You know what happens when you go up, and Texas Christian has gone down hard as of late.
After starting the season 11-4, the Horned Frogs have gone 2-9 since starting Western Athletic Conference play, and dipped from second place in the Pacific Division to a tie for fourth.
The hardest fall came last Saturday, when TCU lost to a San Jose State squad that was winless in WAC play.
“We just did not compete defensively,” Frogs coach Mike Petersen said. What he couldn’t understand, he said, was why.
“If I knew, I would’ve prevented it,” he said.
Losing to the Spartans left TCU (13-9, 4-7 WAC) and four teams ? including San Diego State ? battling for the division’s last two berths in the WAC Tournament.
The Aztecs will battle the Horned Frogs for one of those playoff spots at 7 p.m. tomorrow at Cox Arena.
The tournament works like this: The top six teams from each division make it in. The first- and second-place teams in each division receive first-round byes.
The remaining teams square off in reverse order: The Pacific’s third-place team plays the Mountain’s No. 6, and vice-versa.
TCU, as No. 4 in the Pacific, would take on Brigham Young (10-11, 4-6 WAC), the Mountain’s fifth-place squad.
This is where seeding becomes critical, Petersen said.
Judging by the numbers, the Mountain is more like peaks and valleys. Fourth-place Texas-El Paso is 7-4 in WAC play and 12-9 overall. BYU has a 4-6 record.
“That’s a big gap between teams,” he said.
So you can forgive Petersen if he feels a sense of urgency about this weekend. At press time he had to visit not only first-place Hawaii, but an SDSU team aiming for at least a chance to defend its conference title. Wondering whom his team is playing next month isn’t on his mind.
“That’s a long, hard trip,” Petersen said. “My biggest concern is getting into the tournament.”
By contrast, the Aztecs stumbled out of the gate and have had problems regrouping throughout the season, thanks to a combination of illness, injury and, most recently, the dismissal of guard Deidra Rucker. The tournament hopes of both teams probably hinge on this game.
That makes the battle of the backcourts more crucial. TCU guards Amy and Jill Sutton and Leah Garcia are all scoring in double figures (Jill Sutton is leading the way with 14.3 ppg.)
Jill Sutton scored 17 points in TCU’s 83-68 win over SDSU on Jan. 10, the two teams’ last meeting. She and senior Buffy Ferguson will get the start against the Aztecs.
Charlie Murray and Sophia Sledge, tomorrow’s probable starting backcourts, will need to contain the Suttons for SDSU’s chances to increase. Murray scored 16 points, including four three-pointers, against the Frogs last time.
Overall TCU is third in the conference in scoring. Its 74-ppg average trails only division leaders Hawaii and Colorado State. But they surrender 68.4 points a game, only seven fewer than conference doormat Air Force, a stat which should give Petersen a reason to be wary heading into this weekend.
