“The Nest” is what they call the gym at Sacramento State. Mark Campbell, then a first-time head coach, spent two seasons there learning what it takes to build something special. On Saturday night at 6:30 p.m. CT, Campbell and his TCU Horned Frogs return to California’s capital for the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament, this time with more at stake.

The “full circle moment” Campbell describes in returning to Sacramento is more spiral than loop. The program Campbell inherited at TCU in 2023 had managed 24 wins over the previous three seasons. The team that touched down in California on Wednesday carries a 31-5 record and the ambitions of a program that has now posted back-to-back 30-win seasons, a distinction shared with only a handful of programs nationally, almost all of which are still playing. TCU has reached the Sweet 16 for the second consecutive year, and just the second time in program history.

Mark Campbell left Sacramento as Big Sky Coach of the Year. He returns three years later with a 31-5 Horned Frogs team and an Elite Eight ticket on the line. Courtesy of TCU Athletics

Standing between TCU and another Elite Eight berth is No. 10 seed Virginia, one of the most improbable Sweet 16 participants of all time. The Cavaliers entered the tournament through the First Four, then won three games in five days — a 57-55 play-in victory over Arizona State, followed by an overtime win over No. 7 seed Georgia and a shocking double-overtime takedown of Iowa — before moving on. TCU’s sophomore center Clara Silva caught the film session and came away with respect. “I think they have really good guards,” she said. “We watched the game yesterday against Iowa. They fight and fight until the end.”

Campbell isn’t selling the Cavaliers short, either. “Virginia’s an elite basketball team that’s playing really good, and they have a star at their point guard position. She’s, right now, playing as well as anybody in the country.” That star, Kymora Johnson, has averaged 24.3 points per game across the Cavaliers’ three tournament outings. She presents a challenge, but not a profile the Frogs find unfamiliar. “Olivia Miles will get you ready to play an elite playmaking guard,” Campbell said of his team getting reps against the three-time All-American every practice for the past seven months.

Miles has been extraordinary. The Big 12 Player of the Year has accumulated a combined 30 points, 26 rebounds and 22 assists across TCU’s first two tournament wins, a statistical run that has little precedent in NCAA Tournament history. She enters Saturday needing just two points to reach 700 for the season. In the Big Dance, she is a different player: Through eight career tournament appearances, she has averaged 8.3 assists and more than seven rebounds per game alongside her scoring.

But what makes this TCU team genuinely dangerous is that it doesn’t require Miles to shoulder the load single-handedly.

Silva’s development is the season’s quietest revelation. Campbell called Sunday’s overtime survival against Washington the best game of her career; she hit the go-ahead basket twice on her way to 16 points and eight boards, adding a pair of blocks. “I’m really thankful that I get to be part of this journey,” said the Kentucky transfer, who last year helped the Wildcats reach the tournament’s second round.

Taylor Bigby is among the eight seniors and graduate students on the Horned Frogs’ roster. The 6-foot-1 guard has scored 42 points over the past pair of outings, her most over a two-game stretch all season. Courtesy of TCU Athletics

Senior guard Taylor Bigby has been equally transformed. Shooting better than 55 percent from three-point range across 11 career tournament games, she erupted for a program-record 27 in the opening round against UC San Diego and added 15 against Washington. She is not interested in tempering expectations. “I feel like my confidence has grown a lot, and it’s at a high right now,” she said. “I don’t plan on coming down.”

For Bigby, the stakes need no inflation. “It means a lot, and I mean, at the end of the day, too, like, it’s also my last year. … The goal is to always be dancing in March, so to still be dancing is a blessing, and I’m just super excited, and I’m proud of my team.”

Campbell has shaped this roster into a group that refuses to lose close games. They trailed by eight at halftime against Washington, fell behind Big 12 heavyweights Iowa State and West Virginia in the final quarter during the regular season and found a way through. “There’s been a lot of close games that we had to grind out and find a way to win,” he said. “This team, they’re gritty, they’re tough, they’re a bunch of old vets.”

The Horned Frogs hold opponents to 33.4 percent from the floor — best among all Division I programs — and their frontcourt size, anchored by the Silva-Kennedy Basham duo, makes them uniquely difficult to attack at the rim.

At the Golden 1 Center on Saturday night, Bigby, Basham and a senior-laden Frogs squad will try to keep dancing.

— Corey Zapata-Smith