Dynamic Duds: Can Mavs Play Enough D to Win with Kyrie Irving & Luka Doncic?

Mavs dodge injury bullet, Beckham beckons Cowboys, Rangers may ace their opener, March Badness and the latest radio ratings, all in this week's DFW sports notebook.

WHITT'S END 3.10.23:

Whether you’re at the end of your coffee, your day, your week or even your rope, welcome to Whitt’s End …

*March Badness. I’ll fill out a March Madness bracket. So will you.

And the guy in the cubicle next to you? Yep, him too. Golf buddies. The guy who should be doing your taxes. Even the woman that prefers “survive and advance” 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 haven’t enjoyed a Final Four with a local flavor since essentially the days of peach baskets, canvas high-tops and running hook shots.

Prepare to cringe.

There have been 83 Final Fours. Metroplex teams – SMU, TCU, North Texas and UT-Arlington – have made exactly one appearance. One, in 1956.

Despite UNT upsetting Purdue in 2021 and TCU winning a first-round game last season, DFW teams have won only five tournament games in the last 36 years and haven’t advanced past the second round in 52 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)?

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 1-3 all-time. SMU won a game under Hall of Fame coach Larry Brown in 2015, but the Mustangs’ previous win came under David Bliss in 1988. Before last Spring, TCU hadn’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 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 and Sports Illustrated cover boy Jim Krebs. 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.

Expand your scope a smidge and this year Houston, Texas, Texas A&M, Baylor and maybe even TCU are capable of making the Final Four – to be played in Houston.

Moral to the story: Don’t be homers when filling out your bracket.

*Dallas Mavericks are in a rut, but on Thursday at least Luka Doncic beat Kevin Durant in a game of 1-on-1. While the MRI on Luka’s bothersome thigh came back “clean”, the Phoenix Suns’ new acquisition may miss the rest of the regular season after slipping and spraining his ankle during pre-game warmups Wednesday night.

*If he wows in his Friday workout for NFL teams in Arizona, isn’t Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones going to wish he would’ve signed Odell Beckham Jr. last Fall? Beckham wanted to sign with them. He visited The Star in Frisco, and even went with several players to a Mavs game. Jones said all the right things about his character and talent. If the only thing holding back the transaction was a couple more months of rehab, the Cowboys should have signed him. Instead, they could now be forced into a bidding war.

*Whew. It appears Texas Rangers’ targeted ace Jacob deGrom is throwing 100mph at spring training is on track to be the Opening Day starter March 30 against the Philadelphia Phillies in Arlington. Doesn’t mean they’ll have a great season. Just means they aren’t assured of a bad one before the first pitch.

*Perhaps due to a couple of weeks of Cowboys’ playoff football, flagship radio station The Fan made serious inroads in its battle with incumbent dynasty The Ticket in January’s ratings. In local numbers from Jan. 5-Feb. 1, The Fan tied The Ticket in afternoons and won middays. Once-ballyhooed newcomer The Freak continues to be a non-factor.

MORNING: Ticket 11.0; Fan 3.8; Freak 1.5

MIDDAY: Fan 7.5; Ticket 7.2; Freak 2.0

AFTERNOON: Fan and Ticket 7.7; Freak 2.5

OVERALL: Ticket 8.6; Fan 6.5; Freak 2.0

*Speaking of radio, can it be 11 years ago already that Mark Elfenbein and I were the Grand Marshals of the St. Patrick’s Day Greenville Ave. Parade? Can’t remember that far back, but surely we weren’t the top choices. The most fun, raucous day on Dallas’ calendar happens Saturday.

Can’t believe it’s been 11 years since ⁦@iamelf⁩ and I were treated like kings as Grand Marshals of the Greenville Ave. St. Patrick’s Day Parade. Time flies when you’re … getting old.https://t.co/rms10esDKd pic.twitter.com/TZGWCIw4xI

— Richie Whitt (@richiewhitt) March 9, 2023

*The Cowboys using the franchise tag on Tony Pollard means tight end Dalton Schultz is gone in free agency. Doesn’t even sound like the team tried too hard to keep him. On my list, he’ll leave Dallas’ behind 1. Jason Witten; 2. Jay Novacek; 3. Billy Joe DuPree; 4. Doug Cosbie; 5. Mike Ditka.

*Hot.

*Not.

*A pretty decent 26 years, followed by a horribly inept 27 years. NFC Championship appearances for the Cowboys: 1970-95, 14; 1996-2022, 0.

*Wait, that house used in a Travis Kelce skit on last week’s Saturday Night Live sure looked familiar. I’ve made many a pit stop at Winfrey Point while running or riding around White Rock Lake. But can it be? Can indeed.

*The playmaking and shotmaking of Luka and Kyrie Irving is, at times, breathtaking. Last week they became the first Mavs teammates to score 40 points in the same game. It won’t be the last time. But … the defense. Since the Feb. 6 trade that shipped Dorian Finney-Smith and Spencer Dinwiddie to the Brooklyn Nets, Dallas is coughing up an alarming 119 points per game. And in games that Luka and Kyrie have suited up together, the Mavs are only 3-7.

*I know we’re only 69 days in but we’ve already got the craziest story of the year clinched. Did you hear the one about the woman arrested in Missouri for giving birth to a baby fathered by … the corpse of a 57-year-old doctor from Dallas? I kid you not.

*It’s always strange when NBA players spend their Summer competing against the United States in international competition. But it’s even more awkward when baseball players just up and leave their teams’ spring training camps to go play for their countries in the World Baseball Classic. The Rangers’ Martin Perez is pitching – and apparently singing – for Venezuela.

*Michael Irvin sounds mad, sad and, most importantly, innocent. Marriott, meanwhile, sounds … silent.

*Went to Arizona last week for an annual golf trip and encountered unprecedented weather. Usually greeted by sunshine and 70s in early March, when we landed it was 46 and raining. Was this Scottsdale or Seattle? The locals said they can never remember snow still on the mountaintops this late in the year. Good to get back to DFW and the expected rain and high winds of Spring.

*Chris Beard fired at Texas. Mark Adams forced to resign at Texas Tech. Bobby Knight. Kelvin Sampson. Connecting the dots yet? Be wary of the college basketball coach who is a fake tough-guy Alpha that demands defense and discipline … except when it comes to the man in the mirror. Other than getting slapped with probation and the alleged sexual assault scandal involving a former assistant, Syracuse’s Jim Boeheim mostly avoided trouble during his career. But should he really be knighted? He coached Syracuse for 47 years using his pet 2-3 zone that dared teams to beat him with outside shooting. But teams almost always did. In his almost half-century, Boeheim won only one championship – with one-and-done freshman Carmelo Anthony that probably taught his coach more about basketball than vice-versa.

*Friend: “Hey, you want to play Fantasy Football in our league next season?” Me: “No thanks.” Friend: “Why? It’s fun!” Me: “I played Fantasy Football back when we had to fax our lineups to each other and wait for the Monday newspaper to know player stats.” Friend: “Understood.”

*Entertainment reminders: Ted Lasso Season 3 debuts Wednesday on Apple TV and this weekend Six Flags – is it still a thing? – unveils it’s new Aquaman roller coaster. 700 feet. 90-degree turns. 150-foot towers. Yep, sounds like a thing I need to investigate.

*This Weekend? Friday let’s move Dad out of rehab. Saturday let’s Spring those clocks forward one hour. Sunday let’s use that extra sunshine to play some tennis. As always, don’t be a stranger.

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