“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” – Romans 10:9
Did They Do Enough to Get Invited to the Dance?
Sunday, March 12, 2017 should be an historic day for the Northwestern University men’s basketball team. If they are chosen to participate in the NCAA Men’s Basketball Tournament, it will be the first time in the seventy-eight year history of the tournament for the Wildcats. Most, if not all, college basketball “experts” believe it is not if, but when they are selected. Coach Chris Collins is turning the program around. Sunday should be an exciting day for the team, the university and alumni, including a long list of famous alums.
Every year the selection committee pours over win – loss records, strength of schedule, “quality” wins and a myriad of other analytics to choose the sixty-eight team field. There will be debates about the last few teams that make the tournament and those who do not. Those “bubble” teams will sweat it out hoping to hear their name called. Once those teams play their last conference tournament game their tournament fate will no longer be in their hands. They will be asking themselves, “Did we do enough?”
In relation to eternity, many people ask the same types of questions, “Have I done enough?” “Was I good enough for God to let me into heaven?” “Will the good I did outweigh the bad?” The answer for everyone is no. Ephesians 2:8-9 (NLT) says, “God saved you by his grace when you believed. And you can’t take credit for this; it is a gift from God. Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done, so none of us can boast about it.”
No one can do enough or give enough to merit selection into eternity. It is a gift for all who believe, not do. Romans 10:9 (NIV) says, “If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
Selection Sunday is a great day. Every team will celebrate when their name is announced whether it is the first time like the Northwestern Wildcats or the fifty-eighth time for another Wildcats team, Kentucky. There will be some teams sitting on the edge of their seats, wondering, “Did we do enough to get in?” You do not need to worry about your entrance into God’s family if you believe in Jesus and have faith in Him.
“My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires.” — James 1:19-20
As a young man, I was an ungracious football fan. Indigestion. Heart burn. High blood pressure. My old nature leaned toward bad sportsmanship. The people I watched the games with engaged in the same behavior. It was a lot like being in a Baptist business meeting on a Wednesday evening!
Anger can be turned into passion, though. The Holy Spirit’s creative power can transform these emotions into a creative force for good. Jesus called a couple of His disciples the “Sons of Thunder” (Mark 3:17). He bridled and mentored them into assets for the Gospel.
Often, people sever relationships over politics. In 30 years of ministry, I have even seen divorces over opposing football teams. The Bible teaches the roots of relationships should run deeper than that — God created us for one another and we need each other. Respectfully agree to disagree.
Human nature forgets sports scores. However, human nature doesn’t forget hurtful words or hurtful memories. Remember this Biblical wisdom: “a word fitly spoken is like apples of gold” (Proverbs 25:11a, ESV) and “a soft word turns away wrath” (Proverbs 15:1a, ESV).
Prayer: Heavenly Father, increase the fruits of the Spirit in me, including self-control and temperance. Amen.
Sacramento Kings center Dylan Cardwell, Dec. 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Justine Willard)
Dylan Cardwell is really just grateful to be in the NBA. He’s had to scrap and claw at just about every level to earn minutes.
That hasn’t changed much even in the early stages of his professional career. Undrafted out of Auburn, Cardwell signed a two-way contract (meaning he’d play in the G League and the NBA) in June 2025 with the Sacramento Kings — the only team to offer him a contract. But in February, the organization converted it to a standard NBA contract, signing him to a four-year deal after trading away veterans Dennis Schroeder, Keon Ellis and Dario Saric for De’Andre Hunter.
At the time of the signing, Cardwell was leading all rookies in blocks per game and eventually led the class in rebounds per game that same month. He turned in a career-high 15 points on Sunday, and continued to display his infectious energy. He was asked after the game about where that joy comes from.
“My joy just comes from the Lord,” he said during the press conference. “I really try to be a light for Him each and every day. Like I said, every day is not promised.”
“My joy just comes from the Lord”
This is a wonderful perspective from Sacramento Kings big man Dylan Cardwell. pic.twitter.com/yIBLepyGGv
He then reflected on his basketball journey, saying he started as “a nobody” that struggled to get regular playing time and find steady production at nearly every level of his basketball career until his final year at Auburn. He played on the junior varsity team as a freshman in high school at Oak Hill Academy in Virginia, then averaged around three points per game his sophomore year. He rode the bench almost his entire junior season.
He transferred to McEachern High School in Georgia for his senior season and worked his way to being a three-star recruit. He played about 15 minutes per game in college until his senior year, when he was a key fixture for Auburn’s Final Four team. It was the first time in his career that he had been a full-time starter, and he seized the opportunity. On March 1, 2025, he became the all-time winningest player in Auburn men’s basketball history.
“I’m unqualified for a lot of things, and yet here I am,” he continued in Sunday’s press conference. “I can’t take any amount of credit for all the Lord has done for me. So every time I have the platform, I just try to point the finger back to Him. I worked hard, but I wasn’t the most talented growing up. I wasn’t the most gifted. I was just tall. I was athletic, but it’s just been crazy to see how far He’s brought me.
“It’s easy to be joyful when you see the Lord working. Even when it doesn’t go your way, He’s already done so much for me.”
DYLAN CARDWELL WITH 2 HUGE BLOCKS IN THE FINAL SECONDS TO WIN IT FOR SAC 🚫🚫
When speaking to the media after the contract was announced, he said it was “a dream come true” after first making a point to say, “First and foremost, all glory to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.” This was something he prayed for and committed to working toward every day. There were a lot of times along the way when he felt discouraged, both before and after his pro career began.
He remembered attending the G League Combine last summer, which didn’t result in a call-up to the NBA, then his first Summer League game where he had zero points and zero rebounds. Not to mention all of those seasons in high school and college where he wasn’t on the court as much as he had hoped he’d be.
“There were just so many trials along the way,” he said to reporters. “Like, my first training camp in Sacramento, I got a DNP (did not participate) in practice. Like, didn’t sub in once. There were no reps for me to get. There were many times where I was very upset and frustrated in the process, but the Lord gave me peace through it all and just reminded me that He’s for me. Every time I got my opportunity, He let me go out there and just hoop and be free, and I played my heart out.”
He thanked the Kings for being the only organization to believe in him enough to give him a chance, so he wants to do everything in his power to make good on the commitment they’ve made to him.
For their part, the Kings seem to be more than pleased with what they’ve seen out of Cardwell thus far. General manager Scott Perry said one of the main reasons they felt comfortable making the trade that sent away three veterans was to give a full-time contract to Cardwell, “who has more than earned it and who has quickly become a fan favorite here,” Perry told the Sacramento Bee.
“He does things that are very important for any successful basketball team,” Perry continued. “He’s an energetic defender. He’s able to protect the rim. He’s a switchable center, big man, who can guard guys away from the basket as well. He’s an excellent rebounder, one of the top rebounders for the minutes he’s played as a rookie already, and we continue to see a great trajectory for him, so it was important that we be able to convert him so he would be able to finish the remainder of the season with us and not be capped at 50 games as a two-way player.”
Cardwell now gets to be a building block for a young and rebuilding Kings team looking to become a contender again in the Western Conference. His Bible verse this season has been Psalm 103:2 (NLT), which he has written on his shoe: “Let all that I am praise the Lord; may I never forget the good things he does for me.”
“He’s done so much already, but He’s continued to do good each and every day,” Cardwell said Sunday. “Every day I wake up, it’s easy to see His new mercies. I’m just so filled with gratitude for all He’s done for me. I can’t take any amount of credit, so I just try to pay Him back as best as I can by how I act, how I carry myself, how obedient I am off the court and away from the cameras, how obedient I am to serving my wife, how obedient I am to just being a good human being.
“So Joshua said to the Israelites: ‘How long will you wait before you begin to take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has given you?’” — Joshua 18:3
God’s question to Israel in Joshua 18:3 (above) is confrontational — and timeless. The land had already been promised. Victory had already been declared. Yet the people were stalled. They were complacent, sitting on their hands. They were idle, putting off what God had clearly placed before them. At the root was something deeper — a subtle lack of belief. Not necessarily disbelief in God’s power, but uncertainty about whether what God promised truly belonged to them.
Waiting can look spiritual, but sometimes it’s simply avoidance. God never told Israel to wait — He told them to walk in it. Delay wasn’t humility; it was hesitation. The tragedy wasn’t that the land was unavailable, but that it remained unpossessed.
Then comes the shift: Let’s go! This is about mentality. To take possession means to lay hold of, to grasp firmly, even to seize with passion and conviction. It implies movement, courage and intentional follow-through. Faith is not passive. Belief that never moves is belief that never matures.
Joshua’s challenge forces us to ask: What has God already given me that I’m still praying about instead of stepping into? What promises am I postponing because fear feels safer than faith? Walking in what God has given you requires alignment — believing what God says about Himself and agreeing with what He says about you.
The land is there. The promise stands. Now it’s time to rise, step forward, and walk in it.
Yaxel Lendeborg (left) and the Michigan Wolverines celebrate their national championship, April 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
Neither team shot the ball particularly well Monday night in Indianapolis, but Michigan’s 38% was good enough to top Connecticut (31%) and win the second national championship in program history, grinding out a 69-63 victory.
The teams played a mostly back-and-forth first half, but the No. 1-seeded Wolverines grabbed a 33-29 lead at the break. Then in the second half, they slowly carved out a lead that grew to as much as 11 before holding on for a six-point victory over the No. 2-seeded Huskies. Michigan’s other men’s basketball national championship came in 1989.
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) April 7, 2026
“When you bring a group this talented together,” Wolverines head coach Dusty May said in the postgame press conference, “and they decide from the beginning that they’re going to do it this way and they never waver and they never change, that’s probably the most uncommon thing in athletics now. And it’s a tribute to their character.”
Wolverines freshman Trey McKenney — who had nine points and eight rebounds — echoed his coach’s sentiments.
“Everybody on this team is extremely talented,” he said in the press conference, “and for us to be able to sacrifice something for ourselves, a lot of us could be somewhere else doing more than what we’ve done this season, but I think it just shows that this team is super selfless. And I’ve never been around such a talented group of guys that are willing to take a lesser role for somebody next to them.
“I’m just really grateful to be around this team, and I’m going to cherish this moment for the rest of my life.”
With 1:51 remaining in the game and his team leading by six, McKenney caught a pass on the right wing in a secondary break. Despite being 0-for-3 on his 3-point attempts to that point — and Michigan as a whole had made only one 3-pointer all night — there was no hesitation. His dagger triple was perhaps the most important shot in the game.
— NCAA March Madness (@MarchMadnessMBB) April 7, 2026
The moment was certainly unforgettable for McKenney, and it added to what was already a special weekend.
“My grandfather is a pastor and I grew up in the church all throughout my life. It’s kind of crazy this weekend because it’s one of my first weekends that I haven’t went to church on Easter Sunday,” he said while being interviewed by CBN Sports before the Final Four. “It’s amazing to be able to be on this platform on such a great weekend. I just give all the glory to God while I’m here. He gave me this journey and this path to follow on, so I’m just really grateful and I’m really blessed for it.”
However, the true engine throughout the season for the maize and blue machine was senior Yaxel Lendeborg, who transferred from the University of Alabama-Birmingham to Ann Arbor last April and became one of the best players in the country.
Despite dealing with a sprained left MCL and ankle he suffered against Arizona in Michigan’s semifinal matchup, the consensus first-team All-American and Big Ten Player of the Year still suited up against the Huskies. And not only did he suit up, he played a team-high 36 minutes and scored 13 points.
“I knew there was no way I was going to miss this game, no matter what was going on,” Lendeborg said in the postgame press conference. “I was very tentative this game. I felt like I was pretty much holding our team down. … I kept having opportunities to make plays, and I couldn’t make the play.
“But these guys (teammates) stuck with me no matter what. They all believed in me. I was trying to push through my mental and physical battle out there.”
Lendeborg knows that playing basketball for a school like Michigan in the national championship game is a gift from God, and he credits his mother, Yissel Raposo, for helping him realize it.
“It’s all a blessing to be honest with you,” Lendeborg told MLive.com earlier this season. “All glory to God and thank you to my mom as well for helping me out and digging me out of the hole that I was in.”
Lendeborg — who has three crosses tattooed on his left shoulder — struggled with academics in high school and began his collegiate career at a community college, Arizona Western. But through his mother’s encouragement to prioritize his relationship with God, Lendeborg’s perspective began to shift.
“I pray before games to let Him know I believe,” he told The Kornacki Wolverine Report in October. “And I’m always grateful for what He’s done for me.”
Raposo was diagnosed with appendix cancer this season, but was in attendance on Monday night.
“I told Yaxel, ‘When I feel good, I wanna be around you, no matter what,'” she recently told The Athletic. “And when I see Yaxel playing, I feel so happy, so I think God gave me that extra happiness. It’s a blessing.”
Lendeborg has exhausted his college eligibility and now turns his attention to the NBA Draft (June 22), while McKenney has not indicated his plans for next season. Yet neither of them will ever forget what they accomplished together at Michigan in 2025-26 or the sustaining grace of God through it all.
