FORT WORTH, Texas — Jamie Dixon made it when he finally became an idiot.

The TCU men’s basketball coach has been back at his alma mater long enough now that people take him for granted, and think he’s simply “awful,” a “horrible coach who doesn’t have a clue," and “an idiot.” In his twisted profession, these insults are often regarded as progress. At least they care.

It would be great for Dixon, and for TCU, if a few more cared.

As evidenced by the atmosphere and less-than-capacity crowd inside Schollmaier Arena for a game involving rivals that are flirting with the NCAA Tournament, the state of the TCU men’s basketball program is in a bit of malaise. Before someone runs Dixon and his staff into the nearest ditch, anyone affiliated with, or a fan of, the university needs to open a record book.

This could be better, and it could be just so much worse.

Baylor hit two free throws with two seconds remaining to break a tie, and the Bears defeated the Horned Frogs, 61-58; the loss may just be the end to TCU’s distant shot for an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament.

“Great to see the crowd, and I’m sorry I let them down,” Dixon said after the game. “It’s a devastating loss for me. For the team. ... We know we’re at the bottom of the (NCAA Tournament) bubble, and we needed to win this game. This was a game we had to win for a variety of reasons.”

TCU has one more regular-season game remaining, on Saturday at Colorado; the Buffaloes are last in the 16-team Big 12 (might be time for a name change). TCU will need to win at Boulder, and at least two games in the Big 12 Tournament to have a prayer for a bid to the NCAA Tournament.

The bottom of the NCAA Tourney bubble is as thick as toilet paper, which puts TCU in the same spot as a lot of other power conference teams that are hovering around .500 believing they still have a chance.

A bid for TCU would mean a fourth straight year with an NCAA Tournament appearance, which would extend its school record.

The team is 16-14, and 9-10 in the league. If it finishes .500 in the Big 12, that’s one of those successes that no one will celebrate.

None of this is ideal, and this season for TCU should have been worse.

Coupled with an entirely new roster, a reliance on freshmen and a season-ending injury to its leading scorer and play maker back in December, an NCAA Tournament bid should never have been a realistic point of discussion for this team at any point.

The team plays hard, defends and rebounds well enough to give them a chance against superior teams, like Baylor and Texas Tech. There are issues at point guard, and considerable problems with shot making.

A lot of this is consistent with a young team; some nights they make shots, and sometimes they don’t know how to fall on their face.

“We need to pass better,” Dixon said. “We have fight. We fight back. It’s something we do.”

That’s not nothing. Against Big 12 teams, “fight” is also not enough.

If you are evaluating Dixon’s time at TCU, be sure to include where the program was, and how his former team is currently doing.

Since he left Pittsburgh for TCU in the spring of 2016, the Panthers have made the NCAA Tournament once. Unless they win the ACC Tournament, Pitt will miss the tournament again.

It may be ready to move on from coach Jeff Capel, which would mean the school would have to hire a third head coach since Dixon left for TCU.

As much as Pitt people were ready for Dixon to go anywhere but back to the Pitt sideline, they did take for granted he made that program relevant, and competitive.

Thanks to a bar that was set a good three inches off the ground, Dixon has led TCU to its best run in the history of the program. He is well liked throughout the Fort Worth community, and he cares deeply about this university.

As a head coach, he’s made the program relevant, and competitive.

The program has produced some NBA players, retired a few jerseys, defeated ranked teams, enjoyed some “court storms,” and won some NCAA Tournament games, too. It’s a decent program.

A program that could be better.

And a program that could be so much worse.

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