I didn’t expect to meet him so early in my travels. My hopes were to finally come face to face with him sometime in January, when a trip to Cedar Falls or Indianapolis loomed before me. I really hadn’t anticipated him showing up in late November, just three weeks into what will be a 17 week journey through the mid-major basketball world. 

But I recognized him right away. I know him from so many places before, heard his voice and seen his ugly face so many times before. That voice rang loud and clear in my head first thing in the morning, just as I rolled over in my warm bed in St. Louis to turn off my alarm clock...

“Do you really want to get up and drive five hours to see a game between two teams you don’t care about? It’s cold. It’s raining. No one will notice or care if you don’t go. Come on, stay home.”

The Governors from Austin Peay State University didn’t have as long a drive as I did, as their campus in Clarksville sits only 54 miles from Lipscomb. But without a win in their first seven games, the voice had to be screaming in their own minds, “When will you win? Are you guys this bad? When you lose this, 0-9 is a guarantee because you go to Memphis next.”

But like life itself, college basketball doesn’t wait for people to sort out their issues, and this game tipped off as scheduled before a small but steadily growing crowd, due in part to two above the red line schools playing just a few miles north of the Lipscomb campus.

One part of Resistance that really isn’t addressed often is how it manifests itself in the actions of those trying to overcome its influence. I can only wonder if the voices screamed any louder at the Governors as their first six possessions went as such: steal, steal, missed layup, charge, made layup by Jerome Clyburn, charge. In the first four minutes, APSU had four turnovers and two points. Lipscomb had a 7-2 lead.

Although I was four rows from the court, I couldn’t hear what Governors’ head coach Dave Loos said to his players during the first media time-out. As a 21-year veteran at Austin Peay, I’m sure he’s seen many teams get off to bad starts, both in a season and in a game. His voice in the time-out must have drowned out the voices in the players’ minds for a while. 45 seconds later, Peay tied the game at 9 each after a rebound basket by TyShwan Edmondson, then a steal on the ensuing inbound and layup by Clyburn. 

Resistance works in equal directions sometimes, made evident in the three-minute, 14 possession scoreless streak by both teams finally broken by Jacob Arnett’s layup to give the Bisons a 27-20 lead with 6:03 left in the first half. Lipscomb pushed the lead out to ten, 36-26, when the halftime buzzer sounded, helped along by 14 APSU turnovers in the half. 

The key to overcoming resistance is ignoring the voice and hard work. The Governors came out of the locker room ready to do both and make this game close again. Melvin Baker hit an jumpshot. Edmondson and Josh Terry each had drives for layups and drew the foul to convert three-point plays. Two more J’s from Baker, and what was a ten-point lead was cut to four. 

Lipscomb went cold for just long enough to let Austin Peay cut into the lead, and after two Clyburn free throws, Peay actually took a 44-43 lead. 

Of course there are times when resistance means nothing in whether one succeeds. Sometimes others are just better. 

Jordan Burgason nailed back-to-back superhoops from almost identical spots to push the Lipscomb lead back to 5. While they didn’t just go away, as they had too much pride for that, resistance overcame Austin Peay. Lipscomb won 67-59, and Peay fell to 0-8 on the season with Memphis looming.

After the game, I wandered into a little bar-n-grill across from my hotel, and as expected by being in the Music City, I found some young, as-yet-unheard-of musicians jamming on acoustic guitars. The crowd, a dozen at most, consisted mostly of friends the musicians had begged to come out on a cold November evening. But for two hours, I sat with them and listened to some of the best original music I’ve ever heard. If they all put out albums like they say they are, I will have plenty to listen to on future trips. 

Here were people fighting their own inner voice, trying to overcome their own Resistance in a city where dreams die by the thousands, but success may wait just around the corner. 
Resistance is an disgusting, ugly thing. But fighting it, and ultimately beating it, creates wonderful, beautiful things.

(Oh, and the three fantastic musicians in the photos above are (L to R): Clay Evans, Morgan Tobias, and Stephen Salyers. All three had amazing original songs and top-notch performances. Another one who isn't pictured above but equally wowed me with her music is Katie Basden. I think these four are all basically stars in the making, but then again who isn't in Nashville. Still, I would love to say someday I saw them way back when...)