college basketball

So Close

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Every year, I dutifully fill in my brackets for the NCAA men’s college basketball tournament held around this time every year. Usually, I fill in quite a few — some serious, some off-the-wall, some in-between. Usually by this point, all my brackets are toast, and I’m hoping for some Cinderella team to pull off the improbable win.

This year, there were no Cinderella teams. No double-digit seeds that got to the Final Four. No underdogs tugging at everyone’s heartstrings. It was the usual top seeds that made it to the end. That made it a little less exciting for the games, but a little more helpful for the brackets.

One bracket was shaping up nicely. I had correctly picked all 8 of the Elite Eight teams, all 4 of the Final Four teams, and was one down, one to go for the Championship round. If it had all gone to plan, this would have been my best bracket ever.

Unfortunately, it did not go to plan. One of the teams I picked to advance, Duke, was actually leading up until the final few minutes. The other team, Houston, made an improbable comeback and won the game, dashing my bracket once and for all.

That’s life. At least a lot of life is like that. You almost get that one thing you really want, but not quite. You get the marriage or the house or the car, and it’s every bit of what you dreamed it would be — almost. It’s like we have desires that nothing in this world can quite satisfy.

C. S. Lewis said that if we have those desires that can’t be gratified by anything in this world, it means we were made for another world. Anything this side of heaven is only a type and a shadow of the real thing in heaven. Our ultimate longing and desire can only be found in God.

Of course, some of the things I really thought I wanted or needed to have I didn’t get because God knew better. Some of the kindest words God ever says to me are Him telling me no to a request that if I got what I asked for would destroy me. At least it would not be good for me. Also, I can’t really ask God to give me anything outside of Himself that’s as good as God, because that thing or person doesn’t exist. I think C. S. Lewis said that, too.

Anyway, I’m already looking forward to filling out multiple brackets in 2026 and hoping for that one miracle bracket. My golden ticket, if you will. I suppose I can dream, can’t I?

18,000 Steps and Counting

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I was supposed to meet my friend at Radnor Lake, but that plan fell through. So I had a little deviation from my normal Monday routine. I stopped by Grimey’s Too, one of my favorite used music stores, then headed over to Crockett Park in Brentwood. After all, this was too pretty a day not to get in some walking.

I started off my hike with 7,000 steps on my Fitbit. I ended up with over 18,000. That’s a lot of walking for an hour and a half. I felt great afterward. Sore, but great.

I still believe that the key is to slow down occasionally. That is about as counterculture as you can get these days when the mantra is always more and faster and hurry up. We have all these time-saving devices and actually save less time and have less down time than any previous generation in history.

I work hard at my job. I also know when it’s time to stop. The almighty job can consume you if you let it, but it makes a pretty poor idol. Just ask any of a number of people who dedicated their lives to a company and a career only to get laid off due to “less than expected profits.”

Plus, you can almost never go wrong with exercise and fresh air. Nothing can clear the mind and calm the soul like nature can. The added bonus is all those endorphins that kick in after a good sustained walk (or jog, if you prefer).

You still choose what’s important. You still decide what matters by what you deem worthy to make time for. Too busy is a myth. If something (or someone) is truly significant to you, you will always find time for it (or them). Period.

At the end, I saw probably one of the best college basketball finals ever. I really didn’t have a dog in the hunt, so I was able to truly enjoy the best two teams in college basketball showcasing why they both deserve to be national champions. Unfortunately for North Carolina, Villanova had the last word. And the last shot.

So go for a walk tomorrow. Just get up and move. Preferably outside if the weather is still nice.

 

The Craziness Continues

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There are always a few surprises in the NCAA basketball tournament. This year was definitely no exception. There were more than a few double-digit seeded teams knocking off their much-higher seeded counterparts. That happens every year. There will always be a few upsets to rattle everyone’s brackets a bit.

The biggest of all has to be #15 seed Middle Tennessee State University knocking off the #2 seed (and one of the favorites to win it all) in Michigan State University.

In my less-than-expert opinion, that has to go down as one of the greatest– if not THE greatest– upsets in the first round of any NCAA tournament.

No, I didn’t pick MTSU. Yes, I picked Michigan State to go far in most (if not all) of my brackets. Am I upset that my brackets are now busted? Meh. I didn’t have much hope going in of getting every pick right.

I am super excited for MTSU and Murfreesboro. I’m psyched that a team from close to where I live did what almost no one thought they could do– they brought down the Goliath of college basketball. I’m sure that people will be talking about this one for a long, long time.

From here on out, I’m just hoping for lots more upsets and stunners in the tournament. I figured at the very least I can print out those brackets of mine and make some very fine paper airplanes.

I’m thankful that nothing catches my God off guard. Nothing takes Him by surprise. Nothing that’s done to me or nothing I do to anyone will cause God to do a double-take.    Best of all, nothing can cause God to stop loving His children. Nothing.

God still works all things together for good. His good. My good. Your good.

That hasn’t changed. That will never change. No matter what happens or how bleak the future forecast looks.

That’s my hope that’s sending me off to sleep tonight.

Busted Brackets

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I did my civic duty tonight. No, I didn’t vote. I filled out my NCAA basketball tournament brackets (nine in all).

Some of them I played straight. I picked all the #1 seeds to win. On some others, I just went plain crazy. I picked just about every game to be an upset.

It hit me as I was filling in these brackets. As you know, no 16 seed has ever beaten a 1 seed in the NCAA tournament. Ever.

There have been a few #15 seeds upset the #2 seeds and a few more #14 seeds pull a shocker over their 3 seed counterpart, but no 16 seed has ever beaten a 1 seed since the tournament expanded to 64 teams back in the 80’s.

What hit me was this: what God did for me in saving me was the equivalent of a #16 seed winning the whole enchilada. Or if you will, the 64th best team (think Austin Peay) winning the national championship.

I’m definitely not saying that God’s the underdog in this story. I am. On my own, I had absolutely no shot of making it out of the first round. I was the equivalent of a team of corpses.

But God made me alive in Christ. He raised me up with supernatural power. in Jesus, I have become more than a conqueror. My salvation story is akin to that Austin Peay team reaching the finals and beating those mighty Kansas Jayhawks in the national championship game.

A pipe dream? Maybe. But I know that in God what seems impossible to me and you is possible for God. In fact, it’s not even remotely difficult for God (thanks again to Pete Wilson for that one).

I have a feeling that most of my brackets will be busted and broken by the Sweet Sixteen. I know that spiritually speaking, my life in God will never ever be busted and broken because I serve a God who knows the way out of hell and the grave.

The end.

 

My Bracket’s Got a Hole In it (But It’s Not Busted Yet)

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So far, so good. Not great, but good.

The last time I checked, I picked 72.6% of the winners correctly on the best bracket out of the ten I filled out for ESPN. The worst? Lagging behind at 1.4%. I couldn’t have done much worse if I had picked blind-folded or settled the games by flipping a coin (which I actually did for one of my brackets).

At this point, my chances of taking home the top prize for best bracket are the same as my Tennessee Titans winning the Super Bowl next year. Not good. But I still had fun and hopefully learned how to pick better in the future. And I found out yet again why I don’t need to pursue professional betting as a career.

But you will lose on 100% of the brackets that you never fill out. The guy whose bracket had 16 seed Hampton winning it all did better than the guy who had all the right teams picked in his head but never committed to pen and paper (or mouse and keyboard).

In life, you will miss out on 100% of the chances you didn’t take. I’ve found out the hard way more than once.

If I could go back, I’d probably make a few changes. But I’m satisfied with my brackets (none of which have officially busted as of this moment, 10:40 pm CST on March 27, 2015). I also believe that it’s never too late to start taking those proverbial leaps of faith and risks. Just because you were timid and afraid in the past doesn’t mean that you have to be that way in the future.

Just out of curiosity, what’s the best upset pick you’ve ever gotten right? I seem to remember once picking a 15 seed to knock off a 2 seed back in the day, but I can’t remember who it was and I have no proof that it happened. I recall it might have been Coppin State over South Carolina, but then again, I may have dreamed that episode.

 

Elvis, Basketball, and Spring

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Recently, I spent my birthday amazon gift card on some Elvis. Specifically, I purchased Walk a Mile in My Shoes, a box set of the King’s essential 70’s recordings. For those of you at home keeping score, that’s 5 discs of 120 songs. Now I sound like a PBS pledge fundraiser.

http://www.amazon.com/Walk-Mile-My-Shoes-Essential/dp/B004LR5K0I/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1426219405&sr=1-1&keywords=walk+a+mile+in+my+shoes

But one of those songs took me back. The memory was driving at night in Christiana, TN, and the song in question was T-R-O-U-B-L-E, which I’m sure I haven’t heard since I was much smaller and weighed a lot less. And I was a huge Elvis fan.

The only problem with that is that I remember the song from an 8-track of dubious quality where on that particular song Elvis sounds as if he’s singing through a oscillating fan. The CD version was too cleaned up, at least in my opinion, to truly recreate the memory from that night. But it was close enough for me.

In other news, yes it is finally spring. I love the fact that I can wear a t-shirt and not get hypothermia. And I’ll take all the rain from the past few days over all the snow and ice from a few weeks ago. That was nice for a bit but got old rather quickly. Being stuck at home for a week tends to have that effect.

Finally, March means one thing for true sports fans– March Madness. That means LOTS of college basketball, lots of excitement and close games, and quite possibly one or two memorable and miraculous buzzer-beaters.

It also means I will be filling out multiple NCAA tournament brackets once again in hopes of finally winning the jackpot. So far, I’ve come close once or twice, but haven’t actually won any money.

FYI, if you’re looking for some good Elvis music, I recommend these fine compilations. Both have 30 songs on them and both have the best sound of any Elvis CDs that I’ve heard.

http://www.amazon.com/30-1-Hits-Elvis-Presley/dp/B00006AG5N/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1426219096&sr=8-1&keywords=elvis+%231

http://www.amazon.com/Elvis-2nd-None-PRESLEY-ELVIS/dp/B0000AUHOX/ref=sr_1_1?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1426219132&sr=1-1&keywords=elvis+2nd+to+none

 

 

My Bracket’s Got a Hole In It

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Busted-Bracket

I recently checked my NCAA basketball tournament brackets– you know, the ones that were supposed to make me rich beyond my wildest dreams and completely irresistible to women?Yeah, that one– and was more than pleasantly surprised at one of them.

As it turns out, my Fox Sports bracket was doing better than 99.6% of all the brackets out there. If I believed in jinxes, which I do not, I would have thought that I jinxed myself. That was as good as it got for my bracket.

After that, my brackets went in a direction decidedly warm and southward in a handbasket. Three of my Final Four teams lost, including the team I had pegged to win it all. The team a LOT of people had marked to win it all– Michigan State. They lost. So did my runner-up, Michigan.

So, I won’t be rollin’ in a Rolls Royce or Maserati anytime soon. But I had fun filling out my brackets. And at least I got this far before my brackets busted. Unlike most of my efforts in the past.

For those of you who don’t follow sports, it means that the world didn’t end. I didn’t have any money to bet on these games, so I didn’t lose any. Not that I would EVER have bet money on sports, says the good Baptist boy.

Nothing will happen to me other than maybe me being knocked down a rung or two on the ol’ ladder of my sports pride.

I’ll be back next year, filling out as many brackets as humanly possible and basing all my picks on gut instinct and my sportly intuition. Which loosely translated looks a lot like eeny-meeny-miney-moe. . . .

I have no illusions about having a perfect bracket. I just hope my championship pick doesn’t lose in the first round.

 

Just Another Monday

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As I get ready to type this blog, Lucy the wonder-cat has decided to camp out in my lap. I love the way she just barges in without waiting for permission. It’s like my own very affordable brand of therapy.

I have what seems like an everlasting cough that has been bugging me for three weeks or more. It doesn’t hurt and it’s not deep, but it’s persistent. And annoying. It’s hampering my possible superstar career in singing. Not really. But it is annoying.

I still feel that the best parts of life are those little pleasant surprises that come your way. They always seem to show up when you expect them least but need them most. I like to think they’re reminders that the grace of God is still alive and kicking.

That said, I’m glad Monday is over. It’s always a rude awakening for the week. I’m never ready for it and it always seems to come a day early.  But in perspective, it’s another day I woke up blessed and healthy and still saved by grace.

For those who keep up with college basketball, all my Final Four teams won. My bracket is back from the dead, off life-support, and looking good again.

There’s a whole lot I don’t know. Whole entire books could be written about what I don’t know. I do know a few things, like God is good and real and alive. There’s an enemy who is just as alive and real and opposed to everything God stands for. But my Bible says that the victory is already won.

I’ve said it before, but I love the idea that we as believers are fighting not for victory, but FROM victory. We are already more than conquerors through Jesus who loved us.

If that doesn’t get you through Monday, nothing will.