Utah State University will play Texas Christian University in the first round of the NCAA tournament tomorrow night in Indianapolis, Indiana at the Gainbridge Fieldhouse. This will be the third time the two teams have faced each other in either program’s history, with Utah State holding the series at 2-0.
In a pregame press conference, both teams seem confident in their outcome of the game, but they have different approaches to the mentality they will take going in.
“We’re a loose team,” TCU head coach Jamie Dixon said. “It doesn’t shock me.”
USU head coach Danny Sprinkle believes his team has a different attitude towards tomorrow night’s game.
“I think this group’s had a pretty business-type mindset all year,” Sprinkle said.
The overall sentiment from TCU’s players and coaches was to look out for the “big guy,” meaning Great Osobor.
“That big guy, how good he is,” Dixon said. “[He] really gets out in transition which you don’t expect to see… there is no question that their goal is to get him the ball.”
TCU plans to use their physical advantage to out-rebound and out-defend the Aggies.
“I think we’re just going to try to play physical with them. We didn’t see a lot of teams making them make cross-court pass, so we’re going to try to make them do a lot of those,” Xavier Cork said.
Along with playoff experience, TCU has a height advantage over USU, with four of their starters standing at over 6’7”.
“We have a very lengthy team, and I think that we can bother people just off of pure, like, athleticism,” Cork said.
Knowing this, however, is not changing Osobor’s attitude towards him going to the board for a bucket.
“I just have to be who I’ve been all season, and if I have the ball, to find the right person to score,” Osobor said.
Some of TCU’s team have played with each other for four years up to this point — a complete contrast to USU, whose team is just coming together for the first time this season.
“We’ve been here before,” Chuck O’Bannon Jr. said. “All five of us, we’re veteran guys. You know, we know what it takes, and so we’re just going to have to come together.”
Aggie Ian Martinez feels the experience TCU has will not be what moves tomorrow’s game in their favor.
“I would think that the main factor would be us just playing our game,” Martinez said.
Darius Brown II had the same sentiment.
“At the end of the day, it’s just a basketball game. No matter where it is or what type of setting it is,” Brown II said.
The team understands TCU comes from the Big 12 Conference. The Horned Frogs also get many points from transition offense.
“We made that a focus over the past two or three days, and our ability to get back in defense,” Osobor said.
Dixon took a personal shot at Sprinkle at the beginning of his press conference.
“They say he had no scoring returning, but he brought the players with him from his alma mater, Montana State,” Dixon said. “So I give him an asterisk on that one, Danny.”
Sprinkle made a half-court shot in the open practice Thursday before the game. Whether or not it was a good omen will be decided on the court on Friday night.
The post Game preview: USU vs. TCU appeared first on The Utah Statesman.
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