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Thursday, November 26, 1998
Tubbs has TCU running and gunning toward NCAA
playoffs
By MIKE COCHRAN Associated Press Writer
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - Mr. Modesty he's not, but Billy Tubbs
has got Texas Christian running and gunning again and talking
polls and playoffs.
"I really liked last year's team, but it was just another
steppingstone in the building process," claims the king of
feverish, frenetic Billy Ball.
"This team has a ways to go ... but it has a chance to
be really, really good. I hope our cause is not only to be good
but to make some targets in the NCAA Tournament."
Furthermore, he says his 5-1 Horned Frogs liked and expected
their early national ranking, and he made it perfectly clear he
wants more of the same.
TCU, ranked 25th in the preseason Associated Press poll, lost
an 87-85 verdict to Rhode Island in its opener and tumbled out
of the Top 25 after the first week.
But with preseason All-American Lee Nailon settling into his
comfort zone, Ryan Carroll recovering from an ankle injury, newcomer
Marquise Gainous coming on strong and Vladimir Jaksic deadly from
3-point range, Tubbs seems convinced the Frogs can improve on
last year's super season.
And how good was that? The TCU record book breathlessly details
the team's stroll through the Western Athletic Conference to the
playoffs.
"... The Horned Frogs produced a WAC Pacific Division
title, the WAC's first-ever unblemished (14-0) conference record,
16 straight victories, a scoring clip of nearly 100 points per
game, a No. 13 ranking by AP, a school record 27 regular-season
victories and some fancy team shooting..."
A typical Tubbs steppingstone?
"We've developed some believers in our program,"
says a smiling Billy, who is starting his fifth year with the
Frogs. "I think there's been a tremendous attitude change
around the country as far as TCU goes."
But the biggest change has been within the program and the
university.
"We're expected to win," he said. "When I looked
at our schedule this year, there was not a game that wasn't winnable.
That doesn't mean we're going to win them all. Hell, we've already
lost one.
"But even that was certainly a winnable game."
The Frogs are banging on the door again after winning five
in a row, capped off by Monday night's 94-85 triumph over Arkansas
State.
Tubbs says he thinks a 94-93 squeaker over Oral Roberts hurt
the team's AP ranking more than the Rhode Island loss, but he
considers both only temporary setbacks.
The Frogs close out November with their most severe test of
the young season Saturday night at No. 12 Oklahoma State (3-0),
and a victory would command renewed attention.
"Schools like us, to move up, have to do some things impressively,"
says Tubbs.
But he expects the Frogs to take some knocks in the process
of becoming even a better team that last year's club.
"Right now we're trying to get the pieces in place, and
I think we can," he says, pointing out that the Frogs must
replace two top performers in Mike Jones and Malcolm Johnson.
It took him eight years to get his Oklahoma Sooners to the
Final Four, but Tubbs says he hopes it won't take that long at
TCU. With a wry grin, he explained: "You always think with
the right break here and there you might get there sooner."
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