TCU coach Neil Dougherty admits there are a few more gray hairs sprouting in his neatly cropped do than there were even a month ago. But he wouldn't mind a few more.
Dougherty, who has guided the Horned Frogs to their best season since 1998-99, has seen his team thrive in close games and he hopes the trend continues when TCU travels to Maryland (18-12) today for an NIT quarterfinal game.
The Horned Frogs (21-13) are one victory from a trip to Madison Square Garden for the NIT semifinals after back-to-back two-point victories against Miami (Ohio) and Western Michigan.
As stressful as tight games can be on a coach, Dougherty has almost become accustomed to the pressure and wouldn't mind some more nervous moments against the Terrapins.
"I wouldn't be angry if we just blew someone out," Dougherty said. "But when you look over our season, most of our games were up in the air with five minutes to go. We've been more accustomed to close finishes and if there is a good thing about that, then we've been in more late-game situations than some of our opponents have at this time of year. I don't know if you can ever say you're comfortable with those situations, but our players are used to it."
The Horned Frogs have had seven games come down to the final 12 seconds, and have won five.
TCU point guard Corey Santee has hit two game-winners, guard Marcus Shropshire made a 3-pointer with 7.5 seconds remaining in a regular-season victory against Marquette, and Nile Murry drained a 19-foot jumper to pull out an NIT road win over Miami (Ohio).
In three of their past four postseason games, the Horned Frogs celebrated after a last-second defensive stop. One was against Marquette in the Conference USA tournament.
"Basically, we stay poised and just have fun in the closing minutes of a game," Santee said. "We feel like as long as we get off to a good start in a game, then we're going to find a way to pull it out in the end. We're confident we're going to hit the big shots at crucial points."
Part of the reason the Horned Frogs have been so clutch is guard play.
In Santee, Shropshire and Murry, TCU has three experienced guards who don't mind taking a clutch shot.
But Shropshire said the Frogs can attribute their success in nail-biting situations to their preparation in practice.
"We really prepared for these kind of games in preseason practices," Shropshire said. "No matter what we were working on, coach Dougherty told us to finish. It didn't matter if it was the last possession of practice, sprints, free throws or whatever. He developed the mind-set in us to finish, and we've taken that to our games."
So much so, that the players actually might be more relaxed than the coaches when pulses are racing.
"When we went to overtime against Western Michigan, Coach was pretty excited in the huddle and kept telling us, 'Calm down, we're going to be fine and we're going to win this game,' " Murry said. "We were all looking at him like, 'Coach, we know we're going to win.' "
Dougherty smiles when he hears Murry's take.
"I wish they would have told me that in the huddle," he said.
Maybe then, he wouldn't be going gray.
Dougherty, who has guided the Horned Frogs to their best season since 1998-99, has seen his team thrive in close games and he hopes the trend continues when TCU travels to Maryland (18-12) today for an NIT quarterfinal game.
The Horned Frogs (21-13) are one victory from a trip to Madison Square Garden for the NIT semifinals after back-to-back two-point victories against Miami (Ohio) and Western Michigan.
As stressful as tight games can be on a coach, Dougherty has almost become accustomed to the pressure and wouldn't mind some more nervous moments against the Terrapins.
"I wouldn't be angry if we just blew someone out," Dougherty said. "But when you look over our season, most of our games were up in the air with five minutes to go. We've been more accustomed to close finishes and if there is a good thing about that, then we've been in more late-game situations than some of our opponents have at this time of year. I don't know if you can ever say you're comfortable with those situations, but our players are used to it."
The Horned Frogs have had seven games come down to the final 12 seconds, and have won five.
TCU point guard Corey Santee has hit two game-winners, guard Marcus Shropshire made a 3-pointer with 7.5 seconds remaining in a regular-season victory against Marquette, and Nile Murry drained a 19-foot jumper to pull out an NIT road win over Miami (Ohio).
In three of their past four postseason games, the Horned Frogs celebrated after a last-second defensive stop. One was against Marquette in the Conference USA tournament.
"Basically, we stay poised and just have fun in the closing minutes of a game," Santee said. "We feel like as long as we get off to a good start in a game, then we're going to find a way to pull it out in the end. We're confident we're going to hit the big shots at crucial points."
Part of the reason the Horned Frogs have been so clutch is guard play.
In Santee, Shropshire and Murry, TCU has three experienced guards who don't mind taking a clutch shot.
But Shropshire said the Frogs can attribute their success in nail-biting situations to their preparation in practice.
"We really prepared for these kind of games in preseason practices," Shropshire said. "No matter what we were working on, coach Dougherty told us to finish. It didn't matter if it was the last possession of practice, sprints, free throws or whatever. He developed the mind-set in us to finish, and we've taken that to our games."
So much so, that the players actually might be more relaxed than the coaches when pulses are racing.
"When we went to overtime against Western Michigan, Coach was pretty excited in the huddle and kept telling us, 'Calm down, we're going to be fine and we're going to win this game,' " Murry said. "We were all looking at him like, 'Coach, we know we're going to win.' "
Dougherty smiles when he hears Murry's take.
"I wish they would have told me that in the huddle," he said.
Maybe then, he wouldn't be going gray.
