When the Frogs took to the floor against UT Pan American on Wednesday night, it represented the 50th game of the Jim Christian era. With an overall record of (24-26) and a conference record of (7-14), he has yet to bring the instant success we had hoped for when TCU hired him away from Kent State. He came with a decorated record of (138-58) in 6 seasons, earning 20-win seasons each year, but more importantly he received 3 invitations to the NIT and 2 to the NCAA Tournament, but to date has none of these at TCU. As the Frogs and their coach pass a milestone of sorts, it seems fitting to look back on the program and look forward to what lies ahead.

With the Frogs playing UNLV this Saturday, Jim Christian will replay a game that represents his biggest victory to date at TCU. Last season the Frogs played one of their most complete games against the Rebels getting 20, 18 and 15 points from Zvonko Buljan, Edvinas Ruzgas and Ronnie Moss respectively in an 80-73 victory. At the time, the Rebels were (13-2) and looked like a sure thing for the NCAA tournament. Instead they would finish the season (8-9), end up 5th in the Mountain West standings and with an RPI ranking of 73.

The game represented a lot at the time and seemed to be an indication that the Frogs might be heading down the right path. Despite the fact that Kevin Langford was the leader of the team, the future suddenly looked bright. The game seemed to be a perfect storm in some ways because the announced crowd of 3,924 actually had 3,924 people there, not just 3,500 empty seats bought by season ticket holders as has been the norm. And what they witnessed seemed to provide hope that the Frogs were improving.

The following week brought a road loss to league favorite BYU and a road win at Air Force, before coming home for an exciting overtime win over Wyoming. After 5 games, the Frogs were (4-1) and in 1st place in the Mountain West and the UNLV game was easily the springboard to this success.

But the home game against New Mexico seems to be the game that summed up everything you need to know about the TCU basketball program. 5,590 people showed up that Saturday with an excited student section in tow proving that TCU can support a basketball program if they have something to rally around. Unfortunately, the game was one of the worst the Frogs played all season as they never led in the game and fell behind by double digits just 8 minutes into the game. Buljan played erratically, Ruzgas could not get open and Moss was suspended for the game. And in many ways, that malaise hung over the Frogs in their remaining games as they finished the season (1-11).

Year 2 has provided moments of hope and moments of despair. To start the year, the Frogs were moments away from going to New York to play Duke in the NIT. Instead, the Frogs squandered an 8 point lead over the last 4 minutes against Arizona State and were sent home for Thanksgiving instead. Just 4 days later, the Frogs were tied on the road with Nebraska with 5 minutes to go before losing and later in the season would lose a 14 point lead against Texas Tech before it was erased in the 2nd half.

On the flip side, the Frogs have hardly been a tough team at home. After starting the season by barely beating lower division Mid America Christian at home, they needed triple overtime to get by Texas State, before losing to Louisiana Tech, Texas Tech and Northern Colorado. As I put in an article after the Northern Colorado game, the ship was sinking and was in need of repair.

Christian understood the need to start over and began by having the team take a new team picture. He believed the squad needed to let go of the past and start over. Since that time they have been (4-0) at home and nearly closed out San Diego State on the road before failing to close out the game.

But closing out games is exactly the problem. There are so many times where the Frogs seem to understand their system, but never for a whole game. If the game was played for 20 minutes, the Frogs could be well on their way to a 20 win season. But this team has shown an incapability to play as a team for 40 minutes, instead reverting to an individualistic approach when the going gets tough. And the 2 culprits most guilty of this are the 2 players the Frogs rely on most – Buljan and Moss.

Buljan was supposed to be a major player for the Frogs this year. Before the season, he was voted by the media to the All-Mountain West preseason team and for good reason. Capable of a double-double every night, he is a player full of potential. The only thing limiting him last season was his feisty attitude which made him the villain at most opposing arenas. His behavior would lead to erratic play and those inconsistencies had a way of affecting his teammates.

After a full year under Jim Christian, he was supposed to break out this year. Instead, there are times where Buljan has become a handicap for this squad. He is the tallest player playing for the Frogs, which he uses to grab lots of rebounds. He is an effective rebounder on the defensive end averaging over 7 rebounds per game ranking him 13th in the country, but he also appears overwhelmed at times as he ranks 38th in the country at picking up fouls. We knew he would struggle down low with the absence of Kevin Langford, but we did not expect Nikola Cerina to capably guard opposing big men. As a result, Buljan should be able to use his height to his advantage on both ends of the floor, but he does not. He spends much of his time acting like a guard and remains erratic. Over 30 percent of his shots are from behind the arc and his shooting percentages have all gone down. More appalling are his 77 turnovers which rank him 6th in the country. Further stating this point, turnovers are a stat where the leaders typically play point guard, but not Buljan.

Speaking of turnovers, Moss is one of those point guards that leads the nation in turnovers. His 70 turnovers rank him 16th in nation, but he makes up for it with assists. His 122 assists this season rank him 3rd in the nation. So there is a tradeoff with his aggressiveness. Moss has improved vastly from year 1 to year 2. He has become more aggressive on the offensive end, more confident, and can shoot from anywhere on the floor. With the way Moss is used, it is easy to forget that he is just a sophomore. Moss handles the ball a lot and shoots a lot. But the problem with a point guard who shoots as much as Moss does is that a team can focus on pressuring him, which leads to lower shooting percentages. To no surprise, all of his shooting percentages have dropped. But his shot distribution is somewhat perplexing as 45% of his shots come from behind the arc as opposed to 24% last season. This statistic is part of the reason I would like to see Moss spend some time at shooting guard instead of exclusively being a point guard.

But the major thing with Moss is he has been given the keys to the car by Coach Christian. Christian has gone all in betting that Moss will rescue this TCU program. This is a player who clearly has tremendous upside, but is being asked to play beyond his years. The other role of a point guard is to be the general on the floor and make everyone around him better. It is to find open players, direct traffic on the floor, make sure the offense stays on track and when players are not staying in line, get in their faces. However, all the stats in the world will not show that his behavior still resembles a sophomore and not a senior. He yells at his teammates, but only on the offensive end. He pouts when taken out of games. When the offense gets off track, many times it is Moss looking for his own offense rather than staying within the system. And the major key is, there are times when he leaves the floor that the rest of the players play as a unified team.

What is frustrating is when you look around this team, Christian has assembled a lot of players with talent and potential, but they are all young. Aside from senior Edvinas Ruzgas, who has really been tremendous this year, this is a very young team. Nikola Cerina has been outstanding as a freshman and may have the brightest future of any big man to play for TCU in the last decade. Kevin Butler is a do-it-all sophomore that works his butt off and is willing to guard anyone on the floor and scrap for points on offense. Freshman Garlon Green passes the eye test, but though he is still clumsy I have made no secret that I think this guy could be the first NBA player from TCU since Lee Nailon 11 years ago. When Moss and Buljan were benched against Northern Colorado, freshman Xavier Roberson finally had an opportunity and made the most of it. His defense and hustle has earned him playing time, but his offense has been effective from the 3 point line as well. When you add Hank Thorns, a 3-star recruit who transferred from Virginia Tech, who will have 2 years of eligibility and Cheick Kone, a transfer from Howard College and the tallest guy on the roster with 3 years of eligibility, you start to see that the future could be bright.

When Jim Christian took over this program he talked of competing right away and winning Mountain West championships. It is clear that the Frogs remain at least 1 more year away from that, but with the youth he has assembled the possibility to grow into a contender is there. It is frustrating to watch Christian recruit because he gets players late in the signing period, but if you go by evaluators, he has done well. In 2 years he has brought five 3-star recruits on the roster which far surpasses anything Neil Dougherty did in 6 years. Next year, that group will have 1 senior, 3 juniors, a sophomore and he might add some new freshmen to that mix. So recruiting has improved.

On the flipside of that, we praise Gary Patterson for taking lower recruits and developing them. Watching the players that were with him from year 1 to year 2, every player improved. The problem Christian still faces is molding a unit out of these improved players. The team concept on offense and defense remains absent at times, which brings us back to Moss and Buljan. By using an advanced statistic called possession percentage, 60% of all possessions end in the hands of Moss and Buljan. That is a staggering rate that illustrates just how much this team relies on these 2 players.

I believe Christian would be well advised to play Buljan less and give younger guys like Garlon Green or Kevin Butler more playing time. Furthermore, I would like to see Moss spend time at the shooting guard allowing Xavier Roberson to develop as a point guard, which also gives room for Hank Thorns to come in and play next year as well. I understand we are here to win championships and put the best players on the floor, but we need to look at the big picture.

Interest in basketball is at an all time low. With football and baseball not only winning championships, but contending for national titles, basketball has drifted into anonymity. The attendance may say 3,500 in the box score, but the Frogs are lucky if they have 500 people in the seats (yes, I have counted). So clearly no one is paying attention. Heck, all I have to do is look at the amount of hits we get on this website for a basketball article versus a football or baseball article and it is clear, people are not interested until this team gets back to winning. The New Mexico game last year proved that, but Christian has not made this team a winner. His record is below .500 and it seems like it will be difficult to finish this season above there.

What I like about Christian is he makes no excuse for where his program is. He chased off all the players from the Dougherty-era and brought his own guys in which may serve him well in the long run. The bottom line is the players are more talented than under Dougherty, but the team plays about the same. This group has to learn to play more like a team and it starts with leadership. Christian must find a way to make Moss the leader he could be or this team and likely his tenure will end in failure. Rather than giving thumbs up or thumbs down to the work he has done thus far, I still give him a big question mark because I really do not know how this will end. Clearly there is a lot riding on Moss and it will be interesting to see how the next 50 games go.