April 1, 2019 - One-and-Done vs Mature Players

Well we have made it through the Elite 8 and are heading to next weekend’s Final Four in college basketball… (and made it through the InBounds March MADness schedule of sharing our ministry.) The basketball tourney has been exciting as always (and our ministry events have been awesome times of celebration and praise!)


This year’s NCAA hoops tourney has not had near as many upsets from the underdogs… with the Elite 8 beginning with 3 of the 4 #1-seeds still alive, a couple of the #2’s, plus a #3 and #5. The only remaining team from the lower seeds was a #12. So, any time the top seeds are playing one another, it is hard to consider any game an upset, no matter who the winner is…


Except for the fact that the darling of the media Duke Blue Devils went down to Michigan State. The reason this one is somewhat of an upset is because Duke had such an insanely talented group of freshmen… following a pattern of schools getting what are called “one and done” players… guys destined to play a year in college and jump straight to the pros. And Duke epitomized this trend with one of the most celebrated classes of freshmen ever. (The other program that gets brought up in the discussion of this trend is the University of Kentucky… who, like Duke, lost this weekend.)


But instead of focusing on Duke (and UK), I want to point out that Michigan State (which beat Duke) was very talented as well but played with more experienced players. (As did Auburn, who beat UK.) IN fact I saw some stat that showed since the beginning of the “one and done” era, only a couple of the these super-freshmen teams has won the championship… it is still usually a more mature, experienced team that wins.


Don’t get me wrong, I loved watching the Duke freshmen this year. The Williamson kid is one of the most, if not the most, freakish athletes to every play college ball. Yet, I am not surprised that they didn’t make it to the championship. (Nor was I shocked by UK’s loss… I even have Auburn in my Final Four brackets I did…)


The reason I am not surprised is simple… sports are a microcosm of this thing we call life; and when it comes to “life” the Scriptures are clear that maturity is the key to success. Over and over we see verses about the man of God becoming complete or mature. That is the goal of being in the Scriptures… “that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:17)


This came to mind this morning as I was reading Proverbs chapter 1. The first few verses of this book of wisdom key on obtaining wisdom… and the chapter concludes by personifying wisdom and having her warn of failure to those that ignore her… In other words, victory belongs to those that become mature players!


Read Proverbs 1 today… be reminded of the importance of maturing…