The Baylor Basketball Incident: An Eyewitness to One of the Biggest Scandals (and Turnarounds) in NCAA History

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My name is Matt Sabin and the head boys fastball coach at Grapevine Faith Christian school outside of DFW Dallas-Fort Worth and then that's what I do full time but when I get to tell my players about his story that a lot of them haven't heard before, but their parents are probably familiar with either of remember at some point hearing about what happened with Baylor basketball you in the early 2001 of my dreams growing up was to be a Division I basketball player but I never dreamt of being part of one of the largest scandals or tragedies in college basketball history and going into my senior year down in Waco. That's exactly where I found myself but before that unique, have to start back at how did basketball become so important to me. So I grew up in eastern Pennsylvania in a small little town called garlic PA and my family and I were very active in church and I would say that we did church really well. Every Sunday Sunday night. Wednesdays we were up there and at a young age. I prayed a prayer house about five and accepted Christ into my heart just grew up with that type of head knowledge, but it was really when I was nine years old is when I fell in love and I fell in love with basketball. One thing that was really big that separated me from my teammates was my ability to practice for long periods of time and not get bored. And I realized quickly when I was about nine or 10 that I had three goals. One was to make my freshman 18.

One was to make varsity as a sophomore and one was to get a Division I scholarship for basketball and so I dedicated my time to that one example that just me thinking or viewing the game differently was in seventh grade going to the borough in middle school dance you know and I'm dressed up in my half green half purple silk shirt with black jeans, no belt.

Of course shirt tucked in already, just to dance it up. Why go in and I'm walking past the gym and the light is on how I jiggled the door.

The doors open. I go inside and there's a basketball waiting Mike my silk shirt off and I worked on my game for about 2 1/2 hours in the gym by myself came out after the dance, and my mom said hey how was the dance I said I don't know how was work on my game the whole time and I didn't feel bad about it. I didn't feel like I was missing out on anything one really important moment for me came.

I was a camp junkie I would go to camps all summer long, from fifth grade on and going into my freshman year I I flew down to Texas and met the head coach of the colony, Texas Tommy Thomas, legendary coach around these parts is about 5758 flattop size 13 shoe. Nothing special to look at but I had these big dreams and these big goals and I talked to coach Thomas about these goals and he said, Matt, that can happen for you down here in Texas. Well as a 14-year-old I flew back to Pennsylvania were all of our family is from. And I told my mom on the way home airport. I need to move to Texas so I can be a college basketball player.

That's my little sister and Becky if she's three years younger than me if that was okay. She said yeah let's go within two weeks. II our entire family had changed their lives dramatically for the dreams of a 14-year-old boy me talk about parents being invested.

You move across the country to a place for we know nobody we have no family there all in. So I had those three goals and I made my freshman 18 at the colony, Texas, where it's a big five a public school with a lot of diversity I had to learn real quick. How do you play against athletic players and how to get tough and had a not just used my physical skill, but my mental ability to play with these guys.

I had a great growth spurt going into my sophomore year where I went from about 582-6162 really skinny but now I was tall and skilled and made varsity as a sophomore Walt going in my senior year at the colony were really good and ranks seventh in the country and I get to go down to Waco, Texas to Baylor University to go on my college visit with a guy named Dave Bliss coach Bliss that they already legendary coach met me and my mom at the gas station in Waco in he had a Bible in the backseat of his car and I think I'm not saying that he it. It was planned but he was a master salesman.

He knew what I stood for Newell. My mom is all about and my mom made the comment to me when she saw the Bible. She felt like this was the right thing. So it was pretty wise to have that in the back, but coach Bliss did a great job of taking us around the whole campus and everybody that he introduced me to. He introduced me like I was already one of his players and that like me coming to Baylor was going to be the best thing for our university and I'll never forget.

He said this, he said, Matt, you, I want you to be one of the pillars of our program and me in any 18-year-old hears that from a big 12 school Division I and you're the kind of kid I am that has these goals, I would've signed there. If I could on the way home I looked to my mom I said that's where I want to go and with tears in her eyes she's like oh I'm so glad so freshman and sophomore junior year, I played every game the Baylor meaningful minutes.

At times, lesser minutes. At times, but I realized how to bring value by the end of my junior year I solidified a starting role in man. We were about to be really really good. We had future NBA players that were sophomores. We had some role players like myself that were juniors that were going to be seniors and going into my senior year we were picked to be in the top for the big 12 which that means that you're probably top 25. And that means you're going to March madness to the big dance. When we come back more of that same story arrives before all arise again here on our American story.

We could be here, the host of our American stories every day on the show were bringing inspiring stories from across this great country. Doors were big cities and small towns, but we truly can't do the show without our stories are free to listen to what they're not free to make if you love what you hear go to L American stories.com and click the donate button give a little give a lot go to L American stories.com and give you guys this is Tori, and Johnny went to one OMG podcasts we have such a special episode brought to you by near attack ODT we recorded at iHeartRadio type windows came down near attack ODT were not apparent 75 mg can help migraine sufferers still such an exciting event like Wingo tango I had when I took minor attack ODT. I was present amazing time. A little glimpse of our conversation with some of our closest friends & was brought to you by near attack ODT my magic pants 75 mg life with migraine attacks can mean missing out on big moments with friends and family, but thankfully near attack ODT were magic pants 75 mg is the only medication that is proven to treat a migraine attack and prevent episodic migraines and adults sound lively events like Wingo tango town have to be next.

Sometimes we all feel a little foggy in the morning.

We forget our phone at home or leave a cup of coffee on the roof of our car in driveway. That's what junk sleep will do to you. It's that tossing and turning all night. That comes from sleeping on the wrong mattress.

That's no way to live, you need a restful night sleep to be at your best every day so had to mattress firm and get started on the quality sleep. You deserve mattress firm's highly trained sleep experts will help you find the perfect mattress. They'll use mattress metric technology to connect you with the ideal sleep products just by getting the answers to six simple questions and then finally you can start getting the rest you need. No more sending emails to the wrong people are putting your car keys in the dishwasher talk to a sleep expert at mattress firm and on junk your sleep today. Visit mattress firm store near you go to mattress firm.com hi, I'm Jonathan Strickland, host of the restless ones join me as I sit down for in-depth discussions with the leaders at the intersection of technology and business leaders like Robert Marcus, founder of social mobile workforces are being mobilized now and it's clear that everyone needs a secure connected device whether a vaccine administration machine remote patient monitoring with a set of house electronic visitor verification were someone comes to your home.

A lot of it could have been driven by the pandemic and the necessity to build up this infrastructure, but I think it's just clear now that healthcare is mass adopting all types of enterprise mobility solutions as homes need to be turned into like hospitals now. The restless ones is now available on the iHeartRadio app wherever you listen to podcast presented by T-Mobile for business 5G that's ready right now. We continue with our American stories and met same in store. Let's pick up where we last left off. I grew up watching you make. It's amazing runs in the early 90s with Layton or you know hitting that turnaround shot against Kentucky like I practice that shot him in the dream, not just playing college basketball was getting to that stage in man like it really felt like he was about to happen. I can remember it was a Friday afternoon in June 2003 I just come in from playing sand volleyball. I stayed on the Baylor campus every summer to be with our strength coach to get extra classes in but I just love the University. I love being on campus and being a basketball player.

Baylor and one of my professors that I was friends with called and said Matt what's up with your team. What's going on. What are you what you mean.

Were they doing now. He said no like you need to turn on the news right now they're saying that there's been a homicide, and that basketball players might be involved so that summer of 2003 was the longest summer of my life. We just finished weights and we are told that we are having a team meeting in the locker with just not odd that team meetings but in the locker room are coach of the letter, but the strange part was there's policeman in their that was the different parts and so they they go round and they're asking hey we haven't seen Patrick nobody seen Patrick in about a week. His parents haven't heard from you guys know anything that the interesting thing was so Patrick was a redshirt and Patrick was a different guy he'd be there for a week he be gone for two weeks and we would never have explanations. He was in and out all summer long for. So for me not to see him for an extended period time wasn't strange at all. So I dismissed that whole thing.

Patrick will show up with like a new tattoo or new earring use in Vegas who knows. And then that Friday was when it came out in the news in this story started to unfold and then these allegations start, they start to dig into coach plus a little bit.

This was a hard moment where I hadn't seen him in a few weeks and we still didn't know her.

Patrick was out walking in the bottom of the Pharaoh center and was crossing paths with him and he looked older to me. You look really be down ice now such a good follower, you know, as a player and in a code, not a coaches pad but man I just believe in them that I knew they love me and I saw my Sukkot eyes will let you know that I'm sorry for what you're going through and what people are saying about you. I torn out think you deserve any of that and being around him so much. I once watched him do a four hour coaching video in one take with no user's he was incredibly accomplished speaker and a good salesman, but standing in front of the sky. I felt like something's off.

He is not looking me in the eye. He's very kind of frantic with what he saying and doing what he said, Matt. You know what what we found was when we went into Patrick's apartment. We found drugs and money and met that's how he was paying for school and I said wow like yes sir, that makes sense because it come out that Patrick was not scholarship. Patrick was a 68 freq of an athlete that could shoot and he was going to be an NBA player like he was one of the reasons why we were going to be really good. The next year to for us to ever think that he was not scholarship. It never came up like I will look more like a walk on. Then he did and so went but that came out that how was Patrick Denny paying for school and then coach Bliss told me this story as a truth and as the good soldier that I was. I just went along right with fast forward they find Patrick's body. After about a month and half found out that Carlton Dotson, one of our teammates at shot and killed him.he had fled and was pleading insanity of the Maryland and coach Bliss resigned before all the truth came out and my mom tells the story that she looked out the window of me and I was crying in and she was crying it was like hard to see her son kind of lose that innocence that I had and to be hurt like that. I went to the press conference and asked some of us older players to talk by step in front of our teammates and their families and defended coach Bliss thanked him for all the time that he had had with us and told them that I would be staying in that.

I hope they did to you had this feeling kind of in my heart at that point of online right now.

I was the spokesman for a program that I did not believe in did not appreciate didn't really want to be a part of anymore. I had to get out of not just Waco but I felt like Dallas-Fort Worth so I flew back to Pennsylvania to stay with that coach that I come down to Texas to go to camp with that guy that I know I went back to bed.

He moved back to Pennsylvania and saw him staying with him just to get away. Our media guy called me late late one night and said Matt have your phone on you tomorrow morning.

I said why like what it what you need me for, he said it's about to get really bad.

I said how can it be worse than it is. Players did coaches coaching staff gone is I just have your phone writing my coach came up and woke me up.

Said Matt, you need to look at the newspaper and in the newspaper was a recording written out of one of the assistant coaches that was knew that I didn't know that well was in the office with coach Bliss and other players, not me, but other players and it was him constructing this lie of how they needed to blame Patrick paint him as a drug dealer and somebody that was that I was paying for school and and Bliss even went on to say Patrick can't say anything about it. He's dead and of the thing that really hit me. I would think more than anybody else in the country. Besides, Patrick's family that read that he had told me that story almost word for word, but not as a lie is told me that the truth.

He then asked me to lie to people like he was telling these players in these coaches to do now is like last straw moment of any type of belief and people are goodness that I had was so angry and mad and we found out that yet he knew that Patrick had threats and he had been paying for players and other players to that summer, it was full of a lot of hope and despair that you know the question I never asked was God. How can I be a light in the situation. How can I bring good there and and and leave people the right way instead of what I did is I think actually I let people not not think I did. I know I did.

I let people the wrong way because when you say that you stand for something and you believe something and then when it gets harder. You completely throw it away.

People see that and will get confused. I think I live people farther away from having the faith in God because I was known for something and then completely was doing the opposite.

When things get hard so regret for pain of discipline is far less than the pain of regret and that that's one thing I regret, and you been listening to Matt same until a heck of worry about how his world unraveled in the summer of 2003 and I'll never forget myself as these new stories and news accounts rolled out from ESPN and all across sports pages and the news pages of America murder in college basketball drugs and then ultimately the corruption at the core of the coach and the program, but interestingly Matt same in put himself in the middle of it, even though he didn't do anything wrong.

He felt himself as a leader and the people around him as a leader in federal himself and his walk with his own God. By the way, to get the book, the leftovers Baylor betrayal and beyond by Matt same in go to Amazon with the usual suspects more of this remarkable story about basketball about life and so much more. Matt same story continues here on our American stories and this is Tori Jenny with the 90210 MG podcast we have such a special episode brought to you by near attack ODT we recorded at iHeartRadio and Windows hang down near attack ODT were magic pants 75 mg can help migraine sufferers still set an exciting event like Windows hang out I had when I took minor attack ODT. I was present amazing time. A little glimpse of our conversation with some of our closest friends & was brought to you by near attack ODT were magic pants 75 mg life with migraine attacks can mean missing out on big moments with friends and family, but thankfully near attack ODT were magic pants 75 mg is the only medication that is proven to treat a migraine attack and prevent episodic migraines and adults sound lively events like Windows hang out down have to be next. Hey everyone, here, and I'll be your host on chasing sleep, a brand-new podcast or mattress firm in iHeartRadio where will uncover the sleep secrets that help us achieve some of the world's most extraordinary feats as a health columnist I'm passionate about learning and sharing how we can live and sleep better when it comes to sleep. We can all enhance it to reach our own goals. That's why on chasing sleep will be chatting with people who live, work and perform some of the most incredible environments and see how they not only find quality sleep and unique circumstances, how they also use their sleep to perform at the highest level together will discover how these impressive individuals approach sleeping well from astronauts in space to wildlife photographers in the remote wilderness and learn to get high quality sleep in our own lives alongside the sleep experts at mattress firm join me as we dive in, because ultimately all benefit from sleeping well and when we do we can all find new ways to live well to listen to chasing sleep on the iHeartRadio app podcast where you get your podcast hi I'm Jonathan Strickland post of the restless ones join me as I sit down for in-depth discussions. The leaders at the intersection of technology and business leaders like Robert Marcus, founder of social mobile workforces are being mobilized now and it's clear that everyone needs a secure connected device whether a vaccine administration machine remote patient monitoring with a set of house electronic visitor verification were someone comes to your home. A lot of it could have been driven by the pandemic and the necessity to build up this infrastructure, but I think it's just clear now that healthcare is mass adopting all types of enterprise mobility solutions as homes need to be turned into like hospitals now. The restless ones is now available on the iHeartRadio app wherever you listen to podcasts presented by T-Mobile for business 5G that's ready right now and we continue with our American stories in the hallowing tell poll by Matt same about the college basketball program. He was a part of by senior year he would be a starter, a team that would more than likely end up in the big dance and be a top 10 or top 20 college program. Let's pick up where Matt last left off in Psalms 20 in my senior year with no coaching staff.

I lost 10 teammates that summer to do the tragedy won't have Carlton and Patrick and then eight others that decided not to come back over the graduated and that's a lot of turnover at that level you will have three or four or five. And even now with the transfer portal but rarely is there an overhaul like that and rarely do you lose your best players were those MBA guys that we had.

They all left and I found myself in a very unfamiliar place where okay basketball since I was nine years old to spend the thing that I've focused on and and I've and I've just had as my passion well, now it's the problem, and I have no passion for it.

Upset with it. So the next thing is I turned okay. What's I got to go back to my source, which I thought was my relationship with God, and I realized at that point, the foundation that I thought I had really wasn't there. It was basketball. Basketball is the problem and I feel this hole in my life for the first time will will you fill that hole with. I ran. I ran to things that I had never drank for my life until and really until I turned 21 was the first time I ever had a sip of alcohol, but even to that point wasn't anything that I enjoyed or did that much but I ran to it.

I never been a party guy. In fact, others that I can remember going to a party early on in my college career. I wasn't a drinker and I was known as a believer and when I walked in I can. I saw some of my friends hide their drinks put them away because they didn't want me to see them like that.

They didn't want because that's what I stood for well in the span of two months. I completely destroyed that in fact my place became the place to go in that competitive nature that got me to become the player that I was because I always felt like as a D1 player at Baylor in the big 12. I really didn't belong physically if they were too big and too fast and too strong in my skill wasn't good enough. So what did I rely on. I had to do more work harder and push myself farther than any other of my teammates were willing to do that type of competitiveness. When you throw it in the party scene is dangerous and so I became really good at that. I became a very angry person and resentful and I stopped trusting anyone. And so with that in mind I realize I couldn't go anywhere else to place a senior because one of my going to do: call of Kentucky and say Coach Calipari my name is Matt same number senior I'm six 2 1/2.

I can't jump that well, but I did average 4 1/2 points last year. Can I come like it's just I knew I I've made a few calls but I knew that I was I was stuck at Baylor. So I started to just stay in my apartment and have those destructive habits or I get out of town.

Some driving up to Dallas and I get a call from some this is a new coach who in the world would take this job like you have no players. Baylor's and the NCAA are about to bring sanctions on your team for years to come.

Who would take this guy named Scott Drew Massa never heard of them.

A few weeks later, Scott Drew comes in and we had to meet in the baseball locker room. I'm sitting in their and this is where the title of the leftovers comes from sitting in this locker room with myself and five other scholarship players. The problem is, as none of us are stars like we are role players at best, and some even younger players that weren't even role players the year before. They were bench dudes and then we got four or five logons. We were leftovers. We were left over from everything that it happened and for whatever reason we were still at the school coach duloxetine at 32 years old with the same energy and relentless joy that he has now is the exact same person.

He came in with this bounce in his step with his huge smile and he kept talking about guys guy, listen, there's this there's joy in the future.

There's joy in the foundation that you were going to set. The problem is, is for the first time my life I sat back as a very arrogant jaded frustrated 21-year-old, and I looked around and for the first time my life I completely disagree with what my coach was saying I could not see any joy any positivity that could possibly come out to see here's the thing. I knew what we were up against.

And in my mind. I didn't think he did use, from Falco Velp is a great school.

They play great competition in my mind I thought is not big 12 S.Texas OU Kansas open the state and them at the time, Missouri, Colorado, gets is not these teams that have Hall of Fame coaches and McDonald's all Americans that I've battled against the last three years.

You don't understand and look at our supporting cast like we are going to get killed and that's what happened at the beginning and we were losing the teams that we used to be really bad and there is one game where is the first time in I believe in Division I basketball high level basketball history that a coach subbed out five scholarship players and put five walk islands in and was it was in Waco at home in our crowd went nuts. They were cheering sold out and the reason he took. He put them in his because we were playing very hard. We were giving especially myself. We were giving false effort are logons played really hard man and they they were there, bring in energy and the crowd was appreciating it but scholarship players beat walk islands. There's just a difference between them and so that started to happen. Coach Drew looked down at the bench at us and said you better play hard when you go back in. When I walked on the floor at the Ferrell Center. I heard something that I never heard before.

They were booing the walk islands going out of the game and booing the scholarship players going back in. I wanted to let them know.

Maybe with a hand gesture how I felt at that moment about being booed but it was it was really hard. We lost that game by 20 and after the game in the in the locker room taken a shower just sitting there crying. I was ready to quit that night and my parents and never allow me to quit anything even eighth-grade swim when I midway through the swimming season. II hated the speedo I hated swimming. I hated that I want to play basketball. My mom would let me quit. I was ready to quit that night and I think anybody would've really judge me for quitting that night and assistant coach came in and he said, Matt show up tomorrow. Just show up tomorrow and then at some point it happened where we started to believe in each other. We started to believe in our coaching staff and we started to become competitive.

Every night was our championship and that's a dangerous team when you're not, because both here's why thing I forgot to say before season even started. We were told that we weren't allowed to play in postseason.

That's like you and me being told that you're going to come and work hard every single day, but I'm not paying you well. I'm not coming to work then buddy and you been listening to Matt same until a remarkable tale of redemption, but it didn't come easy going into his senior year, having lost 10 payments ran to alcohol.

The very thing stayed away from his entire young life deed became a competitive drink a competitive part in Excel is also growing increasingly angry and resentful and income Scott Drew talking about the joy there was the future when we come back more of this remarkable story and please pick up Matt's book leftovers Baylor betrayal and beyond. It's a real page turner. Pick it up at Amazon or the usual suspect more with Matt same and story when we return you on our American story, this is Tori Johnny with OMG podcasts we have such a special episode brought to you by near attack ODT we recorded at iHeartRadio type windows came down near attack ODT were not apparent 75 mg can help migraine sufferers still such an exciting event like Wingo tango I had when I took minor attack ODT.

I was present amazing time.

A little glimpse of our conversation with some of our closest friends & was brought to you by near attack ODT were much apparent 75 mg life with migraine attacks can mean missing out on big moments with friends and family, but thankfully near attack ODT were much apparent 75 mg is the only medication that is proven to treat a migraine attack and prevent episodic migraines and adults sound lively events like Wingo tango town have to be next.

Sometimes we all feel a little foggy in the morning. We forget our phone at home or leave a cup of coffee on the roof of our car in driveway. That's what junk sleep will do to you. It's that tossing and turning all night. That comes from sleeping on the wrong mattress.

That's no way to live, you need a restful night sleep to be at your best every day so had to mattress firm and get started on the quality sleep.

You deserve mattress firms highly trained sleep experts will help you find the perfect mattress will use mattress metric technology to connect you with the ideal sleep products just by getting the answers to six simple questions and then finally you can start getting the rest you need.

No more sending emails to the wrong people are putting your car keys in the dishwasher talk to a sleep expert at mattress firm and on junk your sleep today. Visit mattress firm store near you go to mattress firm.com hi, I'm Jonathan Strickland post of the restless ones join me as I sit down for in-depth discussions with the leaders at the intersection of technology and business leaders like Robert Marcus, founder of social mobile workforces are being mobilized now and it's clear that everyone needs a secure connected device whether a vaccine administration machine remote patient monitoring with a set of house electronic visitor verification were someone comes to your home.

A lot of it could have been driven by the pandemic and the necessity to build up this infrastructure, but I think it's just clear now that healthcare is mass adopting all types of enterprise mobility solutions as homes need to be turned into like hospitals now. The restless ones is now available on the iHeartRadio app wherever you listen to podcasts presented by T-Mobile for business 5G that's ready right now and we continue with the story of Matt same in here on our American stories. Let's pick up where we last left off with coach Scott Drew coming in and slowly shaping and changing and forging the character of this new Baylor team and that's kind of the feeling we had all year long, was why are we actually doing this is not worth it. But once you start to look at every situation and goals to be want to know every night. Play hard for each other and let's just go out and do something that nobody thinks we can do. There's power in that as a team we were supposed to win any big 12 games that you were supposed to go all in 16 and we ended up we beat Iowa State at our place for our first big 12 when women of Ian A&M twice. Nothing better than being A&M twice and their coach actually got fired the day after we beat them. The second time is apparently the worst thing that you can do is lose too much leftovers and then one of the big personalities in the big 12.

That point was Bobby Knight. He was a Texas Tech growing up being a Bobby Knight fan at Indiana while my first couple years he because he was Eric's my sophomore junior senior year he was at tech and he would come out and he would shake the head coaches hand turn around and just bolt not go through shake assistance answer players hands and hours. I want to shake his and and gets to the heads of Roy Williams of the Kansas. I had some cool moments with them the years before and so senior year were at Texas Tech were actually up for going into the second half playing really well, but we just ran out of gas. That's what happened is in the house averaging 38, 39 minutes a game and we played really hard. We lost that game and I told myself before when this games over I'm going up to them. I don't know what's going to happen. He may walk right through me past me not even shape it on to do it and so he was walking 1/2 cord and I took a straight line towards him. I left the line I didn't even shake and I would like for my sick coach night. I said I just want to let you know I it's just been a pleasure getting to play can see the last few years.

He put his arm he's a big dude put his arm around me said map. I'm telling you right now that if I would have been at tech when you came out of high school, I would root would've recruited you really hard and all man like that year all the stuff that happened like that to me was a window personally like we lost but I think my cat even captured a picture of me standing at half-court smiling those Virgos were really cool moments when basketball came back.

Here's the interesting thing I thought that those destructive habits that I've thrown myself into. I thought it was just temporary. I thought I was just coping. No I don't laugh a lot anymore, just let me laugh for a couple hours and forget where I am but coach Mills who is an assistant at Baylor. We used to have team chapels at my apartment. He would come in and there's one time where he just said you guys don't think that you can do what you want whenever you want right now without consequences. But then when you get out in the real world that these temptations will go away that you can just get back to what you call right living and I remember being such a cocky, arrogant kid going.

You know what in my head you're wrong.

It's exactly what I'm gonna do on the live the way I want right now I'm in a be in control of my happiness.

Well, fast-forward nine years of living in extremely immoral life is my 30th birthday and I was alone in my apartment in McKinney, Texas with a six pack and I thought, is this really this is it. I'm 30 years old by myself celebrating my birthday just completely alone and frustrated, and that same anger and resentment, and poor me, why me mentality that I adopted as a 21-year-old still had it. After that night I went to a random church in Plano Texas that I never gone to before my swim, I sat in the back and I heard a message that I felt like I'd heard hundreds of times they passed around card visitor card and growing up in church, you never fill out the visitor card because you're never visitor and and so I bet this card goes by I filled it out. I put my name and information I said I'm angry and I have questions and I put that card and honestly I never thought I'd hear back from anybody few days maybe a week goes by and I get a response from a lady at that church saying hey would love to have you come in to talk to our pastor and I emailed back and forth with her trying to figure out a spot a time and it just worked out about two weeks later I went in. She opened the door for me.

I sat with her talk with her for little days.

She's really kind and I went back I got the top of the pastor and I laid out my story just come the same way that I've done right here and I told the story said and he said map. I was really a low pistol Pete part of pistol Pete story as he was a after his MBA career is gone. He was lost. He's in his in his bed and he hears this voice and is in is Jesus. He hears Jesus voice out loud and pistol Pete said it was like he was in the room with them and and in his life changed instantly and I told this pastor is like I'm waiting for that voice. If God will talk to me if Jesus will speak to me like that and he said, Matt, you can't be waiting around for that like that doesn't happen all the time. He said you need to give up control somebody when he talking about control. You are a good kid. Basketball is really in control of your life when it went bad, you took control of your life is, like this lightbulb moment and I gave up control that day I was saved that day a few weeks after my 30th birthday and the change was pretty drastic. The things that I'd been running to for peace and for comfort and become really bad habits. The desire just wasn't there. The cool thing is is that day that I went into that church.

I was just angry looking for answers, but I think one thing I've learned is like my plan my goals as a little kid was just to be a college basketball player like I really didn't have anything past the age of 21 I know the goals and realize that his plans are just so much bigger and greater then our little plans are. His plan was for me to meet Jana that day. She was the lady that emailed me back that open the door to that church and we got married about 11 months after that day, and we been married now almost 10 years and then when Baylor wins the national championship this last year man we finally really have are ending to the leftovers. It took us 18 years, from six scholarship players and a bunch of logons and a 32-year-old coach to win the national championship and to be the best and humbled to get to be a part of a small part of that when people ask me first 8 to 10 years after playing college basketball which normally normally it's a cool thing to be able to say that you did less than 3% of high school players playing college at any level less than 1% of the art Division I and so it's an extreme game of musical chairs that if you're able to figure it out and make it as a special when people asked would ask me you place a plate were to play. I played at Baylor and I can see their eyes when were you there was there from 2000 2004. Were you there when all that stuff went down and is no longer about you know that the achievement it's about what did you know what can you tell us how crazy was it well now, especially with them winning it all. I get the puff out my chest a little bit you know where to play play bail while national champions. Yeah, we were but you can imagine where we came from in LA is that kind of story. Now is a great job as always on the production but special thanks to Matt Seaman for sharing his story good bad and the ugly parts and by the way, make sure to get the leftovers. Matt Seaman's book, and it's available at Amazon and the usual suspect my goodness, there were some good the team was starting to turn it around, they beat A&M twice you have an encounter with Bobby Knight. When I told him I would've hard, but those bad habits adopted. They weren't temporary by the age of 30 he found himself alone in apartment on his birthday, McKinney, Texas, went to a local church, Plano, Texas, and filled out a visitor angry.

I have in my goodness, everything from their turn they returned to his faith returned to his God and found future of hope and redemption story about same as redemption Baylor University's redemption there basketball program you on our Americans beach vacation like bottomless margaritas going snorkeling whenever I want to party and drink everything Little beach vacation in Mexico and the Caribbean and Tori spelling you singled out there looking for live companionship.

A real connection you got to try bumble. I know lots of people who are members and they absolutely love it. It's easy to use and best they feel safe when they're using bumble is serious about safety has features that let you know when someone is being shady or is trying to send you and you pick, you know, I think, as a matter fact, research shows 80% of US bumble members say they feel safe using app which is awesome because let's face it is hard enough without worrying about creepy people. If you like to learn more Donatist safety center in the bumble. If you are ready to get out candidate download number dramas you may know me from the recap on LA TV now got my own podcast life as a gringo, to every Tuesday and Thursday will be talking real and unapologetic about all things light and culture and everything in between.

From someone who's never quite been listening to life as a gringo on the iHeartRadio app or web you get a podcast brought to you by State Farm like a good neighbor, State Farm is there