After winning at least 21 games and playing in the NCAA Tournament each of the last three seasons, TCU is a longshot to replicate that feat this year.
It hasn’t been for a lack of success in the clutch. In conference games decided by five or fewer points, the Horned Frogs are 7-0. In the rest of their Big 12 tests, they are 1-8.
It’s a credit to the poise of the Horned Frogs (15-12, 8-8 Big 12) that they have a .500 mark in the Big 12 while giving up exactly 100 more points in conference games than they have scored.
On Tuesday, TCU takes its seize-the-moment formula to West Virginia (16-11, 7-9) with a chance to sweep the Mountaineers for the second straight year.
In their first meeting on Feb. 5, the Horned Frogs were true to their form. The score was tied before Vasean Allette produced seven points in the final 62 seconds of a 65-60 victory.
A week later, Allette was the hero again as he drained a turnaround 3-pointer in the final second for a 73-72 win over Oklahoma State.
TCU’s three-game winning streak ended with Saturday’s 75-63 loss at Cincinnati. Afterward, coach Jamie Dixon harped on TCU surrendering 12 offensive rebounds and earning just four free throws.
“I gotta get us to the foul line more,” he said.
After pulling off its best win of the season, a 64-57 upset of then-No. 2 Iowa State, West Virginia has lost seven of its last 10, including a 73-51 defeat at ninth-ranked Texas Tech on Saturday.
After leading by seven points late in the first half, the Mountaineers collapsed.
“We came in, pretty good mindset today, and then that second half just got away from us,” coach Darian DeVries said.
West Virginia has struggled to find another threat to pair with Javon Small (18.2 points) after losing DeVries’ son, Tucker (14.9 points), to a season-ending shoulder injury.
Small had success with dribble-drive penetration Saturday, but had trouble finishing against Texas Tech’s imposing frontcourt duo of 6-foot-9 JT Toppin and 6-foot-11 Federiko Federiko.
TCU will counter Small on Tuesday with top scorer Noah Reynolds (12.7 ppg) who — true to form for the clutch Horned Frogs — hit a 2-point jump shot with 11 seconds left in TCU’s upset of Texas Tech on Feb. 18.
