DETROIT — No. 11 seed Syracuse (21-13, 8-10 Atlantic Coat) and No. 6 seed TCU (21-11, 9-9 Big 12) will face off in the Round of 64 in the NCAA Tournament. Syracuse beat Arizona State in Wednesday’s First Four game to earn the spot.

Both Syracuse head coach Jim Boeheim and TCU head coach Jamie Dixon held press conferences ahead of the matchup. Here’s what Dixon had to say.

I’ve seen you before

Dixon spent 13 years as the head coach of Pittsburgh, matching up against Syracuse 21 times over that span. He found success, earning a 15-6 record and managing to find cracks in the Orange zone that others seemingly couldn’t.

Despite his familiarity with the Orange’s scheme, Dixon said that things have changed since he last saw the zone.

“The thing about the Syracuse zone, it’s changed over the years,” Dixon said. “And I think it changes year to year. So you can’t just do the same thing time and time again.”

When Dixon started at Pittsburgh in 2003, Louis Orr coached at Seton Hall, Tim Welsh coached at Providence and Rick Pitino coached at Louisville. All three had previously played or been assistants under Boeheim, and so the fingerprints of the zone were throughout the conference, Dixon said.

Dixon felt that his team wouldn’t be ready to face a zone if it just worked on it in practice in the days leading up to the game. So he’d make his team practice against it, and practice using it, from the start of the preseason.

This year’s Syracuse team is the top-ranked team in average height, which Dixon pointed out. He praised Boeheim for recruiting lengthy players who could play the zone, and then reiterated that the zone he’ll see tomorrow will be different than what he’s seen in the past.

“I know everyone thinks the 2-3 zone just shows up,” Dixon said. “But there are adjustments to be made.”

Bond with Boeheim

Dixon will matchup again with Boeheim on Friday, who he’s seen frequently. The TCU head coach said that he had a Syracuse connection beforehand — he was close with former-Syracuse assistant Mike Hopkins — and felt welcomed by Boeheim when he eventually became head coach.

Pittsburgh hired Dixon when he was 36 years old, fairly young to take over a program. Dixon noted that there was a similarity with Boeheim, who started as head coach at Syracuse when he was 32.

Dixon said Boeheim got him involved in outside causes, too. The Boeheim family involved the Dixon’s in Coaches vs. Cancer, Dixon said, and he thinks that Boeheim was the one who got him approval to be part of the National Association of Basketball Coaches.

“I often joked with him that I spent my offseason listening to Jim speak at different events,” Dixon said.

Short process

Dixon’s last year at Pittsburgh was the 2015-2016 season, when he led the Panthers to an eight-seed in the ACC Tournament, a win over Syracuse and then an eventual NCAA Tournament trip.

That same season, TCU went 12-21 and 2-16 in the Big 12. Dixon, who played at TCU, took over his at alma mater the following year.

Last year, TCU went 24-15 while winning the National Invitation Tournament. Now, Dixon has the Horned Frogs back in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1998.

“We never put a timetable on it,” Dixon said. “The belief was to win, and win right away.”

Dixon’s work was good enough to lead the Horned Frogs back to the Tournament in just two seasons. The last time TCU won an NCAA Tournament game was in 1987, Dixon’s senior season.

Published on March 15, 2018 at 5:13 pm

Contact Tomer: tdlanger@syr.edu | @tomer_langer