Look at my handsome nephew - Noah Wesley Hagerman

My little sister Jennifer, my little sister, has a baby. I know when you are are 28 and married that is what you do but it is hard to believe. She is my little sister and it is a little shocking. I still have the image burned into my mind of when I walked into their room and saw her holding little Noah, born on the night of the lunar eclipse, Wednesday February 20th. But it is also very wonderful. It was so sweet to see them both as we walked in and also see the joyous father Wes. I do remember those first days after Jacob was born and the pride that beemed forth from me and I see it in Wes also. Jacob was very sweet and gentle with Noah. Encourages me that he will be a good brother to our daughter due March 6th - as of now it is Ava Lauren Meadors. Her and Noah will be a few weeks apart.

Personal Challenges #3: Daily Bible Reading in Common Book of Prayer

In the last few years, I have been lax in my daily Bible reading. Partly due to me making a point to read deeper for longer periods of time rather than shorter daily readings. Basically, when I went to read, I wanted to read longer and deemphasize the shorter readings. I realize short daily readings are not exclusive to less frequent but longer readings, and I am not trying to justify not doing a daily reading. It is a little more complex than that.

Starting about 6 years ago, a little before I met Shannon, I became very cognizant of the idea of being a disciple of Christ and really obeying Him in my actions. I sense the church, or at least my church experience, was focusing too little on the growth of a Christian with too much emphasis on programs and not tools for personal spiritual growth. I decided to focus my life through that prism of discipleship. I reexamined all that I was doing and considered if it was making me more of a disciple or just a busier Christian.

I had the habit of daily Bible reading, and it had shown much fruit in my walk. However, I got to a point where I saw my life hitting stumbling blocks in spiritual areas and not growing as I once had been. I considered my daily reading a discipline and asked myself "Is this the best way to have God's Word change me?" I decided I needed to focus on some new disciplines for a while. One of those was exchanging the daily reading, which had begun to be part chore and part prideful, pat-on-the-back routine, for deeper, less frequent readings.

It was also a time in my life of where I was struggling to manage my time anyway. With Jacob in the mix, my time seemed to dry up and so did my energy. Along with the added responsibilities, I got a bit lazy. Put all of this together - new spiritual focus, new lifestyle and a greater eagerness to veg out my stressed mind - my daily readings stopped.

I decided last year I was ready to change my disciplines again. Like before, I felt my growth as a disciple had stagnated and needed a new dose of spiritual disciplines to get out of the rut. In looking at my life, I believed now was the time to recommit to daily readings. Since Advent, I have been doing daily readings in the Common Book of Prayer. I spoken before of how much I love of the Episcopal church and its worship, and the CBP is at the top. It is a wonderful collection of daily office readings. Each daily reading has assigned passages of text from through out the Bible. One passage each from Old Testament, Gospels and New Testament (minus Gospels) and a two passages (one for morning reading/one for night reading) from Psalms. The daily passages typically take you through one book at a time, but sometimes they break off and select passages from the different sections which corroborate a common idea like Christ's atonement foreshadowed in the Old Testament, shown in the Gospel and explained in the New Testament.

The CBP has readings for a Year 1 and Year 2. You choose the year based on the calendar. For example, I am in Year 2 because this year's Advent started in an even number year. Of course, next year I will be in Year 1. Year 1 and Year 2 readings will take you through the entire Bible.

So far, I have only missed one daily reading which was due to being stranded in Detroit overnight on the scheduled day trip for the GSA meeting without my Bible (or change of clothes).  While I am not getting deep readings into the Scripture, I am see themes exposed in Scripture and get a chance to read books I typically would not read by choosing on my own volition.

Happy 6th Engagement Anniversary to Shannon and I

6  years ago on the day after Valentine's Day 2002 I proposed to Shannon Varden. Leading up to the day, I had left little clues here and there about the announcement. For example, I put a note under her desk and had her friend call her and say she had a feeling there was something important under her desk. The note said something about seeing you at the Macaroni Grill on Friday, the 15th. I chose Macaroni Grill because this is where we had our first date. The note was a little cryptic but had a hint that something was coming. We "knew" we were going to get engaged, and I wanted her friends and family to be a part of it as well.

While my romantic skills were good, I still had much to learn about women and marriage. Since I knew I would propose on the 15th, I thought I would down play Valentine's Day to somehow make it more of a surprise so no flowers or anything on her first Valentine's Day with her future husband. Needless to say, it did not go over as I planned. I have since learned all "big" days need to be celebrated.

I love you Shannon Varden, now and forever.

More College Basketball

My trip to GSA was successful and quite productive. However, the weather in DC caused my flight to be delayed and thus I missed my connecting flight in Detroit. I spent Tuesday night in a Super 8 in Detroit and caught a morning flight to Nashville on Wednesday morning. Glad to be home.

My favorite college basketball writer is Grant Wahl of Sports Illustrated. Every Wednesday he does a college basketball mail bag and answers reader's questions. Last week he made a little comment at the end of "The Bag" about sending in good questions which I could tell he was saying "the last few weeks I have had slim pickin's and need some better material." So I thought of a good question and sent it to him.

As you can see here, he answered it. His response is probably the same answer I would have given, but I didn't ask it so much to seek insight as much as to support my favorite college basketball writer and gain a little notoriety out of it. This is the second question I have sent Wahl and got answered in his mailbag, the other question was back in 2006.

2 good basketball observations-Part 1

My favorite spectator sport is college basketball. I recently read two articles which I thought made good observations about the sport I closely follow.

The first was about Bob Knight's retiring. Ken Pomeroy has made a name for himself in the last few years through astute and insightful analysis of college basketball statistics. His ratings site has all the numbers you can imagine presented in a "pace-free" way. (Basically, most stats you see on ESPN and CBS are "pace" influenced". For example, Team A plays very fast, generally shooting early in the shot clock. As a result, they and their opponent have more possessions per game and generally score lots of points. ESPN/CBS show how "good" offensively they are by using points per game. But because they are taking many more shots, Team A may not necessarily be a good offensive team. It is a better means to evaluate a team's offensive and defensive skill by factoring all stats by possessions used to achieve them, as Pomeroy does, rather than per game, as ESPN/CBS/MSM does.)

Pomeroy made a good point about Knight that I have not heard before. He spoke of how Knight's teams in 70s and first part of the 80s, the ones that gained him influence and praise for his basketball acumen as well as his 3 national championships, were about getting the ball to the basket for close shots or getting fouled and shooting at the line. This was sound strategy but the game changed with the introduction of the 3-pointer. Now, you could step out just a few feet from a typical mid-range jumper and make a shot which gave you 50% more points (3 vs 2).

As quickly became apparent, teams had to incorporate 3-point shooting into their offense. The average team 3-point shooting percentages, typically 35%-38%, were too good to only settle for 2-point shots which teams rarely exceeded 50% per team. You do the math and see how effective 3-point shooting is for modern teams.

However, Knight never adjusted. He stayed with the same system and ignored the 3-pointer. Pomeroy uses one game as an illustration. In 2005, Knight's Texas Tech team advanced to the Sweet 16. It would be his last real shot at making the Final Four, but they ran into a team, West Virginia, who heavily used the 3-pointer. Look at this chart from 2005. It shows the percentage of 3-pointers a team takes compared to their overall shots. West Virginia was 9th in the nation with nearly half their shots 3-pointers, and Texas Tech next to last in the nation. Texas Tech lost.

More than any article I have seen, this shows from strictly a basketball coaching point of view that Knight was a little overvalued as a coach. He was obviously great in one era, but it diminishes his coaching legacy that he never adjusted to the new rules. The temptation is to tie this stubbornness in basketball strategy in with his off the court actions , but ultimately we can't say that with 100% certainly what goes on inside him or any of us. However, he  deserves some criticism of his basketball coaching for not adjusting to a new world (3-pointer was introduced in 1987) that he spent almost half of his coaching career in.

My comments on Knight when far longer than I thought so I will talk about the other article I found interesting in a second part later this week. Tomorrow, I am off to Washington DC to talk about SAML with GSA. Maybe we can find some more acronyms to use as well.

Personal Challenges #2: Focus on Quality Time with Jacob

Another one of my personal challenges this year is to be deliberate and consistent in spending quality time with Jacob. Through these first couple of years, you spend so much time on the care part of rearing your child. You do interact and play with him but the "play" is very light. It is all important, from the day he his born, but it is not what I consider quality time.

I consider quality time to be what shapes his character and spirit. Time that begins to mold him in the man I hope him to be. In early times, his attention span and memory is so small that you mostly entertain and provide mental stimulation through games and interaction. But he is not, I believe, learning and observing deeper truths about your deep love for him and character traits like selflessness and patience.

As we are into the 3s, I notice much change in my son. I see his mimicing of Shannon and me in what he says and what he does, both good and bad things. I see his character and the innate sinfulness he inherited from his spiritual father Adam. I know this is a time to be conscious that Jacob is forming his values and beliefs, and thus, I want to make sure he learns the right values and beliefs from Shannon and me.

He is too young to give too many talks concerning these truths so instead they need to be modeled. I believe the best way to do that is with quality time where he gets the best of Dad as Dr. Robert Lewis spoke of his best memories of his father. Time where he can see my love him and then associated the values I am demonstrating as those which he should embody as well.

For the last month on Thursday nights, I have been taking Jacob to the YMCA to swim in their indoor pool and then go to McDonald's later to play. He loves the pool and the games we will play. It is both funny and a little scary to be with him in the men's room changing. Jacob is at the age where is 1.) very observant, 2.) very loud and 3.) completely tactless. He will see the other men changing and blurt out "Daddy, that man is naked. Look, he does not have any clothes on" or "I see that man's butt" or "He has a big belly." I don't know what he is going to say next.

This is a challenge because it is easy for me to go into provider mode with Jacob and just focus my energies on providing his needs such as getting him to bed and fixing breakfast. Those are very important of course, but he also needs time just with me where I give him my complete attention. It is a challenge because I get tired from my other responsibilities, especially work, and want to zone out. I need this personal time, but I also have to have the discipline to push everything else aside and get Jacob the best of me.