TCU is struggling. They’ve lost four of five, and while nobody could have reasonably expected them to win more than two of those five, it’s striking when one writes “they’ve lost four of five.” Also, the home loss to Texas was a bad look. Gotta beat big brother if you want a dynasty.
That’s why we’re talking about TCU. When James Patrick Dixon II, colloquially called Jamie Dixon, left Pitt, he left on the wings of dreams unfulfilled. Thirteen seasons. One NIT appearance. A CBI championship, sure, but not the trophy he wanted.
Jamie Dixon wanted more. He wanted glory. And he wanted it back at the place where it all started for him (after, you know, the first eighteen years of his life): Fort Worth, Texas.
Nobody knows how Jamie Dixon wound up going to college at Fort Worth. Wikipedia doesn’t say, though it does note that the man always wanted to be a Gaucho (the UCSB kind, not a literal gaucho). Somehow, the California kid ended up in The Second Stockyard City™, playing hoops in the Southwest Conference before SMU ruined that league for everyone involved. His wasn’t the most notable career at TCU. Actually, scratch that. It might have been. I have no idea. What I do know is that at TCU, Jamie Dixon got his first taste of the NIT.
It was a mild night in Missoula, the year 1986, and while we don’t know much more than that, we know that a Carl Lott-led TCU beat a Larry Krystkowiak-led Montana 76-69, and that Krystkowiak dunked at the buzzer to tie Bruce Collins’ career Big Sky scoring record (shoutout to the LA Times for still having the AP report up on their website). At some point on the long cattle drive home (how awesome would it have been if TCU drove cattle from game to game instead of flying), Jamie Dixon looked to the heavens (I’m making this up in case you’re wondering) and whispered, “I want to do this for the rest of my life.”
The heavens heard him. But it would be a long go of it. A few nights later, TCU lost by two to Florida in Gainesville. The next year, they missed the NIT, and off Dixon went to a brief professional basketball career in Wisconsin and New Zealand (no longer making things up this paragraph’s all true). Evidently he ruptured his pancreas on a court in the Netherlands (no clue how he got there), and the playing days were over. All the better, though. Coaching could begin.
Finally, in 1991, Jamie Dixon did become a Gaucho, and touched the NIT again as an assistant, but only for a night. He went to Hawaii from there, then Northern Arizona, where he lost another NIT game. Finally, it was off to Pitt, where after one more NIT assist (he got to participate in his first NIT victory since ’86, but Pitt did lose to Dixon’s old rival, Arkansas, in the second round) he became head coach.
Fast forward.
We all know how successful Dixon’s TCU career has been so far. He won an NIT in his first year. He almost made an NIT in his second year. He made the Final Four in his third. Hopes of a dynasty were high entering the season, but there was Texas last night, dealing those hopes a terrorizing blow. TCU could, of course, rally. And there’s always next year. The bar for NIT dynasties is famously low, given how difficult it is to even qualify consistently. Still, it’s not promising, and a season that looked so bright about twenty hours ago is now in a dark place.
Such is life, though, for those who dream big. Nobody said the road would be easy. Nobody said the fates would align. Nobody from the heavens answered Jamie Dixon emphatically, “OK KID YOU GOT IT” that night somewhere near the Wyoming/Montana border (taking some liberties with the speed of cattle here). No. Jamie Dixon, like the rest of us, has had to chase his NIT ambitions the hard way.
The pursuit continues.
