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Top Stories: TCU Returns To NCAA Tournament; Fort Worth Rebrands At SXSW

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The top local stories this morning:

After 20 years, Texas Christian University is finally headed back to the NCAA basketball tournament.

The Horned Frogs earned an at-large bid Sunday to compete for the first time since 1998. TCU guard Alex Robinson told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram he was only two years old the last time the Frogs played in the tournament.

“It's amazing that it's been 20 years. That’s a long time,” Robinson said. “Was it the longest drought? They should definitely put us on TV for that. That's a great accomplishment.”

TCU earned a six seed and will open Friday in Detroit against the winner of Wednesday's match-up between No. 11 seed Arizona State or Syracuse.

It's the eighth time TCU has made it to the tournament. The Star-Telegram reports three TCU players weren't even alive the last time the Frogs played, while the others were just toddlers.

Other stories this morning:

  • Two people were killed and several others injured when a band of severe weather swept through East Texas over the weekend. Winds exceeded 80 miles per hour – with hail the size of baseballs. The Marion County sheriff's office says 40-year-old Mary Pinney of Mont Belvieu was killed late Saturday when a tree fell on her family's tent at a campground in Jefferson. About 20 miles away in Longview, a 41-year-old man was killed early Sunday when a tree fell on a mobile home.

  • The city of Fort Worth has chosen the South by Southwest interactive festival now underway in Austin as a launching point for an ambitious image rebuild. The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports the two-day exhibit follows two sobering studies that suggested the city is falling behind its competitors. The exhibit "Fort Worth Now" begins Tuesday. It touts the city as a big-time player, and is offering programs designed to promote Fort Worth’s business, innovation, arts, music and film. Participating companies include the Firestone & Robertson Distilling Company, Lockheed Martin, Facebook and Hillwood Properties, the developers of the Alliance corridor in far north Fort Worth.

  • Some blame a slow metabolism for weight gain. There's some truth in that, but other factors play a role as well. In this week’s Vital Signs, KERA’s Sam Baker talked about this with Dr. Luigi Meneghini, executive director of Parkland Hospital’s Global Diabetes Program and a professor of internal medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

You can listen to North Texas stories weekdays at 8:22 a.m. and 6:20 p.m. on KERA 90.1 FM.

Former KERA staffer Stephanie Kuo is an award-winning radio journalist who worked as a reporter and administrative producer at KERA, overseeing and coordinating editorial content reports and logistics for the Texas Station Collaborative – a statewide news consortium including KERA, KUT in Austin, Houston Public Media and Texas Public Radio in San Antonio.