TCU hopes to play complementary basketball as FAMU visits

TCU Horned Frogs hopes to play complementary basketball as FAMU visits

TCU has won five of its last six games, but for coach Jamie Dixon, there's still room for improvement on the offensive side.

For the most part, the Horned Frogs (8-3) have taken care of business during their nonconference schedule, but they have struggled to put up big numbers on offense. In their last three games, TCU has averaged 68.6 points per game.

Prior to that, however, TCU produced high offensive outputs, including 85 against Notre Dame, 84 versus 23rd-ranked Florida and 104 against St. Francis (PA).

Now it's just a matter of consistency for the Horned Frogs and they hope it starts when they host Florida A&M Rattlers (3-6) on Sunday.

"Offensively we were a little bit better, but we're still not where we want to be," Dixon said following the 72-53 win over Oral Roberts on Thursday. "We just haven't gotten it back to where we were, but we're going to fix it. ... We need to be a little bit better. I think we can be and I know we can be.

"We haven't shot it great, but we got our transition going last game, didn't get much this game and didn't get the steals we need to get," he added. "We have work to do. There's no question. We have work to do."

The one constant for TCU this season has been the play of David Punch, who is one of five players nationally averaging at least 14 points, seven rebounds, one assist and two blocks per game.

Punch has scored at least 12 points in his last six games, including 17 against Oral Roberts.

"It's my job to score," Punch said. "It's what I work on and I have to continue to show it and tap into my motor. That's the biggest thing that got me here so why stop using it?

"We were hungry for a good win," he added. "We've been practicing hard these last couple days and really last couple of weeks so we really wanted this win and show how hard we were working, how hard we've been trying to execute our offense and I feel like we did a pretty decent job."

Defensively, TCU continues to wreak havoc with 8.4 steals per game and are forcing 15.8 turnovers per contest. That has resulted in 15.5 fastbreak points per game.

That defensive intensity will be a test for the Rattlers, who have really struggled against top competition this season. FAMU has lost to South Florida, Kennesaw State, UCF and Georgia this season by an average margin of 30.5 points.

Their latest loss came at the hands of Tarleton State, a 78-54 defeat on Friday.

FAMU is led offensively by Antonio Baker, who is averaging 11.8 points per game this season. Jordan Chatman is coming off a 17-point performance against Tarleton State. The four-year Rattlers senior is averaging a career-best 10.3 points per game.

--Field Level Media