BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL TIPOFF MEDIA DAY

October 18, 2023

Jamie Dixon

TCU Horned Frogs

Media Day Press Conference

JAMIE DIXON: Good to be here.

Excited about our group. Obviously it's funny, we talk about transfers and everybody talks about that, but I think we have the most returning scoring in the league. I think BYU is up there with us.

I'd like to talk about our returning guys, five of them, all who played a lot of basketball, won a lot of games for us. Excited about them. Three of them are here, Emanuel, JaKobe, and Micah, and then Xavier and Chuck I wanted to bring along, too, but I wasn't allowed to.

Those are five guys that won a lot of games for us and all came in around the same time, and we got better because of them.

Good group, good core, and five transfers we got in the spring, and we've got two great high school players, too, and some great walk-ons. I really like our team. We're working hard. Foreign trip, went to London and Paris, and later this year we'll be in Washington, D.C., great city, and then Toronto, we're going to go play up there, and then we're playing in the Diamond head classic in Hawai'i.

We're seeing some great cities and some great experiences for our players.

Q. Obviously E-man went through the draft process but decided to come back, now he's pre-season all-Big 12. How big of a decision was that for him?

JAMIE DIXON: Again, we're going to be doing this a lot. Where we're at now in the Big 12, to be good, you're going to have to beat good players and guys are going to be tested in the water. It was something we expected. Did it last year with Mike and Damian, and we'll continue to do it in the future.

But we want what's best for them. They go through the process. If they're going to be a first-round pick, now I think it's second round or guaranteed two-ways you probably go to the NBA, and we'll take them there and get them their best shot because it's a hard path to get there. So when the time is right, the time is right and they've got to go.

E-man is a hard worker. We've talked to him about what he needs to do to get to the next level and guarding on the perimeter and shooting threes at a higher rate, not percentage because he shot 40 percent, 39 on the year last year, are the things that we discussed for him to get to. He's a 6'6", 6'7" wing and is getting better and better on the perimeter, both offensively and defensively.

It's just part of the process. The great thing now is you have that opportunity to play another year in college, and with NIL it becomes almost an easier decision at some point, but other times it can be a more challenging decision.

But he loves TCU. He's great. I think no student-athlete better recognized that than him at the NCAA Tournament last year about how great his experience has been at TCU and how much TCU means to him because he means a lot to our program and to our school.

Q. Jameer Nelson, Jr. was a productive player at Delaware and a big pickup for you out of the portal. How has his transition been from the coastal athletic association to the Big 12 so far and how do you expect it to develop throughout the season?

JAMIE DIXON: I think it's a work in progress. The interesting thing about Jameer was an English major so he had to finish out some classes in the summer so he didn't get here until August. He did go on our trip, but I don't think he even practiced prior to that.

He's getting better and better. He's a strong, physical guard that gets to the basket, shoots it pretty well. Obviously we're replacing two really good guards in Damian and Mike Miles, so we need to have great guards. You have to have them in this league to be successful.

We think with him, we think with Avery, we think with Trey, we really picked up three really good guards, but getting ready for the Big 12, obviously Avery has been through it, getting him healthy has been our challenge with Avery, but those guys got to be great for us. We had great guards last year.

The difference these guys hopefully they're out there -- with Damian and Mike, they missed 15 games combined last year for us, and in our league, that's going to cost you some, and that's what happened to us, to be honest. We need them out there. We need them getting better.

They're certainly going to be -- in my mind, it's not what they do in November, it's where they get to once conference play goes in January and February.

Q. You spoke about Jameer a little bit. Talk about Ernest Udeh and what you have seen from him coming into campus from Kansas this summer?

JAMIE DIXON: Great energy, just loves campus, loves his teammates. He's excited. He's having fun.

Defensively he's what we needed. We felt we weren't where we needed to be defensively last year at that position, so we think there's a dramatic improvement there defensively.

Offensively it's development. We've got to keep getting him better. But his energy, his ability to run the floor, those are the things that really stand out, and his improvement in the time that he got there. He was a little late getting to us, too, as well, this summer, but it's been a good transition for him. We're really excited.

He's a great kid. He's having fun on campus and really -- he's probably going to be at the volleyball game tonight. He goes to the volleyball games. He's an outgoing kid. He's at the football games. He really enjoys himself and really a great part of our campus.

Q. We know Micah was obviously a top-notch defender last year. What strides have you seen him take on the offensive end this season?

JAMIE DIXON: Yeah, last year he was good for us in the summer and start of the year and just some injuries and just wasn't as efficient as we thought. But I believe he's going to be that this year. He was really good this summer.

He's been out for about three weeks now with an injury to his hand. Nothing I think that's going to linger as the year goes on. But he's huge for us. He's big, and we're playing him a lot at the guard spot, so we could be really big with the lineup we put out there. But he's making really good decisions this year, better I think than ever. The shooting has been -- last year he shot it really well early in the summer and into the fall, injuries early, and then kind of didn't get back to it.

But we really believe he's going to be very efficient this year. We really do believe it. I do believe it. He's a big part of what we're trying to do. He's so versatile, defends, rebounds, and can get other guys shots and can make shots. He will make shots this year.

Q. Cincinnati is a program that you're really familiar with from your Pittsburgh days. Can you describe what type of impact they'll have on this league in terms of tradition and history?

JAMIE DIXON: You know, I haven't been in the new arena, the renovation anyway. Is it pretty nice? I know they were working on it just as we were moving.

But just the history, basketball -- I was talking about some of these schools, the history that goes way back. I do remember Oscar Robertson sitting courtside. How many schools can do that, have maybe the greatest of all time sitting courtside.

The history of place is remarkable basketball-wise. It's amazing. They love it. I think it's a great addition to our league. We've played a lot over there.

I know there's a rivalry now -- what's the name of the football game, what do they call it, River City, some kind of rivalry game, but we loved playing against them. Recruited over there a lot in Cincinnati. Never seemed to get a guy or beat them on a player, either Xavier Ohio or Ohio State or Cincinnati, but we did recruit over there a lot, too.

Q. Are you familiar with the family ties between the two programs with their SIDs?

JAMIE DIXON: Oh, yeah, yeah, Cohens. Yeah I was thinking of my guy here. Yeah, well aware. Well aware. I know it's going to be a rivalry game in the Cohen household, yes. Well aware of it.

The other thing is I've gotten to know Coach Miller really well over the summer. I saw him play. I did all that against them. But I saw him play when he was at a prep school before. But we've become good friends in the last 12 months or so in the meetings and sitting in the rain at Rucker Park in the summer that Brett set up for us this summer.

Yeah, I know about the Cohens and the rivalry.

But remember, he grew up a Horned Frog. Let's remember now, he may be a Cincinnati Bearcat, but he grew up a Horned Frog.