At 541 feet above sea level, TCU basketball coach Jamie Dixon gave a thesis on topography that probably wouldn’t be accepted by leading doctoral students.
“You know, I’m a big surveyor,” Dixon said Tuesday with his wry smile, used in this case to indicate that he’s actually not a surveyor. “I’ve never used the word topography in my life, but I thought it was the right word.
“How tall is Fort Worth, do you know?” That’s 560 feet, unless you’re at the top of the stadium. Then it gets to 600. What else do you want to know?
The subject was actually altitude and elevation above sea level. The coach was indeed quite close. The topic was relevant because of where the Frogs were headed for the first round of the men’s NCAA tournament.
The site is Denver, the Mile High City, at over 5,200 feet above sea level. According to science, higher altitude makes it more difficult for an athlete’s blood to carry oxygen to the working muscles and brain.
It’s a problem because the athletes and everyone who works there hasn’t been used to it for as long as… well, for as long as the athletes and everyone who works there has been playing and working there.
No. 22 TCU is in the strange position of not knowing who it will play. The No. 6 seed Frogs will face the winner of the Arizona State-Nevada game. These two play in what’s called a “First Four” match Wednesday at 8 p.m. at Ball Arena in Denver. The winner will advance to the round of 16 as the 11th seed.
The team will likely watch the game together after arriving in Denver earlier Wednesday.
TCU and its TBD will play Friday at 9:05 p.m.
Not knowing the opponent is a “very strange” situation, Chuck O’Bannon said, but, to borrow a popular turn of phrase, it is what it is.
This game will mark the first time since 1953 that TCU has made back-to-back NCAA Tournament appearances. It was a different time and place, 1953. Eisenhower inaugurated, Queen Elizabeth II crowned and Joseph Stalin gave up the ghost, no doubt being sent down the escalator. This year’s team is the 10th in school history to play in the NCAAs, including three appearances in the last six seasons.
These Frogs carry a chip on their shoulders after a controversial finish in the NCAA tournament a year ago. With the score tied at 75 and seven seconds left against Arizona in the second round, Frogs star guard Mike Miles was dribbling near midcourt when he was hit by an overzealous defender, Dalen Terry.
The game officials swallowed their whistles. Miles lost the ball and the game went into overtime in an eventual TCU loss.
A bitter ending is better than endless bitterness, according to someone on Pinterest. Let’s just say the Frogs haven’t forgotten the bad taste.
“It’s been a motivator all year,” said O’Bannon, who scored a team-high 23 points against Arizona and has the hot hand heading into the tournament after scoring 22 in a Big 12 tournament win over Kansas State and 12 on 4. of 7 shooting in a loss to Texas. “To this day we talk about that last game. We just want to make another run in the tournament and go a lot further.
O’Bannon says the inspiration was immediate. Dixon told the team, amid the blood, sweat and tears in the locker room after the game, that “what we did this year was special,” O’Bannon recalled. “No one expected it and next year it could be even more special.”
The time of redemption has arrived.
The first item on the agenda will be altitude. Do you know what else happened in 1953? Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay became the first to successfully climb the 29,000-foot Mount Everest. Luckily, the Frogs won’t have to do that.
TCU played Utah earlier this season in Salt Lake City. The more than 4,220 feet above sea level didn’t seem to bother anyone in purple. TCU won this game 75-70.
“I’ve played in (high altitude) places before, so I knew what to expect,” O’Bannon said. “And, actually, I like these meditative breathing exercises before games and stuff like that just to calm my mind and it actually helps me with my cardio.
“But also one of the things they told us, we need to hydrate… to not feel (the effects), you basically have to overhydrate. So that’s what we plan to do.
