This past Thursday night the South Carolina men’s basketball team played poorly in a bad loss at home to LSU. During coach Frank Martin’s post-game press conference, he spent about ten minutes criticizing his players’ poor effort. He was calm. He never raised his voice. But he was brutally blunt. He accused them of not having any “passion” for the game and not putting in the time on their own that they needed to get better.

During the Q&A with the media, he illustrated what it takes to get better with a story about Michael Beasley. Beasley was an All-American who played for Martin one year at Kansas State before being taken with the second pick in the 2008 NBA draft following his freshman year. That one college season, Beasley led the nation in rebounding and was third in scoring. He also led the nation in double-doubles, 40 point games, 30 point/10 rebound games, and 20 point/10 rebound games. As a freshman! He now plays for the Phoenix Suns in the NBA.

Kansas State lost a close game in Lubbock, Texas against Texas Tech. Beasley scored about 20 points. The game started at 9:00 pm, so the team’s plane arrived back in Kansas about 1:30 am. It was a ten minute ride to campus. At 2:00 am, Michael Beasley did not go to bed. Instead the All-American player went to the gym where he shot the basketball 500 times. Coach Martin said, “He didn’t do this because I asked him to. He did it because he knew he didn’t play well that day.” Beasley was not an average player trying to get better. As coach Martin said, “He is a REAL good player” who wanted to be his best.

It’s easy to settle for the way things are instead of working to make them better. It’s easy to blame others instead of owning our own need to improve. It’s hard to practice, to get better, to improve, to grow, to change, to admit we need to do these things. But doing so is definitely worth it. What is God asking you to do better?

Pastor Steve Hogg