Cadot, Frogs looking to bounce back after disappointing year

Hailing from Nassau, Bahamas, 6-foot-5 guard J.R. Cadot said he was ready to enter his final season as a Horned Frog.

Cadot played his first season with the Frogs last year after transferring in as a junior from Sheridan College in Wyoming, where he earned NJCAA Third Team All-American honors. In his first season at TCU, Cadot started 22 of his 32 games and was sixth in rebounding in the Mountain West Conference.

On the heels of his success last season, Cadot went back to the Bahamas to play for their national team and continued throughout the summer to strive to be a better player.

“Ever since last season ended here I just told myself, ‘hey, you’ve got to do better,’” Cadot said. “So, I went home with the focus on getting better, and I got better.”

Coming off a great season with his teammates back home, Cadot planned for the Frogs to have a completely different season from last year and believed that their improved work ethic was the secret ingredient for a winning season.

“Everybody’s coming to work every day, on and off the court, in the classroom, in the weight room. Everybody’s coming to practice prepared. Their minds are right, and we’re just giving it 100 percent everyday, which we did not do last year,” Cadot said.

Among the five new players to join the Frogs on the court is Kyan Anderson, a 5-foot-11 freshman from Fort Worth. Cadot found it very important to be an example for his younger teammates in aspects even bigger than the game.

“I just take the role of doing good on and off the court because guys like [Kyan] look at you on and off the court, even when you don’t know it,” Cadot added. “I just try to do the right thing when I’m around them. I try to do that every time in my life, but I make sure when I’m around them so that when I leave guys like Kyan and young guys that come after me will keep up the program where we left off.”

Cadot and his teammates had a rough ending to their 2010-2011 season with close losses to teams including Utah, Air Force and BYU. Cadot believed their toughest opponent this season would be the Lobos from New Mexico, but he was not worried about being taken down.

“They have two pretty good players coming back, but I’m not worried. It’s basketball. We go out there, and we compete on any given night, and whoever plays the hardest will win,” he said. “I’m not afraid of their team just like they’re not afraid of us.” 

Playing hard and playing to win has always been Cadot’s ultimate motivation, and he believed that his hard work and that of his teammates would lead to success and could possibly even score him his dream job.

“Just like every kid dreams of playing professional, that’s my dream. And I’ve been working really hard. I feel like I deserve it,” he said “We’ll see what happens because I really think I could be a professional basketball player, and hopefully God keeps me safe and healthy and happy.”