits after this point as Utah State continued to pull away.

“Credit to Utah State,” Emanuel Miller said. “They’re in this tournament for a reason. Great coach, great program, great culture. They competed. We went on a run and they did a good job of responding. You gotta hang your head high, we battled, we competed, but you have to to give the other team credit.”

The Horned Frogs finish the season 21-13 with a 3-6 record in their final nine games. JaKobe Coles led TCU with 19 points.

Utah State snapped a 10-game losing streak in NCAA tournament as the Aggies won by their widest margin in the tournament and will face Purdue on Sunday.

Bully ball

All week TCU was preparing for All-Mountain West Conference big man Great Osobor, but the Horned Frogs apparently didn’t prepare for his fellow big man Isaac Johnson. Johnson entered the contest only averaging 6.4 points per game, but against the Horned Frogs he went off a season-high 19 points as he scored buckets inside and from behind the arc.

The most frustrating thing about Johnson’s performance had to be how many easy looks the Horned Frogs gave him. There were multiple possessions where the 7-footer had smaller guards like Anderson and Trevian Tennyson guarding him and he punished that mismatch every time inside.

Johnson added two 3-point goals, went perfect 5-of-5 at the free throw line and also provided solid rim protection with his length. With Johnson excelling it didn’t even matter that Osobor dealt with foul trouble in the second half. When he was on the floor, Osobor showed why he’s one of the most improved players in the country with an impressive array of post moves and a nice finishing touch. He had 13 points.

“I recognized this was a good offensive team we were going against,” Dixon said. “I thought we made some improvements in area that could help us against them, but they had some other guys step up. They hit some shots, they made every free throw, they hit some 3s at the end of the clock.

“There was no other way to put it, they out-executed us.”

Miller’s final moment

Emanuel Miller showed no signs of a nagging ankle injury as he carried the offensive load for TCU in the first half. Miller knocked down a mid-range jumper and then a 3-pointer to give TCU an early 10-6 advantage. Later in the half after the Aggies took a 24-23 lead, Miller responded with another 3 to briefly put TCU back in the lead.

Miller finished with 11 in the first half and started the second with a bang as threw down a powerful dunk for TCU’s first points of the half. However, Miller went scoreless the rest of the way as Utah State began to trap him relentlessly and force other Horned Frogs to beat them.

It was an effective strategy as TCU’s offense never regain the form it had in the first half with Miller being limited. After the game Miller was clearly emotional fighting back tears as he talked about his time in Fort Worth.

“This season means everything, not only this season, but my entire time at TCU,” Miller said. “I’ll never forget it, it’s something I’m going to tell my kids about one day. I’m so blessed to have an opportunity to play here at TCU.”.

Lackluster start

After a solid start, TCU’s defensive woes became an issue once again in the final 10 minutes of the opening half. Both teams went nearly three minutes without a bucket until Darius Brown gave the Aggies their first lead of the game off an errant pass from Jameer Nelson Jr.

After that bucket, Utah State would make its next five shots in a row with most of them coming inside the paint. The Horned Frogs were able to keep pace with their offensive prowess as JaKobe Coles knocked down a 3-pointer to give TCU a 35-34 lead with 3:33 remaining, but the lead wouldn’t last long.

Utah State responded with a 9-0 run capped by Brown knocking down a 3 to make it 43-35. Micah Peavy finally stopped the run with an acrobatic offensive putback, but the damage had still been done. Utah State shot 53 percent in the first half and more than half of their points came in the paint.