Forget The Past: This Is A New TCU With Jamie Dixon

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Ask TCU coach Jamie Dixon if it was an easy decision to take the job at his alma mater, and his face lights up. Nothing is simple, especially changing jobs and entering the Big 12 with a team picked to finish last this season, but the veteran head coach is excited for the challenge ahead.

“Obviously, it's a motivator,” Dixon said during Tuesday's Big 12 Media Day. “I think anybody that's picked in that situation, I think we really talked about our four seniors. And I mentioned them earlier briefly. But I think they've been through a lot. And I didn't realize it until I got here. You talk about the injuries they've been through. Injuries to teammates, again, facilities, playing in high school for about a year and a half, practicing in the rec center and other high schools, coaching changes, league changes, locker room. They had no locker rooms. They were in a temporary locker room at the high school. They had lockers that were too small, they couldn't fit in.

“It's been an amazing thing as I've seen now what they've been through. And what I really learned from it is these guys have been through a lot, but they're still there. All the transfers going on throughout the country, you've heard about them, you read about them. What these guys have done says a lot about their commitment, their love for the university, and I want them to go out on a great note. And to be the ones to start to build this new program is what we're saying.

“So I think that's really our motivation. We'll look at the thing, sure, the 10th pick in the conference, that maybe came up once or twice. We've got plenty of things to motivate us, and that will just be another one.”

Dixon spoke with FloHoops’ Brett Regan on Tuesday at the Sprint Center.