LET'S see now. TCU stands for Technical Charitable University, right? 'Bows will have to steal one back on road
At least it seemed so, during last night's heated basketball game with Hawaii. Oh, the Horned Frogs won, not letting three technical fouls get in the way of an impressive 83-76 victory over the No. 24 Rainbows.
I might as well keep using No. 24 Rainbows as long as possible. It won't last much longer. If anything, TCU will probably replace Hawaii in the Top 25.
One of TCU's techs was against coach Billy Tubbs, who got in a heated face-off with Hawaii's Riley Wallace. So the refs called a double technical on the coaches.
No-harm, no-foul? Not really. As it turned out, it harmed Hawaii more.
Wallace got steamed after Eric Ambrozich was called for his third foul just before the half. Wallace bolted from his seat and roamed from the coach's box to question the call. Legally, it turned out, because time was called.
Tubbs figured nobody was going to get the better of him, so he came out yelling and screaming.
"Hey, you coach your team and I'll coach mine," Wallace told him in so many words during their heated exchange.
The Rainbows were leading at that point, 38-32, but Dennis Davis sank a one-and-one after Ambrozich's foul, which led to the double technical. TCU took the ball out because it had the possession arrow and tied the score at 38-all before Alika Smith banked one off the glass just before the halftime buzzer.
That turned out to be Hawaii's last hurrah as Texas Christian reeled off a 9-0 run starting the second half. If anything, the Rainbows were the charitable ones, turning the ball over seven times in the first five minutes after intermission.
"A lot of them were self-inflicted," said Wallace. "You got to give them credit. They got the lead and they're too good to come back on."
IT didn't help that Alika Smith and Anthony Carter went 2-for-13 from the 3-point line. Carter ended with only seven points, a season low other than a six-point outing when he hurt his shoulder against Tulane.
The "Dynamic Duo" they were not last night. Too bad.
The game was played before a sellout crowd of 10,254 at the Stan Sheriff Center (finally) and a national TV audience on ESPN. What hurt more is that in the WAC, a team's got to do what a team's got to do - that is, win your home games.
So when you win one on the road, as TCU did, it's like stealing. And Tubbs is no dummy. He didn't win more than 500 games in his career by shortchanging himself, even if it meant taking some heat.
Which is what he did back home after suspending his star player, Lee Nailon, for just one game, a slap on the wrist really, for assaulting his girl friend. So Nailon sat out the game at San Diego State as penance.
Nice message Tubbs sent: "There kid, that ought to teach you a lesson. Now pack your bags, you're going to Hawaii. We need you."
HEY, charity begins at home. After all, the real losers were the Rainbows as Nailon scored 17 points, though below his 25.4 average, and grabbed 11 rebounds.
"It was a tough loss. ESPN, sellout crowd and all that jazz. Now we've got to sit on a plane for 10 hours and think about it," said Micah Kroeger. The Rainbows left last night for games at Rice and Tulsa this week.
"This will be a chance to prove ourselves again. It seems like we're always having to prove ourselves," Kroeger added.
But Kroeger's looking forward to playing the Horned Frogs again, although it'll be at their place the next time (Feb. 12). "We'll be ready when we get to Fort Worth."
It could get ugly for the Rainbows there. I hope the "C" in TCU really stands for Charitable.