Inside TCU's incredible turnaround

Here’s reason No. 24,673 why college hoops is awesome. There are hundreds of teams out there competing and each one has its own compelling story. This week we’ve seen many of the glamorous programs in action — Alabama at North Carolina and Auburn at Duke, to name but a few. Tonight, two of the biggest brands in the sport, Kentucky and Gonzaga, will do battle in Seattle.

If you want to know who will win the day’s biggest games and by how much (just in case you’d like to know such things ahead of time), be sure to check out my picks against the spread. But today we also have a stories about a pair of lesser-known programs led by coaches with humble roots. Drake and Cal Poly, whose coaches were working in Division II this time last year, have their teams off to surprisingly solid starts. And they’re doing it after bringing several of their former D-II players with them. That’s what sports — and especially college sports — is supposed to be all about. If you got game, you got game. Check out the stories that two of our writers, Alex Squadron and Joey Dwyer, are serving up today to our Hoops HQ readers.

There’s another remarkable story taking place in Fort Worth, where the TCU women have risen from the ashes to become a top 10 team. On Sunday, the Horned Frogs get a chance to show their mettle against defending champ South Carolina. Yes, it’s the same day that the first-ever 12-team College Football Playoff bracket is revealed, but remember, here in Hoopland we’ve been doing the whole Selection Show thing for a while. (It’s my favorite hour of the year.) So let’s keep it rolling. From blue bloods to new bloods, this sport always has great stories to tell. As always, Hoops HQ has you covered.

— Seth

TCU’S SUDDEN TRANSFORMATION WAS YEARS IN THE MAKING

By Eden Laase

TCU women’s basketball is going viral.

There’s the video of Hailey Van Lith overcome with emotion, crying and hugging her coach. There’s Sedona Prince, putting up near-triple doubles with 20 points and 20 rebounds. There’s the win over Notre Dame, when the Horned Frogs overcame a double-digit deficit for the best win in program history.

Suddenly, TCU is a top-10 team. But there’s nothing sudden about the program’s rise. It goes back three seasons, with three separate, unusual sets of circumstances shaping the wins and losses. And even before that, you can trace each of the players back to their previous stops.

GAME OF THE DAY — No. 4 Kentucky @ No. 7 Gonzaga: It's another busy day in college hoops, but make sure you save enough energy for this late tip-off at Climate Pledge Arena. The Wildcats are trying to rebound from a disappointing loss to Clemson on Tuesday, but they will need to slow down a Gonzaga team that ranks second in the country in offensive rating, per KenPom. 10:00 p.m. ET on ESPN 2.