There’s just something about Dallas-Fort Worth hoops.
Teams from D-FW went 7–0 at this year’s UIL boys basketball state championships at the Alamodome in San Antonio, marking a second straight year of dominance after the area went 5–1 overall and 5–0 against Houston-area teams at the 2025 state tournament.
Over the last several seasons, Texas high school basketball fans have tried to pin down why teams from Dallas, Fort Worth and the cities’ surrounding suburbs have been so tough to beat.
Some say it’s because D-FW has teams in two of the UIL’s regions, Region I and Region II, and that guarantees the area will always have a representative at state. Others say it’s because the metro area includes two major Texas cities and not just one, like Houston, Austin and San Antonio.
But North Crowley coach Tommy Brakel said before his team beat San Antonio Brennan 65-52 in the 6A Division I state championship game on Saturday that the answer is much simpler than that.
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“D-FW is just killing it right now,” Brakel said.
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North Crowley North Crowley forward Alex Barther II celebrates with North Crowley head coach Tommy Brakel during the second half of the Class 6A Division I boys basketball state championship game against the San Antonio Brennan in San Antonio, Saturday, March 14, 2026.
Smiley N. Pool / The Dallas Morning News
A Houston-area squad, Humble Atascocita, won Region III. But a program from that area also could have won Region II.
Newly-crowned 6A Division II state champion Little Elm beat Region II champion Cypress Springs, a Houston area program, in the state semifinals. And to make it to the 6A Division I state semifinal game, Region II champion Duncanville beat Houston-area programs Klein Oak and Cypress Ranch on its playoff path.
In fact, Cypress-Fairbanks ISD, which includes Cypress Ranch and Cypress Springs, has teams in both Region II and III — and it is just one school district.
“If [the Houston-area schools] were better than the few Region II metroplex schools, then they would get in,” Brakel said. “There could be two Houston schools in the state championship game because I plays II and III plays IV and Houston is split between II and III.”
The Dallas-Fort Worth metro area boasts a population of about 8.3 million people, according to estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau. That’s considerably more than the metro areas for Austin and San Antonio. But not significantly more than that of the Houston metro, about 7.8 million people, so D-FW doesn’t have a huge edge in that respect.
And with the UIL’s controversial basketball playoff format — which starting last season split postseason qualifiers into two divisions per classification based on enrollment — there are even more opportunities for teams from across the state to win state titles.
But the new format has only delivered more state titles to D-FW. That outcome seemingly has more to do with the caliber of basketball played in the area than anything.
“We’ve got the best talent,” Frisco Heritage senior Cameron Lomax, an SMU signee, said after winning the 5A Division I state title. “ We’re the best of the best, I feel like. We all play each other through the season. We all sharpen each other.”
That sharpening showed in Friday and Saturday’s games, which weren’t exactly competitive.
Dallas Madison head coach Gerald Smith raises the championship trophy after a victory over Orangefield in the Class 3A Division I boys basketball state championship game in San Antonio, Friday, March 13, 2026. Dallas ISD superintendent Stephanie Elizalde is at right.
Smiley N. Pool / The Dallas Morning News
Madison beat Orangefield 70-59 in the 3A Division I state title game, but the contest was not as close as the final score indicated. Kimball dominated Fort Bend Crawford 62-42 in the 4A Division I state title game and Carter routed La Marque, a team that lost one game all season, 67-41 for the 4A Division II state championship.
Frisco Heritage, the 5A Division I champ, and Mansfield Summit, the 5A Division II champ, both enjoyed double-digit victories. Little Elm crushed Austin Westlake 57-35 in the 6A Division II state final to close this year’s state championships.
The rest of the state just couldn’t hang.
Sure, D-FW programs made it out of both Regions I and II. But they had to survive a gauntlet full of teams — many state-ranked and from the same area — to do so.
In a sense, it felt like some of the state title games were played on Tuesday during the state semifinals. North Crowley escaped Duncanville 52-49 in the 6A Division I state semifinals and Frisco Heritage survived Birdville 65-63 in the 5A Division I state semifinals. Little Elm’s 6A Division II state semifinal against Cypress Springs was also much more competitive, with a final score of 60-51.
Several of those teams that fell in state semifinals probably would have had a fighting chance in state final games.
Perhaps more exciting state championship matchups could return if the UIL shuffles the state semifinal seeding, as it did prior to last school year, rather than always pitting Region I against Region II and Region III against Region IV. Under that format, there could be more of an opportunity for state championship games to look like the games played between Duncanville and North Crowley and Heritage and Birdville earlier this week.
But the outcome might have been the same, with a Dallas-Fort Worth team coming out on top.
“The area where we’re at is probably the best area in basketball in the whole country,” Carter coach Lyndon Love said.
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Big win for Little Elm: See photos as program wins first-ever basketball state championship
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Back on top! North Crowley wins first boys basketball state title since 2008 — see photos
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Little Elm defense shuts down Austin Westlake en route to school’s 1st state championship
Little Elm held Westlake to just 21.7% shooting from the floor while also forcing 22 turnovers in the 6A-II state title game.
2026 UIL boys basketball playoff pairings: Final scores, champions for Dallas-area teams
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Find more high school sports coverage from The Dallas Morning News here.