Latest / Beliefs, Ballots, And BullDawgs / Wednesday 3/18/26
Transcript
- Greg: What's up guys. Welcome to today's episode of beliefs, ballots and bets. The daily show where we talk a little bit about everything. We're going to talk about faith and family and politics and culture, sports and gambling. And at the end of the day, our goal is just to think a little bit better than the rest of the crowd out there. Let's start today with our sports topic today. We're going to, we're going to discuss a little bit about March madness. We're going talk about it from a gambling perspective. March madness is so much fun. everybody fills out the brackets, everybody's trying to win their pools and everybody likes to win money. So if you follow along to pay attention, we're going to try to give you some bets and some wagers here and there and maybe make it little more entertaining for you. And if nothing else, maybe we'll fatten your pockets a little bit along the way. One thing to keep in mind when it comes to March Madness, and this can apply to a lot of things in life, but we want to focus on discipline as opposed to overreaction. When you get down to March Madness, most people don't lose money because they don't know basketball or even because they're unlucky. Most people lose because they get impatient and they chase. We're not going to do that. If you feel like you have to play a particular game, if you feel like you have to get some action to chase a loss at that point, you are no longer gambling. are essentially donating and we don't believe in that. So with that being said, let's get to today's plays. Play number one. going with the Dayton Bradley matchup. I've got Dayton minus one and a half. I Dayton's half court offense and their guard play should be able to control the pace of things. It's a tight spread at one and a half and I lean towards thinking Dayton's just a slightly better team. Better team on a small number. Give me Dayton minus the one and a half and let's get that W. Play number two for the day. We're going to go with Navy and Wake Forest. We're going to play the total on this one. Total sitting right now at 148 and a half, but we're going to go with the under. It's a pretty big point spread. think you got Navy favor by 12, 12 and a half 13. ⁓ total damn near one 50 that typically with a larger spread at a high total like this, I like to look towards the under. I think Navy in trying to keep it closed, trying to be competitive. Navy's going to try to slow it down and control the tempo. ⁓ so give me the under one 48 and a half here. And then our third and final play for today, going with UIC cow game, UIC, the university of Illinois, Chicago. We're going to take them plus the five and a half. Cal has been pretty inconsistent. I've not been really impressed with them much this year. USC is a physical team. They've had some experience in the tournaments in past years. I don't think this will overwhelm them. It feels like a tight game. It feels like it could come down to a possession or two. So in that case, me the five and a half points with USC and let's hope to go three and O today. As we mentioned, getting emotional, getting caught up in the moment and chasing. Those issues often cause people dearly in gambling and they same, they apply the same way in life. We can't overreact to things. can't chase things. And frankly, we just can't let our emotions control our actions. need to avoid reacting. And when things happen, we need to have something to, stay grounded. For me, I try to focus on discipline. Discipline is the edge in everything. It keeps you from overreacting. It keeps you from getting caught up in the moment. We live in such a crazy world these days where one headline and people lose their minds. One massive event and people feel like they immediately have to form an opinion and take a side. There's no patience anymore these days. There's no nuance to anything. We don't let anything develop and get a real feel for it. We just react. And usually when you react, It's followed by regrettable choices because you've not let things played out. Discipline for me comes from faith and faith is the opposite of everything we've talked about. Faith is what keeps you from overreacting. Faith is the foundation for consistency and not overreacting to emotions. This carries over to everything. Faith, if you, if you structure it properly. Faith dictates how you work, how you handle adversity, and most importantly, how we lead our families, how we are as husbands and fathers. So no matter what we're doing, let's keep a focus on keeping balance. It's fun to talk about March Madness, and it's fun to get caught up in political conversations and current events. But at end of the day, we can't get consumed with any of these things. We've got to stay present. We've got to remember that balance matters, and we have to focus on enforcing our priorities and paying attention to the things that matters most. And truth be told, if you're not in your Bible daily, if you're not praying, and if you're not spending time with God every day and spending time with loved ones, there's nothing else that's going to matter. It doesn't matter how much money you have. doesn't matter how many vacations you take. It doesn't matter what you do. If you don't have God at the center of your life and you're not plugged in with your family and connected, you're never going to find happiness. You're never going to find anything that fulfills you. It's such a loud world out there. And as we develop the show and as things continue to progress, that's, that's going to be an ongoing theme of how do we in this loud world, how do we control ourselves? We, everything out there is loud, loud opinions, loud anger, loud temptations, distractions are everywhere. How do we focus on the things that matter? How do we stay true to our faith in this world where there's so many distractions, we're being pulled in so many different directions. Christ calls us to be different. Christ calls us to be steady when others react. We stay true to our convictions while others are ruled by their feelings and their emotions. It's tricky to try to figure out how to live by standards and stand up for those standards, but don't come across as self-righteous. I've experienced this some in my life. When you try to make some changes, a lot of the crowds you've associated with may not like those changes, may not appreciate those changes, and may in some cases, feel like you're trying to be better than them or leave them behind by making those changes. And that's not always easy to deal with. It's hard to lose family and friends. It's easier to blend in and just go along with everything. The challenge is to try to live in those convictions, stick to the biblical nature of what you know is right, but do so in a manner that doesn't turn people off. It's, very tricky to manage all these things. But we have to focus on truth. So much out there is not factual, not based in the truth. And it doesn't matter. People are so loud and it doesn't matter how much energy, how much passion, how much vile and vitriol and venom people are coming with. We need to trust what's true, not just what's loud. And as Christians for us, it's not about being I am a deeply flawed sinner who sins every day and repents every day as well. It's not about trying to be perfect. It's about trying to be intentional. And as a Christian, the goal is to try to live life as biblically as we can. And frankly, that means staying strong against the challenge of today's world. Hopefully this show will help all of us do that.