TCU to play Kansas
Dougherty will face former team at home in December
By Matt Potter
Staff Reporter

This year’s men’s basketball schedule will bring some of the nation’s elite teams to Daniel-Meyer Coliseum.

Two of the Horned Frogs’ opponents this season, Kansas and Marquette, reached last year’s Final Four. Kansas, one of college basketball’s most prominent and respected programs, comes to Daniel-Meyer Coliseum Dec. 1 in a game that will be nationally televised on ESPN. The Jayhawks were the runner-up in last year’s NCAA tournament. The Frogs will travel to Milwaukee to play Marquette Feb. 3.

“Playing a team like Kansas with the reputation that they have will be good for our program,” head coach Neil Dougherty said. “It will be a big game from the fans’ standpoint as well as for our team.”

The game against Kansas will be Dougherty’s first against his former program. He was an assistant coach at Kansas for seven years before taking over the head coaching position at TCU last year.

“The Kansas game should bring in a lot of fans,” junior forward Marcus Sloan said. “It should be a game that will show us how we compare to one of the nation’s top teams.”

The Frogs have another high profile game Dec. 10 when they travel to Lubbock to take on Bobby Knight and the Texas Tech Red Raiders. The Frogs will try to avenge last year’s 84-66 loss to the Raiders.

The Frogs play two exhibition games before starting the regular season Nov. 22. Ten of the Frogs’ 12 nonconference games are at home this year, as opposed to only six last season. Twenty of the Frogs’ 31 games are at home this season.

Starting Nov. 7, the Frogs start a seven game home-stand beginning with Interhoop, a non-collegiate all-star team, and ending with McMurray State Dec. 3.

The Conference USA schedule starts Jan. 10 at home against Tulane. Beginning this year C-USA schools will compete in one, 14-team division instead of the two, seven-team divisions in which it competed in during previous years. This will allow TCU to face every opponent in the conference at least once.

TCU takes on conference rival Memphis once at home and once on the road. Also coming to town are the Louisville Cardinals, who are coached by former Kentucky and Boston Celtics coach Rick Pitino. The Cardinals made it to the second round of the NCAA tournament last year.

The Frogs finish the regular season March 6 at Alabama-Birmingham. If the Frogs earn one of the top 12 spots in the conference, they will travel to Cincinnati to play in the C-USA tournament March 10 to 13 at U.S. Bank Arena in Cincinnati.