TCU v. SDSU

We know this isn't about a SoCal team. Nope, it's about a Texas team and what they're probably going to do to a SoCal team when they come to San Diego State on January 17 to play in the brand new arena in a WAC game. Who are we talking about?

Billy Tubbs has assembled perhaps the greatest scoring team of this decade. Tubbs is the former coach at Oklahoma who coached the Sooners when they had Mookie Blaylock, Stacey King and Harvey Grant, which went to the NCAA finals in 1988. Thought those guys could score? You ain't seen nothin' until you see this years Horned Frogs team.

TCU has compiled quite a record. They are now 8-0 after tonight's game at Baylor which they won by a score of 99-75, the first time they haven't cracked 100 points in four games. But it's not just how many games they've won that's so impressive, it's by how many points they won them.

In the nine games they've played, their opponents have scored 706 points, averaging 78.4 points per game. If you include

In those same nine games, the Horned Frogs of Texas Christian University have scored 1032 points exactly. They are averaging 114.66 points per game.

They are averaging 2.86 points for every minute of the nine 40 minute games they've played.

If you exclude their first game, in which their margin of victory was only 11 points (a 78-67 victory over Southwest Missouri State), TCU is averaging 119 points per game through December 13!! That's 3.02 points per minute per game.

How have they done it? In addition to Southwest Missouri, they beat LIU 105-95. Then they took it up a notch and beat Texas Tech 107-76. But they really took off with their game against Texas Pan American just after Thanksgiving on the 29th of November when they pounded them 153-87. Then they went after Delaware State, just creaming them 138-75, and kept right on rolling with a 133-74 destruction of Morgan State. Their game last week wasn't as impressive though. They only won by 39 points, beating North Texas 113-74. On Friday night, they beat Mississippi Valley State 106-83, and tonight they beat Baylor by 24 points. It was only the first time in the last seven games they failed to break 100, and obviously, they only missed it by one point.

Who's doing all the damage? Guard Mike Jones is currently among the nation's scoring leaders, averaging 26.4 points. He's also getting 6.9 assists and 6.5 rebounds per game. He's the number 11 steals leader in the country, with 3.5 per game over 8 games. And he's the number five scorer in the country, just two back from Lee Nailon.

Teammate Lee Nailon is currently 3rd in scoring in the US, hitting 28.5 points per game, and is hauling down 8.8 rebounds per contest. Malcolm Johnson completes the offensive triangle, averaging 22.3 points and 5.8 rebounds. Johnson is 16th in the nation in scoring. And Prince Fowler is the No. 11 assist leader in the US, with 7.3 per game.

So what are they going to do to San Diego State? Well, the Aztecs are now 3-4, and have only scored a total of 472 points in six games, and are averaging only 78.6 points per game, twelve points below the average of the teams which have been beaten by TCU. A comparison of their rosters reveals the following:

Texas Christian University

NO. PLAYER              POS    HT    WT    CLASS
--  ------              ---    --    --    -----
 3  Thomas McTyer        G     5-10  165     FR
10  Prince Fowler        G     5-10  165     JR
11  Patrick Batteaux     G     6-1   190     SO
20  Luke Allan           G     6-4   175     JR
22  James Penny          G     6-6   185     SR
23  Malcolm Johnson      G     6-4   195     SR
24  Mike Jones           G     6-3   210     SR
25  Ryan Carroll         F     6-4   185     FR
31  Jon Day              C     6-9   220     JR
32  Scott Gradney        F     6-8   195     JR
42  Scott Barrett        F     6-7   220     SO
44  Dennis Davis         F     6-9   235     SR
54  Lee Nailon           F     6-9   230     JR

San Diego State Aztecs

NO. PLAYER              POS    HT    WT    CLASS
--  ------              ---    --    --    -----
 3  Jason Richey         G     6-1   175     SR
 4  Kevin Betts         G-F    6-4   190     SR
 5  Brady Trenkle        G     5-11  195     JR
11  Josko Visnjic        F     6-10  210     JR
12  Will Porter          G     6-1   185     SO
21  Aaron Brown          F     6-6   220     FR
22  Matt Watts          G-F    6-3   190     JR
42  Marcelo Correa       C     6-10  220     FR
45  Stephen Clark        F     6-8   210     SO
52  Roy Kruiswyk        F-C    6-8   230     SR

On paper, San Diego should be able to match up pretty well; compare TCU's front line: Three 6'-9" guys, one 6'-8", and one 6'-7" guy. SDSU has two 6'-10 guys, and two 6'-8 guys. But look at the difference in scoring production: Lee Nailon is the 3rd leading scorer in the nation, Mike Jones is fifth, and the leading scorer for San Diego Jason Richey, is only averaging 16.7 ppg. Lucky for him though, he's averaging 3.0 assists.

Is TCU for real? We don't know. They received 38 votes in the USA Today poll, and are the first team just out of the top 25, so we guess that makes them the No. 26 team in the country. If you believe the AP poll, they got 71 votes, which would make them the number 28 team. They've beaten some good talent, including potential NCAA tourney teams in LIU and Texas Tech.

We're guessing that TCU will win. By a lot. And it should be a real entertaining game to watch.

You thought Loyola Marymount used to play the fast-break offense? Go see the Horned Toads when they come to San Diego State's new arena on January 17. It's a game you don't want to miss.