BIG 12 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 14, 2024

Jamie Dixon

Micah Peavy

JaKobe Coles

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TCU Horned Frogs

Postgame Press Conference

Houston - 60, TCU - 45

THE MODERATOR: TCU Head Coach Jamie Dixon is here along with Micah Peavy and JaKobe Coles. Coach?

JAMIE DIXON: Congratulations to Houston, they're a good team. Obviously number one for a reason. Disappointed by our performance but told our guys I was proud of how we battled. We kept going. It wasn't our day, obviously, to make some shots, but also we won the second half. If you had told me we would outrebound by 16 I would have taken it, and obviously we would have been in a good spot. But the shooting, the missed layups, they wore us down.

Certainly we will look at it and get ready for the NCAA Tournament. Certainly not our night, and we -- as I told our guys, I was proud of how we kept battling, outscored them the second half. Outrebounded by 16, 30 offensive rebounds. That's probably a school record against the number one rebounding team in the country. There are some things that don't make sense, but that's where we're at and they're still playing and we're going home.

Q. Jamie, 0-16 to start the game. I thought you were creating good looks. Were shots not falling in or --

JAMIE DIXON: Yeah. There were some layups, I don't know how many were tough shots, but I thought there were a lot of layups with threes, we got a couple of kick-out threes on offensive rebounds. You know, it's probably something to do with them, because you can't take away from what they have done game after game, and their numbers are off the charts, but if you had told me we would get that many offensive rebounds, because generally offensive rebounds come from taking good shots and making the defense move, rotate, scramble.

I think Francis changed some shots. We did have nine shots blocked, and those general -- as I tell our guys, those are generally not good shots, but there were a number of missed layups and open threes, and we are a team that struggles when our shot doesn't go, when our offensive isn't clicking.

That's something we have been trying to work on, trying to improve on, but I thought we did that in the second half, defended and carried out what we were trying to do, got some better ball movement and kind of got the lid off the basket in the second half and outscored them in the second half, even after a slow start in the second half, too.

I think we went 0-8 to start the second half, too, and that's hard to come back from, 0-16 in the first half and 0-8 in the second half, but we kept battling, and I was proud of them for that.

Q. Both of you, I know it's hard to talk about it now, but you guys have been here three years, three straight NCAA Tournament appearances. What does it mean that you guys helped change the narrative about TCU basketball?

JAKOBE COLES: It's been great. A lot of us are from the area, and all of us coming in together from Texas, we wanted to make a point to come here and win, and I think we have done that over the course of three years. Today was upsetting. Coming into the game, we didn't expect to go 17 for 73. We did reiterate before the game to outrebound them, and we did that.

As far as overall, I think this is going to be a good tournament for us. Hopefully we can go on a deeper run than we have in the past. I believe in this team like I believed in them every year. We have the veteran guys, the leadership, the camaraderie, we have to piece it together and go far, but it's gotta click, for sure.

MICAH PEAVY: He answered everything I was going to say.

Q. Honestly, similar question, Jamie. I know this was part of the goal when you came back here getting to the point where fans expect you to get to the NCAA Tournament. How much does it mean to you that you have done that, and how much does this mean to you?

JAIME DIXON: I told them they're going to be pissed when we don't win games in the tournament, and they laughed when I said that, and what we have created, and every time we lose now, we talk about the losses instead of what used to be for 50 years, used to be the wins.

It's good. We're progressing. We're getting there. I thought we could be better, but our defense wasn't where it needed to be because of new guards, so many new guys, but we got better these last couple weeks, I think. We were better yesterday, and they shot 39% themselves. We outrebounded them by 16.

We did things that we really have been emphasizing today. So I'm -- you know, again, shoot, we're going to have some games where you don't make shots. This is a whole other level of not making shots, not making layups. I don't know, I haven't heard of that one before, at this rate, but I'm proud of our guys. I'm proud of where we're at.

I think we can be better, but we're running out of time. It's gotta get better. But, you know, we've worked -- these guys have put in a lot of time, a lot of effort in June, and it hasn't gotten exactly where I wanted it to be, but you know what? If we're going to play the number one team in the country and we get 30 offensive rebounds, outrebound them by 16, the effort is there. We didn't make shots today.

THE MODERATOR: Thank you, Coach.