TCU Beats UW (Again) 86-71

Perhaps with revenge in their hearts, the Huskies were feeling themselves at the start of their first true road game the season, hitting on their first four 3’s to take a 22-5 lead in the first 10 minutes. The Huskies (4-3) seemed to be making everything, while the TCU Horned Frogs (7-0) missed on their first 15 of 17 from the floor. It seemed as though the Dawgs went straight for the Frogs’ jugular and that this game would be decided early... Oh how deceptive that lead was.

The Huskies had 16 turnovers in the first half (directly leading to 12 TCU points), and a season high 25 turnovers in the game. Despite leading by 17 points with 9 minutes to go in the first half, the Huskies ended up losing by 15, as TCU swept the Dawgs in a rare back-to-back non-conference matchup.

The Horned Frogs were lead, again, by Alex Robinson, who scored 16 points tonight after putting up 24 against the Huskies on Saturday.

After two early fouls lead to a quick benching for Fultz, the Huskies offense really seemed to struggle without him on the floor. Poor ball handling and communication lead to the season high in turnovers, with everyone seeming to contribute tonight. Fultz lead the team with 6, while David Crisp and Noah Dickerson both had 4, Sam Timmins had 3, and three other Huskies threw in 2 a-piece. That’s straight up trash.

TCU was able to rally behind Robinson on a 3 ¹⁄₂ minute, 18-0 run to give themselves a 23-22 lead with 5:53 left.

The second half began with a 32-29 TCU lead. The Huskies turnover woes continued, handing the ball over almost immediately on their first two possessions, leading directly to 3 more TCU points. The Horned Frogs then took over the game and ended up having multiple 17 point leads, on their way to the win.

Let’s talk about the only real bright spot for the Huskies (this season?), Markelle Fultz. Despite chants of “overrated” from the TCU student section, there were reportedly 16 NBA scouts on hand to watch the freshman phenom ball out. Fultz had the first double-double of his young career with 21 points and 14 boards, along with 6 assists, 2 steals and a block. Unfortunately, as previously mentioned, he did lead the team in turnovers, and went 4-9 from the line.

Random thoughts and notes from the game:

• Carlos Johnson contributed 13 points for the Dawgs, while Dominic Green threw in 11 of his own
• Timmins, Green and Johnson were the only Huskies to get significant minutes off the bench tonight
• Despite the deceiving 46 Husky boards, UW big men seem to have baddddd hands
• Speaking of rebounds, the Huskies continued a trend this season by really competing for offensive boards, which lead to a lot of second chance points for the Dawgs
• Fouls hurt the Huskies yet again, as both Dickerson and Matisse Thybulle fouled out, while Fultz had 4 of his own
• Thybulle is a great defender and a capable scorer, but only scored a combined 11 points in the last 2 games - we need him to stay out of foul trouble and pick it back up
• Dickerson had his second double-digit rebounding effort in a row with 11 boards

The Dawgs now get a week off before their biggest test of their non-conference schedule, a meeting with #8 Gonzaga in Spokane that will be nationally televised on ESPN. It’d be a long shot, but a road win against the Zags would do a lot to salvage the Huskies’ non-conference schedule.

Go Dawgs.

*Disclaimer: I had to listen to the first 5 minutes of this game on the radio while I scoured the internet for a link to the TV broadcast. Reddit is a beautiful thing my friends :)