FORT WORTH, Texas >> From the outside, TCU women’s basketball’s rapid rise to one of the nation’s top teams may come as a surprise.

Just two seasons ago, the Horned Frogs only won one conference game. Last year, they had to hold open tryouts and take on four walk-ons after a series of injuries forced them to forfeit two games in the middle of the season.

But when you look at head coach Mark Campbell’s resume, what he’s accomplished in two seasons in Fort Worth isn’t all that shocking.

On staff at Oregon State, he helped take a team that once had open tryouts and just a lone scholarship player to the Final Four. At Oregon, he was a part of the effort to turn a 4-27 team to the No. 1 team in the nation in just a few years. In his first head coaching job at Sacramento State, he led the Hornets from 3-22 to their best season in program history by his second year.

Campbell was a point guard for the University of Hawaii from 2001 to 2003.

TCU is now just two wins away from doing the same, chasing a top-eight seed in what’s expected to be its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2010 with its eyes on a national title. The Horned Frogs (22-3, 10-2) have been ranked as high as No. 9 in the AP poll this season, marking their first top-10 ranking in program history.

And Campbell hasn’t even been there two years.

“The norm is it takes years, but somehow we’ve managed to do it every stop really quickly,” Campbell said in an exclusive interview with The Dallas Morning News this week. “It’s not normal.”

At Oregon, Campbell emerged as one of the best recruiters in the nation, responsible for signing three top-10 picks in the 2020 WNBA draft in Sabrina Ionescu (No. 1), Satou Sabally (No. 2) and Ruthy Hebard (No. 8). He also assembled the No. 1 overall recruiting class in 2020, a group that included five McDonald’s All-Americans.

At TCU, he’s shown those same recruiting chops on a different stage, bringing two of the nation’s most compelling transfer classes with a dozen portal additions over his two years.

From standout guard Hailey Van Lith to 6-7 center Sedona Prince, he’s brought in some of the most high-profile players in women’s basketball, who have, in turn, elevated TCU to the national spotlight.

“I think now the art of college athletics is who can get a brand new roster and get them to jell, be a family, play the game the right way, share the ball, defend, like that’s really hard to do,” Campbell said. “And that’s what I think we’ve been, as a staff, really good at both years.”

For a program that was once an afterthought, TCU has become home to some of college basketball’s most fascinating stories.

After a 14-0 start last season, injuries ravaged the roster, forcing TCU to forfeit two games due to not having enough players to field a roster. The Horned Frogs lost 11 games in a 12-game stretch, but open tryouts and the addition of four walk-ons helped them turn their season around, winning six of their last nine games as the foundation was rebuilt.

In the offseason, their transfer portal endeavors made headlines, signing Van Lith, one of the top players in the portal this past year, and Haley Cavinder, one of the highest-earning college basketball players in terms of NIL, though she ultimately decommitted and returned to Miami to play with her sister Hanna.

“It’s been fascinating how we’ve gone viral many times over, unplanned,” Campbell said. “All the different steps along the way, it’s happened so quick.”

Now, TCU is capturing attention for its on-court performances. The Horned Frogs are a perfect 16-0 at home and tied for first place in the Big 12. They have wins over No. 3 Notre Dame, No. 13 NC State, No. 23 Utah and No. 25 Baylor and no real blemishes on their schedule. Their only three losses have come to No. 3 South Carolina, No. 12 Kansas State and an Oklahoma State team that has since risen to No. 20 in the nation.

Those successes haven’t come as much of a surprise to some of the opponents TCU has faced.

“I mean, to me, they have three pros on their team,” said Texas Tech coach Krista Gerlich, whose Red Raiders fell to TCU 63-42 at Schollmaier Arena Saturday. “Sedona’s a pro. Hailey’s a pro, and I think [Madison] Conner can be a pro. So obviously, they are really highly skilled, and they’ve got the big three — they’ve got a shooter, they’ve got a point guard, and they’ve got a post player.”

Bringing in players of that caliber was Campbell’s transfer portal strategy. Van Lith led Louisville to a Final Four in 2022 and had a successful college career both there and at LSU. Prince, who became famous for speaking out against the NCAA due to disparities between the men’s and women’s 2021 tournament, went from a respectable career at Oregon to averaging nearly a double-double in her two seasons at TCU.

Arizona transfer Madison Conner, Oregon transfer Taylor Bigby and Stanford transfer Agnes Emma-Nnopu are just a few others that have led TCU in its resurgence.

“It’s changed everything,” Campbell said. “Pre-portal, it took longer. You had to get the high school kid, and you had to get the elite high school kid to catch the blue bloods and to be able to play at the highest level.

“It has changed the way to build a roster. It has changed the way to build a program.”

TCU’s transfer portal success story isn’t just about the success of the program, but the way its new additions turned their careers around.

Van Lith was searching for a better fit for her final year of eligibility, as LSU wasn’t right for her. Prince had dropped out of school and college athletics, but wanted a second chance. Conner was averaging just five points per game at Arizona and not reaching her full potential.

Now all three are averaging over 15 points per game.

“The kids needed a fresh start. Our program has blossomed, and they’ve blossomed,” Campbell said.

Their decision to choose TCU, a program that seemed decades away from this point just two years ago, came down to relationships.

“I wanted to go where Mark went,” Prince said. “It was kind of a second chance for me, too, a second opportunity to play basketball and play college basketball. I just knew playing for him, it was going to be a healthy environment, so I could grow and get healthy mentally and physically.”

“The prior records aren’t a reflection of what this group has produced. I knew that we had a fresh start with this group of people, so I wanted to come be a part of it,” Van Lith added. “I don’t think we have anybody that isn’t trying to be a part of a team. We have a really unique group. A lot of teams can’t make it work with the transfers and a lot of transfers. We’re blessed with the people that we have.”

And as a veteran group with an average age of 22, the Horned Frogs are poised for a deep run in March. From Van Lith’s Final Four experience to Emma-Nnopu’s championship experience, they hope their individual experience can help them get past the fact they’re still relatively new at playing together.

While many have tournament experience, most are still chasing their national title dreams — a pipe dream for those in Fort Worth not too long ago, now rapidly becoming a reality.

“I think we’re coming up on the part of the season that you play all year for,” Van Lith said. “We’re really happy we’re making history at this school, but at the same time, we’re not gonna get complacent in the fact that we’re setting records here. We have big goals, and to get to those goals, we’re going to have to keep setting records.”