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Blowout losses aren’t all that uncommon in college basketball. In fact, for much of the early season in Division I they’re the norm as teams look to work their way into the season against competition that is clearly not on their level.
Take, for example, the North Dakota State Bison beating Oak Hills Christian 108-14 to start this season. But more often than not, the conference portion of the season and teams begin to play opponents who are closer to their level.
Unless, of course, you’re the Free Lutheran Bible College Conquerors in Plymouth, Minnesota. Then, sadly, you just repeat same process of getting blown out again and again (…and again).
The Conquerors are 0-4 to start this season and have lost those games by a combined score of 278-39. For those who aren’t great with quick math, that is an average score of 69.5-9.8. But it gets worth. Because FLBC has not won a game at any point in its existence. Coincidentally, it plays Oak Hills Christian next. When they last met, Oak Hills came away with a 79-48 victory.
So, now is probably the time where you’re asking yourself “Why are they doing this?”
For that answer, we turn to Jeff Eisenberg of Yahoo Sports, who recently sat down the team’s coach and members of the school’s administration to figure it all out.
“Our students see themselves as representatives of the school and of Christ,” Eisenberg reveals that school states on its website. “They find exciting parallels between working together on a sports team and working together to build up the church. Along the way, they discover a close brotherhood/sisterhood with their teammates that extends beyond the court.”
Interestingly, the school’s president Wade Mobley is a basketball lover.
I shot baskets, obsessively, compulsively, clinically,” Mobley told Eisenberh. “That’s why I’m 52 years old and I have a knee replacement surgery scheduled for next month.”
But that passion to basketball also led him to friends who helped grow his passion for religion. Mobley went to South Dakota State and later began a career in coaching. Coaching, however, led him back to faith and he later opted to become a pastor.
That’s what led him to FLBC, where he was a student, then a coach, then an athletic director and now the school president.
FLBC’s league is made up of bible colleges and tribal colleges in Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.
“There’s nobody coming here to further their basketball career,” Mobley told Eisenberg.
At FLBC we don’t play basketball to win games,” Mobley wrote in a blog post after the FLBC women’s team picked up a victory in 2021. “Check that: We play to win but winning isn’t why we play. We play for the leadership development and discipleship that comes with a team effort. Everyone needs to be a part of something bigger than himself or herself.”
It’s impossible not to respect Mobley’s perspective and that of the players. They know what they’re walking into and are only focused on measuring themselves against previous versions of themselves. That is remarkably admirable and we’d all benefit from the approach.
But, man, 278-39 is a lot of points…