A season that began with promise of a winning record and perhaps even an NIT-push continues to slide down the same familiar path for the TCU men’s basketball team.
On Friday afternoon, TCU indefinitely suspended leading scorer Ronnie “Tuffy” Moss. It is highly doubtful the junior guard from Fort Worth will play for TCU again.
TCU issued a four-sentence press release stating that Moss has been suspended for a “failure to adhere to the standards of the program.”
“We have to have standards in the program to advance,” TCU head coach Jim Christian said Friday afternoon. “I want the kids who are in the program who do it the right way to be rewarded because they’re doing it the right way. I’m not going to change that.”
Christian called last season the hardest he’s ever had in coaching. He’s calling this season more difficult.
Moss did not make the trip with the team in its most recent game, at New Mexico on Jan. 26. According to multiple sources, this decision was the culmination of a pattern of behavior that had not changed.
Moss is now the second player to be effectively kicked off the team this month. On Jan. 11, Christian kicked junior-college transfer Sammy Yeager off the team for a violation of team rules.
But Moss’s departure is a devastating blow to Christian, who is in his third season trying to rebuild a bad basketball program.
Moss, who averaged a team-high 15.7 points per game, was TCU’s most talented player. Between Moss and Yeager, TCU has kicked about 25 points per game off its team.
But even with Moss, the team continued to struggle. The Frogs are 10-12, and 1-6 in the Mountain West Conference. They have lost four straight, and eight of their last nine games.
The Frogs host Air Force at 5 p.m. on Saturday at Daniel-Meyer Coliseum.
- Mac Engel
Follow me on Twitter
@MacEngelProf
Comments