Using Your Inherent Advantage

I got to watch 4 high school basketball games this weekend - 2 were the WC guys, 2 the WC girls. When it was all over, they'd won all 4 and both claimed District titles. Congrats to the teams, they both played hard and earned the wins.

The WC girls are an up-start crew of mostly freshmen - 3 freshman starters and the only 2 regulars off the bench are also freshmen. They've improved dramatically over the course of the season and I'm anxious to see how far they can go. Whatever happens this year, they're going to be scary the next 3 years (I'm told there are some really solid players on the 8th grade team as well). They struggled on Saturday night as their go-to player didn't have her usual touch early on. But in the 4th quarter they simply wore their opponents down and beat them into submission - it was fun to watch. They're just relentless.

The WC boys are an experienced bunch of very talented, very athletic players. These guys have a team full of guys who have state championship rings - mostly from football, a couple from baseball as well. The point being they are great athletes and happen to be good basketball players as well. 2 of the seniors have signed to play football next year and one to play baseball. Add to that 3 or 4 other top-notch high school athletes and you've got a group of guys who can simply run you off the court at any given moment. And I've seen them do it more than once.

On Saturday night they had to fight long and hard to get past Carl Junction - who they split with earlier in the season and is a good team - but not so much because CJ is so incredibly talented. On Saturday night I watched as WC let a smaller, physically weaker team push them around. Please remember, the WC guys are primarily multi-sport athletes who are very strong physically compared to most of their opponents. I haven't seen a single team this season that WC could not physically dominate at any moment they wanted to. While I love to see them push it up the floor, run breaks, press, dunk, etc. when they get into a half-court set there no reason for them to settle for 3-point jumpers (though at times they hit them in bunches).

My fear for WC is that in a tight game when the 3's aren't falling they'll just keep firing rather than pound the ball inside and use their inherent physical advantage. In addition to having some strong guys, they've got some tough customers, guys who can take it to the rack, get hit and still put it in. Please, please, please use your advantage.

One of the reasons it's important that WC establish themselves as physically dominant in the half-court set is because it will avoid punks (and I intentionally use that word as the best one i can find to describe the behavior I've seen from some of their opponents this season) thinking they can take cheap shots late in the game when they get frustrated. I've seen it over and over, 140-pound weaklings taking a cheap shot at a much bigger opponent because they know the opponent won't pound them into submission the next time down the floor (I'm not suggesting fighting at all, just taking the ball inside and playing physical basketball).

The other thing that happens when you don't establish your physical presence is that you get weaker players thinking they can do what they want all over the court. I'm sorry, if a guy nails a couple of 3's, he shouldn't get the next one off - deny him the ball and if need be foul him good and hard about once. He'll think twice before he fires it up again. Take that shooter into the paint on the other end of the floor and lean on him, wear him down, take those legs away and his shots will start falling short.

In my opinion this is a coaching issue. This team is dangerous and could be a title threat, but not if they keep letting teams of guys who don't even know where the weight room is located at dominate them physically.

Reason #487 Why...

...you always offer to help someone when you feel prompted to do so is: they might be developing pneumonia and washing/cleaning 2 vans might make it worse.

Yes, I'm a a terrible person. I didn't even offer to help Chase with the vans on Sunday afternoon when the Believe crew got back and now he's got pneumonia. I'm sure the cold air while he was washing/vacuuming the vans didn't help that situation.

Chase, I'm so sorry.

Boys Behaving Badly

If you follow NASCAR (and you probably don't, so I'm going to fill you in), you probably have seen by now the on-track altercation between Tony Stewart and Kurt Busch last weekend in Daytona. This article tells the story and links to video of parts of it.

What happened on the race track itself wasn't the issue, it was what happened as they were headed back to the pits that resulted in the 6 race probation. With some drivers I would argue that the retaliator (in this case Busch) got what he deserved in the probation, but the other guy got hit too hard for what looked like an inadvertent incident on the track (in this case Stewart). However, Tony Stewart has a history of being hot-headed and running over people. These two drivers also have been known to clash, so I would say NASCAR was right to punish both equally. In reality, this will have no particular bearing on this weekend's event or the next 5 - unless they are stupid enough to get together again. And with Stewart, who knows.

It reminds me of a scene from Days of Thunder. When Cole and Rowdy are leaving the hospital, the NASCAR big-wig (played by none other than Fred Thompson, yes, that one) says to them, "You want to turn yourselves into a greasy spot on side of the road, go ahead. But you're not going to do it on my track. If you two knuckle-heads trade paint one more time, if you so much as touch, I'm going to take your race-cars apart for 300 laps. Then, if you put them back together and you pass inspection, I might let you back on the track." (Yes, I can hear Tony from OTB in my head reminding me that I can quote more movie lines than scripture)

I don't know if NASCAR gave the boys any sort of threat like this, but I'd love to see that happen - cars in pieces sitting next to one another as the crews thrashed to put them back together. That's like the ultimate pit-stop competition. Then again, the crews shouldn't be punished, the didn't do anything here. That to me is the real crime, the guys that work on the race cars have to repair the damage the drivers caused just because they lost their temper. Hey Tony, how about you grab that wrench and put that quarter-panel back on!

Last thing, if I'm a driver on Sunday (if only) I'd be staying clear of those two guys, particularly if they're anywhere near one another. Matter of fact, I'd either be trying to stay out front or way in the back. When you go to the restrictor-plate tracks those are the two safest places to be.

From the weekend (again)

Friday I went to Vinita to work with my dad - this usually comes with the chance to see both he and mom as well as my nephew Jarod. As I was leaving Joplin a little after 7am, the sun was coming up under a blanket of clouds. It created the most beautiful orange sky (I'm partial to orange skies) for a few minutes until it got up high enough to get behind the clouds. I firmly believe that God is partial to mornings, so when I find myself in the middle of something beautiful in the morning I assume it must be from God. On a cold February morning I was thankful for a beautiful sunrise. It set the tone for what turned out to be a good day.

Saturday night was a good one in our house. For the first time in a long, long time Dale Jr. won a race. Unfortunately the Bud Shootout isn't a points race, but it was sweet to see what the guy can do in a good car. Early on I told my wife that he was just messing with the other drivers. On more than one occasion I saw him lead for several laps, someone would get by him (not sure if he was letting that happen or not) and then when he was ready he'd just drive by that person to re-take the lead. I had a feeling that if something didn't go wrong he'd win the race - and he did. It was a strange thing having to root for the Hendrick guys - Gordon especially - who were pushing Jr. to victory. I fear that this combination of drivers and equipment may lead to some dynasty rules being put in place by NASCAR. While I'm sure they won't win every race this season, I'd be surprised if they didn't put 3 cars in the top 5 of the end of season point standings including the champion. I also want to say that seeing Jr. drive the National Guard car instead of his traditional Bud #8 was strange. To make matters worse, Kasey Kahne now drives the Bud car and is #9, so it almost looks likes Jr.'s number. The key here is that Kahne drives a Dodge, so if you get a shot at the front of the car the difference is easy to see. Picking out Jr.'s non-descript, mostly white car is much more difficult. The best news of all is that the season starts next Sunday.

Loving Others

Last night our small group met and we talked about honoring Christ by loving others. It was a tough lesson for me, because in the process I was stepping on my own toes. It's easy to say that I care about the lost or people with physical needs, but it's another thing to really do something about it. As I prepared for the lesson I was definitely convicted of a need to be very conscious of how I am or am not showing Christ's love in tangible ways to those around me each day.

As we talked we got onto the topic of apathy and how it is easy to be less than compassionate toward people and situations that don't directly effect us. I certainly am guilty of that - yes I care that people have needs or are dealing with pain and loss, but do I get involved?

Then this morning I found a blog post by Arron Chambers - who is a minister in Jacksonville, FL - dealing with the issue of becoming apathetic toward the needs and situations of others. I thought it was worth linking here, he has some good thoughts.


Arron's Post

If I were a true digerati I'd have photos to prove what I'm about to say. Joplin received a few inches of snow yesterday evening, which of course creates some slick streets and all the normal issues, but I've got a cool view out my office window this morning.

The CIY offices are surrounded by woods and right now there are no leaves on most of the trees, so I can see deep into the woods to the west of the office out my window. The sky above is light blue as the sun begins to come up on the other side of the building and there is a layer of pure, white snow on all the branches of the trees and across the ground.

Last summer Matt Foreman did something cool, he painted our ONES logo in this shallow wooden box and then propped it up against some pallets out on this end of the building. So every time I look out, there it is. It has been a cool reminder of our Summer Conference theme in 2007. Today it has a layer of snow covering part of it.

It's a beautiful scene out my window this morning. Clear, calm, tranquil. On mornings like this I am very thankful for a chance to sit just for a moment and appreciate the beauty of God's creation.