FORT WORTH, Texas — Trent Johnson was fired Monday as TCU’s men’s basketball coach after the Horned Frogs won just eight Big 12 Conference games in his four seasons.
TCU finished 12-21 overall this season, its first in a completely renovated campus arena.
Johnson was 50-79 with the Frogs, a period covering their first four seasons in the Big 12. They were 8-64 in regular-season conference games, those losses by an average margin of more than 15 points. Winless in the Big 12 two years ago, they finished 2-16 in league play this season.
“Trent inherited a very difficult situation, and we truly appreciated his efforts over the last four years,” athletic director Chris Del Conte said. “We simply did not have the success we envisioned but believe the pieces are now in place for us to move forward.”
After opening the Big 12 Tournament last week with a 67-62 win over Texas Tech, the Frogs lost 86-66 to West Virginia on Thursday. Texas Tech and West Virginia are among seven Big 12 teams that made it to this season’s NCAA Tournament.
Before TCU, Johnson had taken LSU, Stanford and Nevada to the NCAA Tournament. His best record with the Frogs was 18-15 last season, when they played all of their home games in a high school gymnasium while the $72 million renovation on their campus arena was being done.
“Trent Johnson is a man of unbelievable integrity. It’s hard to find a better person than Trent, and I have the highest level of respect for him,” Del Conte said. “However, we believe change is needed in the leadership of our men’s basketball program. With our new facility and playing in the Big 12, the strongest basketball conference in the country, we’re positioned well to have a men’s basketball program that makes TCU and Fort Worth proud.”
TCU’s last NCAA Tournament appearance was in 1998, while in the Western Athletic Conference with Billy Tubbs as coach.
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