March Madness: Why DFW Has To Root For The Longhorns
I filled out a March Madness bracket. So did you. And the guy in the (virtual) cubicle next to you? Yep, him too. Your lawyer. Your golf buddies. Even the woman that prefers to watch eliminations on The Bachelor rather than in basketball.
Basically everyone we know, all over the Metroplex, will be consumed by the NCAA tournament over the next three weeks. Just imagine our frenzy if DFW was actually invited to the party.
For all our hoops hysteria, we - that is, the Dallas/Fort Worth area, which of course doesn't count the University of Texas, which enters this year's Madness as a No. 3 seed - haven’t enjoyed a Final Four with a local flavor since essentially the days of peach baskets, canvas high-tops and running hook shots.
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Prepare to cringe.
There have been 81 Final Fours. Metroplex teams – SMU, TCU, North Texas and UT-Arlington – have made exactly one appearance. One. Worse, DFW teams have won only three tournament games in the last 32 years and haven’t advanced past the second round in 50 years. That’s right, with two berths since 1998 the Prairie View A&M Panthers have as rich of a recent March Madness history as any DFW school.
The vexing void certainly can’t be traced to a lack of talent. The Metroplex regularly produces players that shine in the tournament and, eventually, the NBA. Maybe you’ve heard of LaMarcus Aldridge (Seagoville), Chris Bosh (Lincoln), C.J. Miles (Skyline), Marcus Smart (Flower Mound), Julius Randle (Plano), Myles Turner (Trinity), Deron Williams (The Colony), and Larry Johnson (Skyline)?
The problem, of course, is that we don’t keep our own. On their way to the NBA, all of the above that went to college did so out of the Metroplex. By my math – inexplicable as it sounds – the last home-grown stars at TCU and SMU were Kurt Thomas (1994) and Ira Terrell (1976). That explains our dreadful DFW drought.
UTA lost its only March Madness appearance as a 16-seed in 2008. UNT is 0-3, each time as a No. 15 seed (this year the Mean Green are a No. 13). SMU won a game under Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown in 2015, but the Mustangs’ previous win came under David Bliss in 1988. TCU, which was upset in the first round in 2018 year as a 6-seed, hasn’t won a tournament game since current head coach Jamie Dixon was a sharp-shooting senior guard in 1987.
The last time TCU and SMU made audible noise in the tournament, it wasn’t recognizable as March Madness.
The Horned Frogs’ best run was in 1968 when the event consisted of only 23 teams. That squad, coached by Johnny Swaim and led by stars Micky McCarty and James Cash, lost in the regional final by 35 points to a Houston team that featured a center named Elvin Hayes.
SMU’s deepest dive is DFW’s only Final Four cameo. In 1956, the Mustangs beat Texas Tech, Houston and Oklahoma City to make the 25-team field’s last four. That Final Four was played at Northwestern’s gym in front of crowds estimated at 3,500. The Mustangs, 25-4 and Southwest Conference champs, were led by star Jim Krebs, who made the cover of Sports Illustrated under the title: “Big Jim and the Texas Boom.” SMU, however, lost in the semifinal to a San Francisco team powered by a senior known as Bill Russell. The following year Krebs and the Ponies were eliminated early in the tournament – in overtime – by another decent big man: Kansas junior center Wilt Chamberlain.
Getting road-blocked by the likes of Hayes, Russell and Chamberlain is no embarrassment, and DFW’s empty mantle is actually just an extension of Texas’ troubles. To get back to Final Fours, DFW teams have to keep the best local players. But even if they don’t, March Madness won’t have trouble keeping our interest.
And that goes for the Longhorns, too, except for one wild-card.
COVID.
The pandemic has changed our world forever and skewed our sense of time. When the March Madness schedule was released, I asked my brother if he wanted to venture out and watch Texas’ first-round game.
“I don’t know,” he said. “That’s late!”
Saturday’s tip-off: 9 p.m.
Granted we’ve both rounded the age of 50, but there was a time – pre-pandemic – in which 9 p.m. didn’t feel like 2 a.m. COVID’s restrictions and short-circuited options has made us all homebodies. For a year, staying in has trumped going out. There’s nothing wrong with that. Unless you wanna, ya know, watch some March Madness anywhere other than your couch.
And pick a team outside of DFW as your favorite.
My Final Four, by the way: Gonzaga. Houston. Florida. Alabama. Give me the Zags, you can have the field.
