Big 12 Basketball: Preseason power rankings for 2020-21 season

Despite the best efforts of Desmond Bane and improved performances from sophomores RJ Nembhard and Kevin Samuel, TCU Basketball could only manage to finish 16-16 overall. That’s because the rest of the roster vastly underperformed, thanks in part to the transfer exodus the offseason prior.

There was much less roster upheaval this time around, although outside of the key juniors, there weren’t many other rotation players that would’ve been missed. The Horned Frogs are hoping that guards Francisco Farabello and PJ Fuller will replace the production from now-graduated Edric Dennis and Jaire Grayer. USC transfer Charles O’Bannon will look to find some minutes after playing mostly on the bench in the past couple of years.

The biggest Achilles heel for TCU last season was the lack of any frontcourt production outside of Samuel. Ohio State transfer Jaedon Ledee struggled mightily but will get another shot to start the season at the power forward position. But he’ll get plenty of competition from three-star freshman Terren Frank, as well as young center Eddie Lampkin.

Look for point guard Nembhard and center Samuel to have big individual campaigns and potentially make All-Big 12. But the question will be who the third-leading scorer will be, as well as how much production can the Horned Frogs get from the rest of the rotation. If that doesn’t get answered in the first few games of the season, it could be a long one for TCU, no matter what the two juniors do.