Author: Mike Bond

Top Ten NCAA College Basketball Home Winning Streaks

My quest was to find the longest home winning streaks for NCAA Division 1 College Basketball.  It took me so long to find the information that I figured I would post it on my blog and perhaps make someone else’s job a little easier.  Here are the Top 13:

#1 Kentucky – 129 games (1943-1955) (broken by Georgia Tech 59-58 in Memorial Coliseum on Jan. 8, 1955)

#2 St. Bonaventure – 99 games (1948-1961) (broken by Niagara 87-77)

#3 UCLA – 98 games (1970-1976) (broken by Oregon 65-45)

#4 Cincinnati – 86 games (1957-1964) (broken by Bradley 87-77)

#5 Arizona – 81 games (1945-1951) (broken by Kansas St. 76-57)

#5 Marquette – 81 games (1967-1973) (broken by Notre Dame 71-69)

#7 Lamar – 80 games (1978-1984) (broken by Louisiana Tech 68-65)

#8 Long Beach State – 75 games (1968-1974) (broken by San Francisco 94-84)

#9 UNLV – 72 games (1974-1978) (broken by New Mexico 102-98)

#10 Arizona – 71 games (1987-1992) (broken by UCLA 89-87)

#11 Kansas – 69 games (2008-2011) (broken by Texas 74-63)

#12 Cincinnati – 68 games (1972-1978) (broken by Georgia Tech 59-56)

#13 Western Kentucky – 67 games (1949-1955) (broken by Xavier 82-80 in overtime)

 

UPDATE: With KU’s win over UCLA (KU 77 – UCLA 76) the streak is now at 64.

UPDATE: With KU’s win over North Texas on 11-19-10, they have tied their team record of 62 consecutive home victories set back in the 90’s under Roy Williams.  The next home victory will break the record.  They have two challenging non-league home games–Memphis (currently ranked #19) and UCLA (I don’t care what their record is, UCLA is UCLA). NOTE: KU’s game with Memphis was at a neutral site not a home game.

UPDATE: Here are my thoughts on the Kansas Jayhawks getting into the Top 10 on this list.  Currently, they have a 59 game home winning streak.  They will not play another home game until next basketball season.  This year 2009-2010 they played 12 home games BEFORE league play began.  If they win all of those, and they should, they’d tie Arizona at #10.  As long as their non-league games don’t include some powerhouse (and it usually doesn’t) and they don’t play a high ranked team in league play the first few games, they have a legitimate shot at working their way up the Top 10 list.

They had 20 total home games this year.  If they have 20 more next season and won them all, they’d have a 79 home game winning streak.  My guess is that would place them in the top 5 or 6.  If they went unbeaten again the following season and played 20 home games, then they’d tie St. Bonaventure at #2.  That would be quite a feat in this day and age of basketball.

An Encouragement for “Small Groups”

John Piper gives seven reasons that it is important to be part of a Small Group (or Home Group or Life Group or whatever your church calls them) as opposed to simply attending church once a week and hearing a sermon.

1) The impulse to avoid painful growth by disappearing safely into the crowd in corporate worship is very strong.

2) The tendency toward passivity in listening to a sermon is part of our human weakness.

3) Listeners in a big group can more easily evade redemptive crises. If tears well up in your eyes in a small group, wise friends will gently find out why. But in a large gathering, you can just walk away from it.

4) Listeners in a large group tend to neglect efforts of personal application. The sermon may touch a nerve of conviction, but without someone to press in, it can easily be avoided.

5) Opportunity for questions leading to growth is missing. Sermons are not dialogues. Nor should they be. But asking questions is a key to understanding and growth. Small groups are great occasions for this.

6) Accountability for follow-through on good resolves is missing. But if someone knows what you intended to do, the resolve is stronger.

7) Prayer support for a specific need or conviction or resolve goes wanting. O how many blessings we do not have because we are not surrounded by a band of friends who pray for us.

Taken from John Piper’s sermon The Love of Human Praise as the Root of Unbelief

Thank You, Martin Luther, for 492 Years of “Faith Alone”

A great day to a be a Protestant!  We are justified by faith alone.  Sola Fide!

On this day in 1517, the great reformer, Martin Luther, nailed his 95 theses on the door of the church at Wittenburg.  It created a firestorm.  Eventually, Luther was called to the Diet of Worms in 1520 and asked to recant.  His famous proclamation still rings true 489 years later:

“Unless I am convinced by proofs from Scriptures or by plain and clear reasons and arguments, I can and will not retract, for it is neither safe nor wise to do anything against conscience. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen.”