All the guys got back from their respective parts of the country for Christmas break this last week. Obi planned on visiting family in Nigeria but was delayed for four days in Germany and ended up having to cancel the trip. The rest of us returned from either the West Coast or Midwest. When we got back and had practice on Saturday I was worried we were all going to be completely out of shape, but I was glad to see that we were only slightly out of shape.
We were all anxious to start the rest of the conference season by heading to Louisville on Monday for our Tuesday night matchup against Spalding. We remembered how bad we had played to start the game at Spalding the year before and felt we needed to show ourselves we could play well in this gym. Both teams started out the game hot, but we went into halftime with an 8-point lead. In the second half Spalding stayed hot and we went on a dry spell. We ended up losing to a good Spalding team by 14. We are fighting back mentally right now to stay together after such a frustrating loss. Fortunately, we have a game tonight and on Saturday to help put this game behind us.
Something we are learning as a team and beginning to put into place is praying during the games. Jesus died for us and took our sin on Himself so that our sin would not cause us to be separated from God the Father, and because Jesus did this we can come to the Father with any concern at any time. As Philippians 4:6-7 says, "Don't worry about anything; instead pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank Him for all he has done. If you do this, you will experience God's peace, which is far more wonderful than the human mind can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus." Since there are endless opportunities in a basketball game to worry, it just makes sense that we would also pray during games. We try to pray for things like playing to our potential and staying positive through negative situations rather than for a win because that may not be God's will (even though we always think a win is what we want). Sometimes a loss is just what a team needs.
-Jonas McBride
(about Jonas)
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