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Can college hoops dethrone King Football in Texas? The state has the talent and coaching to win more national titles, and soon.

Basketball is no longer how Texans pass the time between football seasons.

Seeing as how it was only Monday that Baylor officially dragged Lone Star hoops into the 21st century, here’s hoping it’s not too soon or too much to ask:

Must we wait 55 years for another men’s national title?

Because I’m afraid that exceeds my expiration date.

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“Hopefully,” Fran Fraschilla said by phone, “it happens again in our lifetime.”

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The good news is that Fran thinks we’re trending nationally, and he should know. Not only is he from New York — which, judging by conversations with just about every New Yorker you ever met automatically qualifies as basketball expertise — he coached St. John’s and New Mexico. Since 2003, he’s been an ESPN college basketball analyst, primarily working Big 12 games.

More important, at least for the purposes of this column, he’s lived in Texas a long time.

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Fran thinks basketball here, long an understudy to King Football, is “dramatically” better than it was back in the ’80s, when Phi Slama Jama ruled. Two schools, Texas Tech and Baylor, crashed the last two men’s title games. A whopping seven men’s teams from Texas made the NCAAs this year.

The high school talent in the state, Fran says, is as good as you’ll find anywhere in the nation, and it’s getting better all the time. Rivals.com’s top 150 national prospects last year included six from Texas. This year, it was up to eight.

Next year, it’s projected to be 16.

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Fran credits the access high school coaches have to their players nine months a year; basketball camps, in particular those run by Mike Kunstadt; and better coaching in general.

And then there’s this: “The level of great coaching at the college level is unprecedented.”

He cited the reigning king, Scott Drew, who needed every bit of 18 years to turn around the worst situation in college athletics, a mess so awful “we thought he was an idiot to take it;” Houston’s Kelvin Sampson, who’s taken two schools to the Final Four; and Texas’ Chris Beard, hired from a McDonald’s in Plainview. He also gave shout-outs to Abilene Christian’s Joe Golding, who chased Shaka Smart off to Marquette; North Texas’ Grant McCasland; and TCU’s Jamie Dixon, who made the cut despite a rough stretch recently.

What most of the coaches above have in common is a deep and abiding affection for defense. Same goes for Mark Adams, elevated from defensive coordinator to the top job at Texas Tech. Some even credit Adams for giving Baylor the idea to pursue a “no-middle” defense, where the ball is diverted to the outside and no prisoners taken.

No offense to Adams or any other coach, not to mention yours truly, who figured defense was the reason for the Lone Star State’s success lately and the start of a wave that might sweep the nation, but Fran says we need to get a couple things straight.

“Everything being done on defense these days,” he said, “comes from Mr. Iba and Coach Knight.”

That’s Hank and Bob, respectively.

And, yes, Texas teams played great defense in the tournament. But the game is cyclical, Fran said, and eventually good coaches will figure out how to beat the “no-middle,” too.

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What’s harder to beat is good coaches and good players, and that, Fran said, is the secret to the hoops upgrade around these parts.

Speaking of which, I was a little surprised that Kirby Hocutt stayed in house when he had so many choices at his disposal. He interviewed Darvin Ham, who apparently thinks his future is in the NBA, where he works as an assistant for the Bucks. Either Golding or McCasland would have been great choices, not the least because both have West Texas ties. Of course, so does Adams, who, at 64, has spent a lifetime in West Texas, much of it at smaller stops. He was popular with current players as well as fans still angry that Beard jilted them for Texas. Adams probably won’t leave Lubbock of his own volition, but hiring him because the players on hand like him and he’s a loyal alum isn’t necessarily a good long-term strategy.

Then again, Adams may take this defense-first strategy and roll with it. Fran is a fan. Adams may not be a national name, he said, but anyone in the state’s basketball circles knows him and thinks highly of his work.

Listen, if Adams keeps Tech in the hunt for Final Fours, you’ll hear no complaints here. But the job is harder than ever just to get out of the state. Drew will be the beneficiary of national recruits and transfers who’d suddenly like to experience Waco. In his introductory news conference at Texas, Beard promised “national championships,” as in plural. Texas fans would probably settle for their first.

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A cynic might contend it’s more than a little presumptuous to get so carried away just because Baylor broke the drought. After Texas Western won the state’s first national title, in ’66, Houston made the next two Final Fours and three straight in the ’80s. And still we had to wait on Baylor for an encore in another century.

But, like Fran said, times are different now. We’re good at basketball pretty much across the board. It’s no longer how we pass the time between football seasons.

Frankly, I’m so high on our national prospects, let’s bet: Over the next decade, the Lone Star State will win at least two more men’s titles. Check back in 2031. That is, if you can find me.

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