Slam dunk season for local basketball

It’s been a good year on the court for North Texas college basketball.

A few North Texas men’s basketball teams are making history and winning trophies in this season’s March Madness.

Texas Wesleyan University won the NAIA Division I national championships this week, the second national championship for the Fort Worth school since 2006.

The Texas Christian University men’s basketball team is on its way to New York for the National Invitation Tournament semifinals, making Fort Worth residents even prouder to wear purple.

TCU will face the University of Central Florida on Tuesday for a berth in Thursday’s finals.

A NIT championship would be the cherry on top of TCU’s historic first year under coach Jamie Dixon. This is the first time the Fort Worth school has been in the final four of any postseason tournament.

The University of Texas at Arlington also held its own this postseason. Although UTA didn’t make it past the NIT quarterfinals, Wednesday’s game against Cal State Bakersfield drew 6,336 fans, the second-largest basketball crowd ever for College Park Center.

This is the stuff of champions.

This story was originally published March 23, 2017 at 7:01 PM with the headline "Slam dunk season for local basketball."