After throwing myself a pity party when we lost to Utah, I was only met with more reason to keep partying. Every major Bracketology outlet has us in the First Four Out category, and every NIT outlet has us as a lock for their tournament. Now, there is a sliver of hope; like a 0.000001 % chance that we can still make it but we will need help along the way. We did get some of that help today as Cincinnati (who we’ve beaten twice) knocked off 8th ranked Kansas (who we’ve also beat). If good things like that keep happening I think we could be in a very favorable spot with the committee. I can’t get too excited though, because we have to win out the rest of our schedule to even have a chance. TCU is 6-7 this year in conference play so I like our chances, but I won’t put my cart before the horse.
For the majority of the first half we played well. I would even say that we were in control; we had some short comings, of course. We only shot 25% from 3, we turned the ball over 9 times, and we are losing the rebounding battle but we were up as much as 8. TCU decided that enough was enough and went on a run of their own led by Junior Liutauras Levevicius (who I have never heard of until this game). He lead the charge and all scorers with 14 and as someone who’ve averaging 7.6 PPG this year he seems like he’s a bit in front of his skis, so it only makes sense that he’s having this kind of game against the Mountaineers.
We trailed 30-25 at the half and if you wanted a glimpse into what our play has been like during the last 8 minutes, look no further than Harlan Obioha missing 3 straight layups before the horn. A completely uninspired stretch of game to allow TCU to come back followed by a blown opportunity to gain back some momentum. Mountaineer Basketball: Tougher than a weekend at your in-laws.
It took us a while, but it seems like Coach Hodge’s halftime speech worked because we were able to even up the game with 10 minutes left in the 2nd half. Don’t get it twisted; we couldn’t pull away at any point, but bringing it level was the first step. The rest of the half was a pretty back and forth battle where neither team could get the better of the other.
That is until we had a 5 minute run where we didn’t make a FG. That horrid stretch allowed TCU to take the lead and we fall 60-54. I don’t even know what to say. I’m not mad, I’m just disappointed. The only real solace I have about this loss is that I was prepared for it. I knew it was going to be a longshot for us to make the tournament, and now I know that we won’t. It’s disappointing but expected. If we don’t win the NIT now though, I will be FURIOUS. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that I’m not doing the Roundball Big 3 of the Game again because this team didn’t deserve it.
What a shitty way to go down, but at least the rest of the year has ZERO pressure. We’ve got a short turnaround before our next game on Tuesday against Oklahoma State, so I’m just going to try and get in a good headspace about the year that could have been.
I love you, Dad. I miss you.
Round The Game 
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