Well, that was disconcerting.
TCU might have expected to open the basketball season in breezy fashion Friday night, playing a nine-win ULM team that is, of course, nowhere in the Horned Frogs’ league.
And you couldn’t have blamed the Frogs.
The last time they played, they capped a five-game postseason winning streak with an NIT championship. They were presented their rings in a pregame ceremony. It was coach Jamie Dixon’s birthday.
The feel-goods were everywhere.
Then the game started, and TCU missed four of its first five shots, got Alex Robinson in foul trouble, nearly trailed at halftime and watched sixth-man guard Desmond Bane leave the court with a hurt leg in the opening minutes of the second half, all the while with ULM raining 3s.