After surviving Georgetown, TCU ready to prove itself against No. 24 Clemson

Winning on the road is always challenging in college basketball and TCU got its first dose of that in a narrow 84-83 win at Georgetown on Saturday.

It was a game filled with everything, including TCU taking a big lead only to lose it, clutch 3-point shooting and multiple controversial calls including the referees missing Emanuel Miller stepping out of bounds on his game-winning buzzer-beating three-point field goal.

Miller credited his teammates for setting up the moment.

“A lot played into that shot,” Miller said. “The possessions prior to that Jameer hit a big three, JaKobe hit a big three and we just executed what we worked on in practices every single day.”

As the Horned Frogs prepare to face No. 24 Clemson Saturday in Toronto for the Discount Tire Hall of Fame series, head coach Jamie Dixon shared his thoughts on a wild final minutes against the Hoyas.

“The final play, it was everything we drew up except he didn’t tell me he was going to bank it,” Dixon said with a smile. “Obviously he was clearly being pushed out, I guess he stepped out, but we knew they couldn’t change that. Could it or should it have been a foul? Should it have been he stepped out of bounds? What are you going to do?”

What the Horned Frogs are going to do is use the lessons from their first road test to hopefully knock off a Clemson team playing some of the best basketball in the country.

The big lead and overcoming a six-point deficit with less than two minutes to go all showcased how elite TCU can be, but Dixon also wanted to make sure to show how their mental lapses almost cost them.

“We showed them the stretch of how we lost the lead and how it got away from us and focus more on the offense,” Dixon said. “I thought some of the decisions we made, the shot selection was (bad). We talked about that, but we also talked about the final two minutes where we executed almost everything.”

Dixon lauded the team’s defense, 3-point shooting, handling Georgetown’s press and of course the final play to Miller, who had a career-high 29 points and three 3-pointers.

Miller will look to build off that career day as he makes a homecoming to Toronto. Miller is from nearby Scarborough, about 30 minutes away from downtown Toronto, and is expecting a lot of family and friends in attendance. Miller has 50 tickets for the game, but said he may need a few more.

“It’s always special, being from Toronto,” Miller said. “Being from a different country and having my family support me on my home soil and just being able to play on my home soil is a special moment that I’m going to cherish and look forward to.

As for his game-winning shot, moments like that were one of the reasons the talented forward opted to return to TCU for another season instead of entering his name into the NBA Draft.

Clemson will be provide a solid test for Miller and the Horned Frogs, who want to prove they should be considered among the nation’s best.

The Tigers are one of the nation’s best 3-point shooting teams and currently top-30 in assists with 17.4 a night.

“They went and got some guys, (Joe) Girard, everybody in the country was recruiting him,” Dixon said. “Everybody thought the kid (P.J. Hall) was going to go pro, he played well at the camps and he came back and he’s very good. They’re different because they’re more of two bigs to some degree. I think they’re playing better than us right now, but hopefully we can use this week to get better.”

Hall is the leading scorer in the ACC at 21.4 points per game and has knocked down 42% of his 3s this season. Girard was a transfer from Syracuse and the combo guard is averaging just under 15 points per game. Girard was known for getting up his shots with the Orange and he’s average seven 3-point attempts per game and has knocked down 46%.

As a team the Tigers shoot 41% so this will be a challenge for a TCU defense that allowed Georgetown to hit 12 last week.

“I think defensively we have to be better,” Jameer Nelson Jr. said. “The mishaps we had in those first six games are going to look different now because the teams are more skilled. We’re just going to have tighten it up as a whole, but I think we’ll be fine.”

The Tigers have had some close scraps including a one point win over UAB and a three point win over Davidson, but Clemson also defeated Pittsburgh and previously ranked Alabama. The Tigers have been more tested than TCU so far this season, but at the same time Clemson hasn’t faced an offense as potent as TCU’s.

The Horned Frogs currently have the No. 1 fast break offense, are ranked second in assists per game and field goal percentage and sixth in scoring. TCU is third in steals and sixth in turnovers forced per game.

Clemson averages less than 10 per game which is one of the best rates in the country. The game could come down to whether or not TCU can force mistakes and consistently get in transition.

“They’re disciplined, they take great pride in their execution,” Miller said. “They have over four players that shoot over 40% (from 3), knowing that we just played a great shooting team it’ll show how we need to defend this team.”

Dixon said the schedule would ramp up in December and now the Horned Frogs have their first marquee matchup of the season. A victory would be enough to propel TCU into the top-25 and notch a valuable Quad 1 win to its NCAA Tournament resume.

The Horned Frogs passed the first test, but the next one will be much more difficult.