Center of the basketball universe? Could it be Texas?

I was hesitant to write this for fear of jinxing a whole state.

But what the heck. It’s time to trumpet the new king of the world in basketball: Texas.

Yep, the land of football supremacy has a new state sport and it is played with a large, pebbled round ball instead of an oblong one with laces.

In case you haven’t noticed, Houston and Texas Tech are riding high in the NCAA’s Sweet Sixteen, both with legitimate chances to advance further in March Madness. Only three other states – North Carolina, Virginia and Michigan, have more than one college team in the round of 16.

TCU and Texas are already in the Final Four – albeit the NIT Tournament’s Final Four. And stop with the jokes about that being the Not In Tournament or the race for bragging rights to say “We’re No. 69,” after 68 teams were picked for the Big Dance. It’s still a nice addition to the basketball chops of Texas.

Four college teams out of 20 still playing this season from Texas? That’s a whopping percentage.

If that’s not enough to get us on anybody’s radar as far as being the center of the basketball universe, the Houston Rockets are rolling toward the NBA playoffs with a legitimate shot to be playing in June.

And of course, the San Antonio Spurs still play some high-level ball.

We’ll leave the Mavericks aside for a moment, but their time in the spotlight may not be too far in the future.

Of course, if things do not go well the next few days for the Raiders, Cougars, Frogs and Longhorns, then we can all go back to enjoying that second-favorite sport in Texas: spring football.

Twitter: @ESefko