Journal - Basketball

I’ve never had much interest in basketball. I have mentioned before that football is the only sport that interests me and when football season ends, it’s a very long wait until it begins again. It is a testament of how bored I have become that I have begun listening to basketball games on the radio in the evening.

Okay, that’s not entirely true. I do get bored sometimes, but the main reason I started checking out the games is that Nebraska’s women’s basketball team is having a really phenomenal year, far exceeding everyone's wildest expectations. As of this writing, their record is 26-0, and they are the Big 12 conference champions.

I’m sorry to say that I’ve only listened to two of those twenty-six games, but they were good. The game on Wednesday of this week was particularly exciting. They played Oklahoma, always an important game for Nebraska but even more so because Oklahoma has a good team as well. On that day, Nebraska was ranked number three in the country, and Oklahoma was 11. Also, on the previous week, Oklahoma beat the number 1 team, Connecticut.

Anyway, this was an exciting game that went right down to the wire. With only a few minutes left in the game, Oklahoma finally took a two point lead after trailing the entire game. For a while, they went back and forth; Nebraska would score to tie the game, then Oklahoma would score to take the lead, back and forth they went. Then one of the teams got a foul shot, I forget which, but then it was only a one point game. Nebraska would take a one point lead, then Oklahoma would go up by one, then Nebraska again. Talk about a nail-biter! Well, with less than a minute and a half left, Nebraska finally took control. A couple of the Nebraska players made some fantastic plays that broke Oklahoma's spirit, and Nebraska ended up winning by sixteen points.

Hummm. It occurred to me that if Connecticut got beaten by Oklahoma, then Nebraska would probably have moved up to number 2. I just went to check on that, but the polls are still showing Connecticut undefeated, so maybe I misunderstood something. Maybe they were saying that Oklahoma almost beat Uconn. Anyway, Uconn is still #1, Stanford is #2, and Nebraska is #3. Sorry for the confusion!

I bet it feels really good for the basketball program at Nebraska to be getting some attention. Those of you who don’t live in Nebraska may not understand how we are about our football team. We give the word fanatic a whole new meaning. And, it's always good for a university to get this kind of national recognition. It helps them earn more money at the basketball games, and draw more students from around the country. So kudos to the basketball team.

Now, is it football season yet?

Proverbs 16:3 Commit to the LORD whatever you do, and your plans will succeed.