Jan. 1, 2006

TCU vs. St. Mary's (Ca.) Game Notes
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FT. WORTH, Texas -- The TCU men's basketball team will ring in the new year by entertaining St. Mary's College of California on Tuesday night at the Daniel-Meyer Coliseum. Both teams are meeting on the hardwood for the first time ever.

In addition, the game also serves as the final non-conference matchup for both teams.

While league play kicks off Jan. 4 in the Mountain West Conference, the Horned Frogs will face their first conference opponent (Wyoming) on Jan. 7.

GAME 14: TCU (4-9) vs. St. Mary's-California (6-5)

TIPOFF: Tuesday, Jan. 3, 2006 at 7:05 p.m. (CT)

SITE: Daniel-Meyer Coliseum (7,201) in FortWorth

TELEVISION: None

RADIO: KTCU 88.7 FM in Ft.Worth/Dallas and KMKI-AM 620 in Dallas/Ft.Worth

Brian Estridge (play - by - p l ay) and John Denton (color analyst) will call the game.

ONLINE: Live Radio Broadcast and Gametracker on www.GoFrogs.com

ABOUT THE GAME

• TCU and St. Mary's (Calif.) both open the 2006 new year, meeting for the first time ever.

• Tuesday's contest also concludes the non-conference portion of both team's schedule this year.

• Both TCU and SMC have battled the same pair of non-conference opponents in 2005-06, while a third is on the horizon for the Horned Frogs.

The Gaels lost at Colorado and at Air Force, but defeated Texas A&M-Corpus Christi. TCU, on the other hand, fell to Colorado and Corpus Christi at home.The Frogs will face Air Force in league action in mid-January and then again in February in a home-and-home series.

• St. Mary's (Calif.) is the lone opponent from the West Coast Conference on TCU's slate this season while the Frogs are the second Mountain West team the Gaels will play.

• The last time the Frogs met a WCC team on the court came against Gonzaga on Dec. 30, 1998, in FortWorth.The Horned Frogs took a 90-87 win.

• TCU has met five other West Coast teams in its 95 years of basketball (Gonzaga, Pepperdine, Portland, San Francisco and Santa Clara). The Frogs are 3-6 against members from that league.

• At the helm of the SMC program is fifth-year head coach Randy Bennett. He led the Gaels to an NCAA Tournament appearance in 2005 as an at-large berth team, marking the fourth time in school history SMC earned an at-large bid and the first since the 1996-97 campaign.

• The SMC Gaels are fresh off an 89-80 upset victory over #20 Nevada on New Year's Eve. Forwards Daniel Kickert and Brett Collins are the team's top two scorers, averaging 17. 1 and 11.4 points per outing, respectively.

• Much like TCU's coaching staff (Dougherty, Rick Callahan, Kevin "Ice" Lewis and Jeff Luster) pacing the sideline together since head coach Neil Dougherty arrived at TCU four years ago, the SMC staff (Bennett, Kyle Smith, Lamont Smith and Dan Shell) are also a solid coaching unit as they all enter their fifth season together.

LAST TIME OUT: at SMU 52, TCU 49

• Junior Blake Adams came off the bench to lead the Frogs in scoring as he finished with a team-high 12 points.

• Guard Nile Murry had his double-digit scoring streak come to an end at 14 as he finished with a season-low eight points.

• Murry also pulled down a game-high eight rebounds.

• Having scored in double figures in the last six games, sophomore Brent Hackett added five points on the night. He also grabbed five rebounds and dished out four assists.

• For the second straight game and third time this year, Chudi Chinweze totaled a season-high six points and six rebounds.

• Although the Frogs gave up 25 points to the Mustangs' leading scorer Bryan Hopkins, TCU was able to shut him down in the second half.

• It was the first time this season the Horned Frogs did not drain a three-pointer in a half as they made six attempts in the second half from behind the arc.

• TCU's series with longtime rival SMU now stands at 99- 82.