SAN DIEGO -- In its first NCAA Tournament win in 35 years, TCU smothered Seton Hall and held the Pirates to just 28.8% shooting in a first-round game Friday at Viejas Arena.
The Horned Frogs (21-12) advanced to a second-round game against Arizona on Sunday at 6:40 p.m. The game will be carried on TBS.
"We've been preaching what we could become and what we have been defensively at times," TCU coach Jamie Dixon said. "I think today you saw it for 40 minutes. I thought it was a special effort, a special performance. That's the team we can become."
The Pirates managed to hit just 15 of 52 shots from the field, including just 6 of 21 from 3-point range, while committing 16 turnovers that led to 15 TCU points.
Arizona committed 19 turnovers in its 87-70 first-round win over Wright State earlier Friday, though those led to just eight Wright State points.
In the late game, TCU also clobbered Seton Hall inside, outrebounding the Pirates 46-25 and scoring 40 points in the paint to Seton Hall's 14. Pirates coach Kevin Willard said he tried to warn his guys about TCU's physicality.
"I thought they got into us early in the game, kind of shook us, to be honest with you," Willard said. "We spent the last four days really trying to talk about how they were going to play us, what they were going to do. And I think until you go against a team, especially with two big physical guards that can control tempo, control pick-and-rolls, I think it's hard to kind of explain. I think their physicality definitely was something that kind of surprised us."
TCU is just 6-8 since the beginning of February, but Dixon said he's seen growth in a young team that rates just 279 in experience as defined by Kenpom.
"We challenged them all year because we knew we brought in a group of guys that never played together," Dixon said. ".... and we had all kinds of adversity early, injuries, COVID shutdown, the usual, which we all seem to get. But we battled through it, got better and we're playing our best basketball now."
Before TCU played Friday, the Horned Frogs watched part of Arizona's win over Wright State with the anticipation they would meet the Wildcats in the second round.
"They obviously have two good bigs starting that can score and rebound," TCU guard Mike Miles said of UA. "They've obviously got Bennedict (Mathurin), the guard who's a projected lottery pick. We know what they have. Obviously we needed to know. That's why we were watching the game.
"We're going to prepare and scout them play but we gotta just play the same defense we did today. That will put us in a good position against them."
The win for TCU, coincidentally (or maybe not) was the first since 1987, when TCU coach Jamie Dixon was actually a player for the Horned Frogs.
"Thirty five years. That's crazy. It's crazy," TCU forward Emanuel Miller said. "It's been a long time coming, I think. This program is slowly shifting the culture of TCU basketball. We're showing what TCU basketball is about right now."
Asked if he reminisced about the 1987 win after this one, Dixon said he really didn't.
"I hadn't really thought about it," Dixon said. "I get asked about it all the time. So I always try to defer that question when we've gotten to the tournament before and won games, and they've been heading towards postseason.
"Before the game, I thought about myΒ parents who couldn't be here today because of health issues, and then I thought -- we drove by University of San Diego -- I thought of my sister tonight because she played there. So I thought of her. But I didn't think about myself or 35 years ago."
