Everything TCU head coach Jamie Dixon said ahead of Duke
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Opening statement
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Just had a good practice. We worked on some things we want to get better at. I think what we do is what we do. But I think it fits into the game plan for what we have to face against Duke.
Excited about the opportunity. Excited with how we're playing. We know it's a challenge, but we stepped up to the challenge the other day. So looking forward to it.
On facing a Duke team without Patrick Ngongba
We focus on ourselves more than anything, but they've got good players no matter how -- they've got a lot of good players. If he plays, I don't know how much he'll play.
We're not changing our -- if he plays, he plays, I guess. That's not going to affect us too much, I think. He's a good player, but they have too many other good players to focus on one.
We'll stay focused on us and then them as a team.
On achieving a lot of firsts at TCU
Not really. I don't even know what first you're talking about. Is that winning two games in the Tournament? It's time. I guess certainly with a Number 1 seed it's a challenge. This is where you want to be. This is what you work to to be at this point. Now you've got to do the job. You've got to play well and play together. I think we're ready to play together. Then we've just got to play well.
Guys are excited about it. I think I joked about it before, to your point, I guess, when I got here to TCU, we're going to be talking about, you guys are going to say getting to the Tournament is not enough. You've got to get to the Final Four. I think they laughed at me then when I said that, and certainly that's what's happened.
This is where we're at. I did it. I said we would be in this position. Now we've got to go win some more games.
On being the only team in the country that will have played all four of the Number 1 seeds.
Are you sure? I've been saying that, but I didn't know it was right. You confirmed it?
According to your media guide.
JAMIE DIXON: All right.
On it helping they have played other top teams and what they learned from watching Siena against Duke
Everybody has their runs against Duke, and then you've got to finish and win the game. Obviously they have that formula down.
As far as the playing, I thought that -- well, I knew going into the tournament, we had played the three Number 1s, and we knew we were probably going to be in Duke's region because, unless we became a 7, which we thought could happen if we beat Kansas. So we kind of knew. That's why I knew that little stat.
I probably take credit. Steve wrote it down, but I think I gave it to him beforehand. I did his job.
Yeah, we beat Florida. That was a good win for us. The Michigan game, we should have won. We were up the whole game and didn't get it done down the stretch. Then Arizona got off to a good start against us, and we fought back. Bradley hit shots that were remarkable down the stretch.
I remember those games well, but you're kind of in this league that we're in, in the Big 12, and you could go down the list. You talk about three Number 1s, but then we could talk about No. 2s, and No. 3s, and No. 4s that we've played too. You're kind of built for it when you get into this tournament.
With the leagues I'm in now and the leagues I've been in, the ACC, and the Big East, and Estridge is tired of me saying it and Steve, but I've pretty much spent my entire career in the best conference in the country. If you really do look at it, it's probably been pretty accurate. That's my story. I don't recommend it for coaches, but that's what we've chosen.
Yeah, kids are confident. I just said it to CBS when we were talking in there. Our kids, generally our guys are looking at mid-major and decided to come play in the Big 12. So they're confident kids. They want challenges. They're excited about it. We weren't recruiting the Number 1 players in the country. We were recruiting guys that wanted to play in the Big 12. They made that choice to play in the best conference in the country.
On this being possibly the biggest game in program history
To me it's today, so it must be the biggest game in our history, in my mind. But my mind doesn't matter too much. In my mind, yeah. It's today's game. Going back to what we said earlier, we want to take it to the next step. It's the Number 1 team in the country, and it's Duke.
I think I've coached against them I don't know how many times. A couple times at Pitt, in the Garden and then Cameron. It's more about being in the Tournament and winning the second game.
On difference between a Coach K-led Duke team and now Jon Scheyer
They always have good players, that constant is there, best players in the country. I think they're the same.
I think they've evolved too with the game, how it's changed too. The game's changed a little bit, so they've adapted to it. They always had the big bodies inside too, but now they've got the athletic runners and guys that can guard on the perimeter and play on the perimeter offensively. So I think they've adapted.
I have a funny story. You must be the Duke guy I saw yesterday after the game -- after we won, and I think it must have been a couple hours after because it was after Duke won. Desmond (Bane) called me, FaceTimed me on the phone, and they were getting ready for a game in Orlando last night. I think it was Orlando. He was getting ready on the table. Him and Paolo (Banchero) were arguing about the game. They were talking noise as they're preparing for their game.
I guess they play Saturday. Otherwise, they said they'd be here.
On how his team matches up against Cameron Boozer
Amazing. Obviously we played against the best freshmen in the country. I remember seeing him as a sophomore I guess it was and didn't know how good he was. I guess there are other freshmen in the Draft in the first of five picks. It's remarkable how good of a freshman class it is. We played against them. You go down the list, AJ, Flemings, Peterson, you go down the list, we played against all these guys.
We have guys that, younger guys who move like him and are confident, but we've played against the best, and we'll be playing against one of the best again. The guys are excited about the opportunity. It really does come down to team defense. That's always been the way how we play and I think everyone at Duke plays.
It's not one guy. One guy may stand out, but it's really team defense, and what we're trying to do is keep them away from doing one thing, and that's usually relying on what we are doing as a team or a scheme defensively.
On importance of avoiding foul trouble
I think everybody. They don't want to be in foul trouble. They're not playing a lot of guys. We had eight down on the scouting report. We had Jayden playing seven, V's our eighth. I think that's the case.
We lead the league in free-throw attempts, free-throw rates. So they're more likely to be in foul trouble than us. We get teams in foul trouble. That's how we play. We're aggressive. We don't foul at a high rate. We have multiple guys that can attack the rim. Our expectation is to have them in foul trouble.
On tomorrow being a neutral-site game or a road game
I mean, we were in a road game last night, I guess. We've been in the Tournament before. That's usually been the case. We're the smallest Power Five in the country. We're actually smaller than Duke. I guess Wake Forest and us are the two smallest.
If that's what you're talking about, crowd. But we're looking at opportunity. Oh, I have some family here. So that will be good. My sister's flying -- my sister's here, and my daughter's flying in from Portugal to get here. And I got some friends coming from Pittsburgh too. That makes it feel like home.
This article originally appeared on Duke Wire: Everything TCU head coach Jamie Dixon said ahead of Duke