Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

GetReligion

Home
Religion News
Final Four ghosts in long story on Kentucky’s Julius Randle

Final Four ghosts in long story on Kentucky’s Julius Randle

Last updated on: August 29, 2014 at 3:11 pm by Bobby Ross Jr.

Final Four ghosts in long story on Kentucky’s Julius Randle 2014-08-29T15:11:38-04:00 Bobby Ross Jr.

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

While in Arlington, Texas, on Monday for my beloved Rangers’ season opener at the newly named Globe Life Park, I noticed a big banner outside the Dallas Cowboys’ AT&T Stadium next door.

Apparently, Jerry Jones’ gigantic shrine to losing football is hosting some sort of college basketball tournament this weekend. If I understand correctly, it’s called the NCAA Men’s Final Four and involves a malady known as “March Madness.” Hopefully, there’s a cure, but everyone involved probably would appreciate our prayers.

Speaking of the aforementioned tournament, The Dallas Morning News has a big profile — 2,000-plus words — out today on one of the teams’ players. Julius Randle, who played high school hoops in Texas, is a big star for the Kentucky Wildcats and, it seems, could win a lottery ticket from the NBA. (I’m not endorsing gambling. I’m just reporting what I read.)

In all seriousness, there’s a lot to recommend about the Morning News’ profile, headlined “How a Dallas billionaire helped Plano’s Julius Randle become Kentucky’s biggest star.” On one level, the writer does an excellent job of digging below the surface and helping readers understand the unique path that Randle has taken to tonight’s big stage:

LEXINGTON, Ky. — Visibly drained, Julius Randle ambled into Kentucky’s $30 million basketball facility. Reporters awaited. Randle knew the drill.

Towering above his inquisitors, he leaned his 6-9, 250-pound frame against a wall, the one facing eight national championship banners. It
was a surreal contrast from his very first interview, with his hometown Dallas Morning News.

Back then he was 6 foot, 145 pounds. He was 11.

“Yeah, I remember,” he said with a soft laugh.

On Saturday night, the local kid will re-emerge in North Texas as a 19-year-old man in the grandest possible basketball homecoming, with Kentucky facing Wisconsin in the Final Four semifinals before an expected crowd of 80,000 at AT&T Stadium.

A national TV audience no doubt will be reminded that Randle is the only locally produced player among a Final Four of out-of-state teams, having led Plano Prestonwood Christian to three TAPPS state titles, the most recent in March 2013.

Later that month, having already signed with Kentucky, he attended the South Regional at AT&T Stadium, watched Michigan beat Florida to make the Final Four and visualized himself playing in the vast stadium this year.

But as I read the otherwise compelling piece, I found myself frustrated by the religion ghosts (if you have no clue what a religion ghost is, check out GetReligion’s primer on “Why We’re Here”).

In keeping with the theme, I’ll rank my Final Four ghosts:

— No. 4 seed: Mention of Plano Prestonwood Christian.

Yes, it’s entirely possible that an extremely talented basketball player would be recruited to play at a Christian school and that there would be no real religion angle. But Randle’s association with a school that’s a ministry of Prestonwood Baptist Church, a Southern Baptist megachurch, made me wonder.

A quick Google search might even turn up this Baptist Press headline:

Randle takes ‘solid’ faith into Final Four

— No. 3 seed: Mention of billionaire Kenny Troutt’s vision going beyond basketball:

Troutt, too, was raised in modest circumstances by a single mother in the Mount Vernon, Ill., housing projects.

Troutt worked his way through Southern Illinois University by selling life insurance and years later founded Excel Communications, which he sold in 1998 for $3.5 billion.

“Great guy. Big influence on my life,” Randle said. “Just seeing where he came from, how he’s ended up today and where he’s at. And all the hard work he’s put in in his life.

“And just to see how he is. A father to his family. A godly man. You couldn’t ask for a better person or a better role model than him.”

Randle and his grade-school teammates couldn’t have comprehended it at the time, but Troutt’s vision was for the Titans organization to ingrain attributes that went well beyond basketball.

Could those attributes involve faith and religion (especially since Troutt is described as “a godly man”)?

— No. 2 seed: Mention of God by Randle’s mother, Carolyn Kyles, in discussing Kentucky’s up-and-down season:

On Thursday, Kyles drove to her hometown of Newton in East Texas and picked up her 79-year-old mother, Annie Page, who on Saturday will get to see her grandson play a college game in person for the first time.

“I’m just so proud of Julius,” Kyles said. “This year has been a struggle. They were placed on a pedestal that was too high, coming in as a bunch of freshmen.

“It was a lot of days of crying and praying, ‘God, please get them through this.’ And now my tears are tears of joy.”

Again, the story hints at a potential faith and religion angle.

— No. 1 seed: Mention of a B-word other than basketball in describing Randle’s training:

Yes, Troutt provided individual skills instructors, which proved invaluable for Randle, whose ball-handling became guard-like and remained so while his body morphed to NBA size.

Titans players also were given media training, etiquette classes and daily Bible study.

Daily Bible study!? Whoa. Did anybody at the Morning News consider elaborating on that little nugget?

How did the Bible study affect Randle? What did he learn? Is he a Christian? Does faith play any role in his character or how he approaches the game?

All those questions seem like slam dunks. But the Morning News fails to put up the easy shots. And a good story that could have been much better bounces off the rim.

Prestonwood Christian Academy

Texas Titans

Previous Post

April 4, 2014

About that 'complex' doctrine Catholic teachers must follow

Next Post

April 6, 2014 Pentecostal gap in that LATimes immigration reform story

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category 5Q+1 Academia Anglicanism Announcements Atheists & Agnostics Baptists Books Business & Economy Catholicism Creeping Fundamentalism Education Ethics Evangelicals Film First Person gays Godbeat Got news? Humor Interviews Islam Journalism Judaism Lutherans Mainline Marriage & family Middle East Mormons Music Nones Orthodoxy Pagans Pentecostalism People Podcasts Politics Pop Culture Race Radio & TV Religion religious liberty Same-sex marriage Science Sex Social Issues Sports Uncategorized Vatican Web/Tech What is this? World World Religions Worship

Select a Month August 2014 July 2014 June 2014 May 2014 April 2014 March 2014 February 2014 January 2014 December 2013 November 2013 October 2013 September 2013 August 2013 July 2013 June 2013 May 2013 April 2013 March 2013 February 2013 January 2013 December 2012 November 2012 October 2012 September 2012 August 2012 May 2010 July 2009 February 2009 October 2008 July 2008 January 2007 August 2006 July 2006 October 2005

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

Which king of Babylon saw the handwriting on the wall?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Belshazzar Nebuchadnezzar Cyrus Darius