2024-25 Season Preview: TCU Men’s Basketball

The Horned Frogs officially begin their season with a home game against Florida A&M this evening.

The TCU men’s basketball team will return to the hardwood this evening for the first game of the 2024-25 season. The Horned Frogs, who enter their ninth season under head coach Jamie Dixon, are back with a very different roster from last season, when TCU went 21-13 and reached the NCAA Tournament. The Horned Frogs are replacing a slew of veteran players including three-time All-Big 12 forward Emanuel Miller as well as All-Big 12 guards Jameer Nelson Jr. and Micah Peavy. TCU also lost notable role players, including guards Avery Anderson III and Trey Tennyson as well as forwards Chuck O’Bannon Jr., Essam Mostafa, JaKobe Coles and Xavier Cork, from last season’s roster.

Highlighting the returning players for the Horned Frogs is former Kansas center Ernest Udeh Jr., who started all 29 games while averaging 4.3 points and 5.3 rebounds per game in his first season with TCU. Udeh Jr. is the only rotation player from last year’s roster who is back in the mix for the Horned Frogs this season. TCU also welcomes back redshirt freshmen Jace Posey and Isaiah Manning, who are each expected to play significant minutes after sitting out for all of last season. Both Posey and Manning contributed for the Horned Frogs during their 66-65 exhibition victory over No. 16 Arkansas at the Dickies Arena on Friday.

With several roster slots to fill, Dixon and his staff recruited the transfer portal hard and signed multiple veteran players including Arizona State point guard Frankie Collins and Green Bay shooting guard Noah Reynolds. Collins arrives in Fort Worth as one of the more experienced transfers on the revamped roster after averaging 13.8 points, 4.4 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 2.6 steals per game for the Sun Devils last season. Reynolds was one of the top shooters available in the portal after averaging 20.0 points, 4.5 assists and 3.7 rebounds per game and making 51.1 percent of his field-goal attempts for Green Bay last season.

TCU also signed notable transfers in guards Vasean Allette, Brendan Wenzel and RJ Jones as well as forward Trazarien White. Wenzel, who made the game-winning 3-pointer to lift the Horned Frogs over Arkansas during Friday’s exhibition game, averaged 11.6 points and 5.1 rebounds while shooting 37.7 percent from 3-point range with Wyoming last season. Allette was the spark for the Old Dominion offense last season, averaging 17.4 points, 5.7 rebounds and 3.1 assists per game over 19 games before he was dismissed from the team. White comes to TCU as another high-scoring portal acquisition after averaging 19.8 points and 6.8 rebounds on 49.3 percent shooting at UNC-Wilmington last season. Jones received limited experience with Kansas State last season, but was a consensus four-star high school recruit.

Rounding out the newcomers for the Horned Frogs are true freshmen Micah Robinson, David Punch, Malick Diallo and Ashton Simmons, who are all recruits from the 2024 class. Robinson and Punch are both four-star prospects and both players were on the floor for TCU’s exhibition win over Arkansas. Robinson and Punch each figure to be in the mix throughout the season, while Dixon recently spoke highly of Diallo as an early-season surprise in practice. With Udeh Jr. as the only true center with in-game experience on TCU’s roster, Diallo could earn minutes for the Horned Frogs as the season progresses.

TCU officially begins the 2024-25 season with a nonconference home game against Florida A&M this evening. The Horned Frogs will play in two notable tournaments, including the Acrisure Invitational and the U.S. LBM Coast-to-Coast Challenge, before opening the Big 12 schedule with a road game against Arizona on Dec. 30.