Mac Engel: Houston's NCAA title game miss still puts the state of Texas 'ahead' in this

Mac Engel, Fort Worth Star-Telegram on Apr 9, 2025

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FORT WORTH, Texas — Texas’ soul, and a great portion of its identity, will forever be tied uncomfortably tight to football, but our real success is actually becoming in basketball.

Texas’ win over USC in the 2006 national title game is the only championship this state has produced in NCAA FBS football since the Longhorns won it in 1969; Bevo shared the national title with Nebraska and Ohio State in 1970.

It should be noted that Texas reached the title game in 2009, and Georgia hung on to defeat TCU by 58 in the ‘22 championship.

And we really don’t need to discuss the state of the Houston Texans or Dallas Cowboys this century, either.

Football is our favorite son, daughter, niece, nephew, neighbor and friend, but basketball is the successful relative that demands more of our attention.

With Houston pulling off an all-time comeback in the semifinal game against Duke on Saturday in the national semifinals, a team from Texas is playing in the NCAA men’s basketball title game for the third time since 2019. It is fitting that the national title between Houston and Florida on Monday night was played in San Antonio.

Houston led Florida for most of the game but was unable to close out it, and lost 65-63.

This state’s run of success in basketball is proof that if you just keep adding more people you should win almost anything. Yes, yes ... we are aware that this mathematical formula is not perfect, as it should extend to Texas A&M eventually.

After suffering through a long drought between appearances in the Final Four, never mind winning a national title, the population growth in this state, and a surplus in talent, is yielding results.

When Texas-Western, now UTEP, won the national title over Kentucky in 1966 the population of Texas was about 10.4 million. In 2025, the population of Texas is a tick over 31 million. (On behalf of all drivers all over the state of Texas, can we please put a hard cap on this figure?)

After Houston reached the Final Four in 1967, the state of Texas did not produce another national semifinalist team until 1982. Under Guy Lewis, UH ripped off three straight Final Four appearances from ‘82 to ‘84. The Cougars lost in the title games in ‘83 and ‘84. The Coogs never won a title in those three years.

Little did we know then that Phi Slama Jama’s historic run would be it for the entire state until Rick Barnes convinced T.J. Ford to come to Texas in 2001.

The state of Texas did not have another Final Four team until Barnes and Ford led the Longhorns to New Orleans in 2003, where they lost to Carmelo Anthony and Syracuse in the national semifinals.

While all of this was happening, the state’s population continued to swell, and Texas became the most over-recruited region in the nation. Former Michigan and San Diego State coach Steve Fisher said a program from outside of the state could easily recruit Texas because of one reason, “Football.”

The players were here. The Final Fours and national titles were not.

That started to change in the last 10 years.

In 2019, Texas Tech under Chris Beard was seconds away from winning the national title, but lost in overtime to Virginia in the championship game.

In 2021, long-time Baylor coach Scott Drew finally broke the long Texas-title drought when the Bears were the best team; the Bears hammered undefeated Gonzaga in the “bubble” national title game.

Houston was a member of that ‘21 Final Four; on Monday, the Cougars reached their first title game since Georgetown’s Patrick Ewing and Micheal Graham dunked all over and defeated Hakeem Olajuwon and UH in 1984.

In the last decade, programs like Houston, Baylor, Texas, Texas Tech and others all over the state have invested the money, and made winning in men’s basketball a priority. Not football-like priority, but close enough that good players no longer feel the need to flee to Lexington or Lawrence.

“I’ve always felt we have had the best players. We play more simple, so it’s not as pretty. It’s not as flashy,” former Oklahoma Sooners star guard Willie Warren said Monday morning. “The only difference is we’re more gritty. We’re not scared to get into the trenches. Get down hill.

“We’re not going come down here and put on a dribbling exhibition. And shoot side step fade away threes all game. That’s more street ball, East coast, West coast. We let them have that. We’re more, ‘OK. We hear you talking. When we pull up on you, you’re going to feel us.”

The type of basketball Warren describes fits Houston under Kelvin Sampson.

Texans will never embrace basketball as its identity, like an Indiana, Kansas or New York.

Football is king here, but basketball now deserves to wear a crown here, too.

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