The absence of Eddie Lampkin gets TCU in NCAA tourney loss to Drew Timme and Gonzaga

One year later and just about everything was the same, including the final result.

For the second consecutive year TCU played the final game in the round of 32 of the NCAA Tournament out west against a higher seed on Sunday night.

For the second consecutive year TCU had the lead in the second half. For the second consecutive year, TCU couldn’t hold that lead and lost an exciting game it could have won.

Led by former Richardson Pearce star Drew Timme, in what feels like his 12th year of college basketball, Gonzaga was the better team and pulled away from TCU.

The third-seeded Zags defeated the sixth-seeded Horned Frogs 84-81 on Sunday night in Denver in the round of 32 of the NCAA Tournament.

TCU finishes the season with a 22-13 record, and missed the Sweet 16 in a season where there was a window of time when it looked like it might be a Final Four team.

Call the season a successful disappointment.

For TCU, the season should not have ended in the second round of the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive year. Given the talent, and experience, that started out on this team it all had at least a Sweet 16 feel.

Considering how dramatically this roster changed in the last few weeks, losing in the second round fits.

Against Gonzaga, TCU was popped by the NCAA tourney matchup bug, and specifically one very dynamic big.

TCU needed center Eddie Lampkin, who quit the team the day before the start of the Big 12 tournament.

It was Lampkin who starred in TCU’s overtime round of 32 overtime loss against top-seed Arizona last year.

Even before he quit Lampkin was not having a great season, but he is a 6-foot-11 big who can body up an 18-wheeler.

Lampkin would not have shutdown Timme, who is one of the most creative low post scorers in college basketball, and he’s going to get his.

Lampkin would have provided some physical presence in the middle that Timme did not have to deal with on Sunday night.

Against TCU on Sunday night, Timme scored 28 points on 12-of-21 shooting with eight rebounds and three assists. That’s eight points above his season average.

He got away with a few offensive fouls, but without Lampkin TCU was too undersized to adequately cover a quality low post player.

TCU threw a handful of different defenders, and looks, at Timme, but it didn’t much matter. He’s one of those big college players who can own a game, and overpower a smaller team.

TCU was out-rebounded 43-36, and was never able to consistently run out in transition the way it had during the season.

TCU led Gonzaga by nine points in the first half, and 55-50 with 12:14 remaining in the second half.

From that moment on it was Gonzaga’s game. Defensively the Bulldogs stopped TCU’s ball penetration, and the Frogs are not a great outside shooting team.

TCU made 12-of-20 from the foul line didn’t help much, either.

TCU junior guard Mike Miles was everything he wanted to be in an NCAA Tournament game; he scored 24 points on 8-13 shooting, but he was unable to get a shot for more than 10 minutes of the second half when Gonzaga was too much.

TCU continually hung around, and a few times it looked as if the Frogs may actually regain the lead. The Zags led 73-64 with 3:29 remaining, and then TCU went on a 6-0 run.

The Zags had Timme in the middle, where TCU had nothing. Timme’s lay-in with 1:43 remaining pretty much knocked TCU out of the tournament.

Maybe had Lampkin been on the floor, rather than at home, this all looks different.

Maybe had Lampkin been on the floor, TCU gets a few more stops, Timme doesn’t do whatever he wants, and the Frogs go to Las Vegas for the Sweet 16.

TCU will never know.

For TCU, it was another good season.

The Frogs went to the NCAA Tournament for the second consecutive season. They won an NCAA Tournament game for the second consecutive season, highlighted by the game-winning floater from Jakobe Miles in the last second to defeat Arizona State.

For TCU, it is also a disappointing season.

The return of the entire team, including Lampkin and Miles, was supposed to net a little bit more than another finale in the round of 32.

When this team was right, about two months ago, it had Final Four potential. At least Sweet 16.

Seasons change, and when Lampkin walked there was no way his departure was not eventually going to show up on the floor.

It did in TCU’s six-point loss against Texas in the semifinals of the Big 12 tournament.

It did one more time, this time in the NCAA Tournament.