If you joined me in watching the NAIA basketball championship
game last night on the CBS Sports Network then you just earned my respect as a
real sports fan. I doubt very seriously
they’re many reading this that actually watched the game – this I’m almost sure
of. Yet, after watching the defending national
champions Kentucky Wildcats stunningly lose in the opening round of this year’s
NIT tournament to Robert Morris University last night, and then flipping over
to see that the University of Alabama had their game well in hand, I eventually
settled for the NAIA championship game from Kansas City.
Georgetown College from Kentucky had the game well under
control by the time I picked up the game.
They led by nearly 30 points over SAGU, which I found out was the acronym
for Southwestern Assemblies of God University. A blow out to say the least, but for some
strange reason I continued to watch. And, by watching, then reading on-line I learned that in the
pre-season polls Georgetown College was predicted to “win it all” and sure enough here they were last night emphatically
doing just that.
What I found out though,
was that the pathway to their basketball destiny had been anything but a rose-littered
highway. By doing a bit of research this morning I learned, this particular team, with lofty
expectations placed on them, turned out to be, well let’s just call it the way it is, not a very good basketball
team. For a school with rich basketball
traditions, this wasn’t what fans would call a stellar season by no means. The Tigers lost 7 games during the regular
season, and then were blown out by 15 points in the quarterfinal game in their
conference tournament by Pikeville College.
They not only didn't win their conference title, they didn't even finish
in second place. All this from a team
predicted to win the national championship.
It could be summed up as nothing more than a disappointing year for the mighty
Tigers from the small little Commonwealth of Kentucky school, sitting just across
the state line on the outskirts of Cincinnati, Ohio.
Then grace enters the story – a second
chance for all of us that have failed to reach our potential at one time or
another, for the Georgetown College 2012-2013 men’s basketball team. As it turns out, for some strange reason the
national tournament selection committee thought the Tigers deserved a chance to
compete in at least one more game this season.
So as a 7th seeded team (the lowest of the tournament) they
were invited in. This meant for them to advance they would have to beat the
best teams in the tournament each step of the way. The situation couldn’t have
looked anymore grim than this, but at least they were in the tournament, at
least their dream was still alive.
In their first round game it all came down to a pair of made
free throws with just 14.6 seconds to pull out the win for the Tigers and they
were moving on. Their second round game
was against the # 4 ranked team in the country, yet they somehow rose to the occasion
and beat them by 13 points. In the third
round game the roller-coaster riding Tigers didn’t grab the lead until there was
only 6.7 seconds left on the clock, but a win is a win as we all know.
Their fourth round game (the final-four match up) was a nail-biter
of epic proportions. A made three
pointer with only one tick left on the clock thrust the Tigers into the title
game against SAGU, and eventually the blow out for the championship. Wow, what a run this basketball team put on
at just the right time of the year. They are once again National Champions, for the first time in nearly twenty years. All this from a team that only managed to finish
third in their own conference and so again I say, WOW.
This I’ve learned from a lifetime of watching sports teams
and regular ol’ people in the same situation as the Georgetown College Tigers
found themselves in this year; when your vision is greater than your
circumstance then your hope will be sustained, and it will carry you through
even the bleakest of situations.
Not knowing for sure, but I suspect the basketball coach for
the Tigers of Georgetown College (who looks young enough to be a player)
teaches some form of this same life-lesson.
A big vision is required to reach big goals. An open mind is required to maintain a big
vision. And a big heart, unwilling to
quit must always accompany an open mind in order to succeed past the
accomplishments of the average.
Last night I merely saw the most recent of reminders of
this. God speaks to me in so many ways,
to give me nudges when I need them, to give me a reminder to never give up when
I start losing my grip, and to give me a view of what it still looks like to
have a vision greater than my circumstances.
Thank you God for making me such a sports nut that even at
the end of an exhausting day I am willing to sit and watch such an obscure event (to
the eye of most normal folks) as the NAIA championship game, and You’re able to
reach my heart with your message of love and hope once again. You are truly
amazing! doug
