TCU Basketball: 2017-18 preview for the rising Horned Frogs

TCU Basketball is on the rise under head coach Jamie Dixon. Is this the year that the Horned Frogs get back to the NCAA Tournament?

When conference realignment occurred back in 2012, TCU was one of the biggest winners when the Big 12 gave them an invitation to their power-5 conference. While it gave their excellent football program an even bigger stage to play on, the basketball program has struggled.

While the Horned Frogs were on top of the Mountain West in football before moving to the Big 12, they were still at the bottom in basketball. When the basketball team moved to the Big 12, it was a mighty struggle just to win a conference game, let alone actually compete with the best.

That changed last year with the arrival of former Pittsburgh coach and TCU alum Jamie Dixon. The team started off 8-0 and was looking like a potential tournament team.

As good as the start was, the finish was as bad with a seven-game losing streak towards the end of conference play, effectively ending any at-large hopes. They did pull off their biggest Big 12 win in school history with the upset win against Kansas in the conference tournament quarterfinals, though.

That momentum continued into the NIT, where they won the championship.

This season sets up well for TCU to take another step in the right direction. Their top six scorers return from last season, and the role players who graduated are being replaced by freshmen who are highly-rated. The starters, however, basically remain the same.