Why I ranted about a basketball mixup, and what I learned from a stranded astronaut

Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash

For those who may not know, I host a morning sports talk radio show. It airs from 7 to 9 a.m. on WOOF FM-100.1 and AM-560. During football season we expand an hour and air from 6 to 9 a.m.

It is a refreshing way to start the day, just talking sports (and, shocker, we really do talk sports 98 percent of the time).

I’ve purposely crafted my show to be different from most radio talk shows. I steer away from the screaming histrionics. I really do want to know who my listeners believe will win the big game and why. I measure most of my takes and avoid the hot-take drama that identifies most of the shows in my category.

Tuesday was a little different. I went on a rare rant, and it wasn’t even an important story. It just caught me at the wrong time, I suppose. And the rant itself isn’t even the reason for this Substack, but I have to take you there first.

So here goes:

The University of South Alabama basketball program was mistakenly invited to the postseason NIT Basketball Tournament. The NIT is basically the second-tier postseason tournament behind the NCAA Basketball Tournament and is typically for the next tier of teams left after the NCAA field of 68 is announced.

It happened when UC-Riverside mistakenly accepted a bid to a third-tier postseason tournament known as the CBI. It did so because it did not believe it would receive an invitation to the NIT because the program had no communication from the NIT before the NIT announced its pairings.

The NIT did, however, expect UC-Riverside to participate. It announced its pairings to include UC-Riverside, only to later learn that UC-Riverside had already accepted a bid to the CBI.

So, the NIT pivoted and invited South Alabama to fill UC-Riverside’s apparent vacancy.

South Alabama accepted.

Meanwhile, UC-Riverside saw its name among the expected NIT teams and rescinded its acceptance to the CBI and instead committed to the NIT. This prompted the NIT to “un-invite” South Alabama.

Obviously the NIT dropped the ball. The NIT issued an apology, which is the only real thing it could have done. It would not have been fair to “un-invite” UC-Riverside, since it was the original selection and had only accepted a CBI invitation due to the lack of communication from the NIT.

It happened. You apologize. You hold anyone accountable. You learn. You adjust moving forward.

And let’s be honest. This isn’t a big deal. It shouldn’t have happened, and it is unfortunate that South Alabama thought it was heading to the NIT for a few moments before realizing it had been mistakenly invited.

But that isn’t how South Alabama head coach Richie Riley reacted. He quote-posted this reaction on X on top of the NIT’s apology.

A meaningless apology to the most meaningful group of players I’ve ever coached! What they did to us last night is inexcusable! These guys in our locker room don’t deserve this and it’s sad your idea of making it right is a copy and paste apology!

Is this where we are as a society? Are we at the point in our existence where a mix-up in communication leads to a reaction equivalent to a come-apart?

It’s not the Hindenburg.

Am I crazy, or wouldn’t the appropriate reaction have been something like, “Hey fellas, I’m sorry, but we just learned the NIT mixed up their communication to one of the teams on their list. As it turns out, they thought a team had declined an invitation, but they actually hadn’t been contacted. So, once they were contacted, they accepted and we’re out. Now let’s start thinking about next season. We’ll open the gym tomorrow night to whoever wants to come shoot.”

To be clear:

(1) South Alabama was not originally in the NIT field of 32 teams selected.

(2) Once the intended team (UC-Riverside) was officially invited, it accepted, and all teams in the original field were in place.

(3) South Alabama was the “first team out,” leaving no spot for them.

(4) South Alabama chose not to pursue opportunities in two other postseason basketball tournaments.

I’m not completely unsympathetic. Had I been a senior on that team with no opportunity to continue a basketball career, I would have loved the chance to put the jersey on again. However, it wasn’t as if a deserving invitation had been ripped out from under the team. It was a stand-in, and there was no longer a need for a stand-in.

Normally, this would not have caused me to rant on my show. I would have mentioned it briefly, expressed a quick opinion that, on a scale of 1-10, this error in communication was a 2 that South Alabama was turning into a 9. And I would have moved on.

So after the show, I wondered to myself why this inconsequential story brought out the rare rant. It’s good to dive in and peel away some layers from time to time.

This is what I determined:

I had the pleasure of getting away for a four-day weekend Thursday through Sunday. Melanie and I had a blast. As we began our getaway, we prayed for safety on our trip, and we thanked God that He blessed us with the resources to be able to take a trip.

I grew up pretty poor. I can remember what an incredible treat it was to get something from Hardee’s, and here we were heading to central Florida to stay at an Airbnb and eat out for four days.

I had been in thankful mode since last Thursday.

We kept an eye on the Alabama weather and saw where our neighborhood avoided the severe weather while 16 tornadoes touched down in other parts of the state, causing damage and taking lives in some instances.

Again, thankful.

Then I scanned social media to find a few people who were apparently angry that storms didn’t impact their area.

"All this hype about a ‘historic’ storm and my power’s still on, yard’s fine. Birmingham TV scared us for nothing."

"Tuscaloosa here. Weatherman said we’d be dodging tornadoes all night. It’s quiet as ****. Waste of a panic."

"NWS had us in a Level 4 risk, and all I got was rain. Closed my shop for this?"

At least three people died in my state. Damage was reported in 52 of Alabama’s 67 counties, including Jefferson County — where Birmingham is located — and Tuscaloosa.

It has to be a uniquely American thing that we are angry when tornadoes wreak havoc all around us, but not exactly where we are.

That apparently raised my antennae. Now I noticed every complaint post. We didn’t like the $10-per-hour fast food person who put the wrong order in the bag. We didn’t like all the construction on the Circle on the north side of town. We didn’t like the guy who was too slow in the left lane. We didn’t like … much of anything.

And this weighed on my mind Tuesday morning when I came upon the South Alabama story during show preparation.

I realize I am complaining about complaining, and this is not meant to be specifically about Richie Riley or South Alabama. It just came across my timeline at the wrong time.

We have so much to be thankful for, and yet this error in communication is going to cause such an eruption?

As a topper, this came across my timeline a little later Tuesday:

Butch Wilmore went to space for eight days last year and wound up staying for nine months. His Starliner craft that took him to the International Space Station last June was deemed unsafe for him and others to return to Earth. He missed practically an entire year away from his wife and two daughters while no one down here mounted any type of effort to get him back home until Elon Musk’s SpaceX Dragon did the job this week.

If anyone had a reason to feel like a victim, it’s Butch Wilmore. He could have excoriated the previous administration for sitting on its hands. He could have hammered everything in sight and demanded justice.

Instead, this is what he said prior to splashing down Tuesday afternoon:

“My feeling on all of this goes back to my faith. It’s bound in my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He is working out His plan and His purposes for His glory throughout all of humanity. And, how that plays into our lives is significant and important. And, however that plays out, I am content because I understand that. I understand that He’s at work in all things. Some things are to the good, go to Hebrews Chapter 11. Some things look to us to be not so good, but it’s all working out for His good for those that believe, and that’s the answer.”

Wilmore had 286 unplanned days apart from his family, friends, church, and community. South Alabama got mistakenly invited to a second-tier basketball tournament for an hour.

The takeaway for me is that circumstances are not always going to benefit us, through no fault of our own.

I want to be the person who handles those moments like Butch Wilmore.

May we all be.

Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. - Philippians 4:11-12.