The Road Less Traveled
Micah Potter and Tom Hager
In Partnership with Athletes For God
Even before I heard the NCAA’s decision, I had a feeling of what it was going to be.
It was November of 2019, and I was about to hear the NCAA’s verdict on my appeal. I was trying to become immediately eligible to play for the Wisconsin basketball team, but I had been through this process before. And the last time I had heard from the NCAA, it was a no.
At this point I hadn’t played in a basketball game in over 600 days, but it didn’t matter. When the NCAA read its decision over the phone, the answer was the same. I was still ineligible.
And yet, when I went on my Twitter account, I decided to take the high road. I thanked my coaching staff, compliance staff, and of course my teammates and family. But I also needed to thank God.
“My faith has been my stronghold throughout this whole process,” I wrote. “God has His perfect plan for everything.”
It wasn’t the end of the world either, because I knew that I would still get to play in exactly one month. What I didn’t know, however, was that we were about to embark on one of the craziest conference title runs I have ever seen. My name is Micah Potter, and this is my story.
I can’t take all the credit for that tweet I sent out, because I didn’t arrive to this point of my faith on my own.
I made the personal decision to follow Christ when I was five years old, and that has been my life’s foundation ever since. My dad is a pastor, so some of my early memories are of spending time at the church. I was there multiple times per week, but even when I wasn’t attending church service, I was going to Sunday School. But as any pastor’s kid can tell you, the Christian values don’t stop when church is over. Living the Christian life was a 24/7 lifestyle for us.
I know there is a temptation for a lot of kids who grow up in that environment to try and rebel as soon as they get their first taste of freedom away from their parents, but I was opposite. In fact, we sought out help to figure out how to keep my priorities straight when I got to college.
My dad reached out to Tim Tebow’s dad for advice, and he actually responded. He wanted to know what life was going to be like for me when I went away to college, and what I should expect. The answer my dad received was the honest, blunt truth.
I could expect to spend a significant amount of time by myself, Robert Tebow told my dad. There wasn’t really an easy way around it….much of the behavior that happens at college campuses simply doesn’t align itself with Christian values, and if I wanted to live a virtuous life, I could expect to spend plenty of time alone. It’s sad too, because we’re social creatures, and God really doesn’t want us to live in isolation. Fortunately, thanks to some amazing teammates here in Madison, I’m not alone at all. In fact, I couldn’t be doing better.
It just took me some time before I found myself here.
My college career didn’t start in Madison. It actually started in Columbus at Ohio State. I grew up in Ohio, and I had always dreamed of attending OSU. In fact, my brother plays football there right now. But I just wasn’t the right fit for their basketball team. I wanted to maximize my potential, and in order to do that it seemed like I would need to head somewhere else.
It didn’t take me long to figure out where home would be. Brad Davison was my host that weekend, and right away I could just feel his genuine personality and kindred spirit with Christ. The way he carried himself and the way he talked instantly resonated with me, and before long he was my roommate. We were also fortunate enough to room with Joe Hedstrom, who redshirted last season but also lives a Christian life.
Having those guys made a world of difference to me, because we actually had a lot of fun in the house. We might not have gone to parties on Greek Row, but we didn’t need to. We were able to play cards and video games, and I never felt like I was missing out on something. If anything, everyone else was missing out on spending time with Brad and Joe.
Of course, I didn’t come to Madison for them. I also came to win a conference championship. Even if that journey would start without me.
Or one of my favorite coaches.
I’ll never forget where I was when I got the phone call.
I was back in Ohio for my brother’s high school graduation when I got a call from Joe Krabbenhoft, one of our assistant coaches. The shock I felt was probably the same as everyone else on the team when they heard the news too. Howard Moore, one of our assistant coaches, had just been involved in a car crash. It was a fatal car crash, but he wasn’t the one who died.
It was his wife and daughter.
They were on their way to see family near Detroit when a drunk driver slammed into their vehicle. Coach Moore was completely devastated, but he found the strength to be thankful he still had his son, who had survived the accident. He was also thankful his wife and daughter knew Jesus and that they were in Heaven now. I can’t imagine how hard it would be to have gratitude and positivity in a time like that, but coach Moore managed to do the hardest thing of all, which was to forgive the driver.
We saw coach Moore a few months after the accident, and the whole time he was talking about his faith. Our team had invited an inspirational speaker named Dave Anderson to speak with us before the accident, and he emphasized that things happen for us - not to us - and when coach Moore saw us during the offseason, he took that theme and ran with it.
When I got my news from the NCAA, I had to take the same approach. I also had to put things in perspective, because sitting out a few games is nowhere near what Coach Moore went through. The context may have been completely different, but Coach Moore’s attitude showed that as Christians, there are not a lot of alternative ways to correctly handle a situation. In his case, it meant forgiving the other driver. In my case, it meant trusting in God’s plan.
My Twitter Bio features the verse Matthew 6:33, which says “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” That verse applies not just in the good times, but in the bad times as well. Perhaps especially in the bad times.
That theme couldn’t have come at a better time, because before our basketball team could contend for a Big 10 title, we were about to endure some early struggles.
I knew the beginning of the season was going to be rough for me, because I was going to have to sit out the first 10 games until the NCAA could declare me eligible. I just didn’t realize how rough it was going to be for my teammates as well.
The season got off to a bad start with a loss to Saint Mary’s, but I don’t think any of us thought too much about it. It was an overtime loss to a top 25 team, and after that we rebounded with four straight wins.
But what happened next was something none of us could have predicted.
We lost three winnable games against Richmond, New Mexico, and N.C. State. We won our next game against Indiana, only to lose again, this time to Rutgers. I was now going to be eligible, but at that point our record was 5-5. The Big 10 season had barely started, and we were already putting our NCAA Tournament chances in a rough spot.
Of course, when we played UW-Milwaukee in our next game, I wasn’t thinking about any of that. I was just excited to be out there on the court. I could hear applause just as I made my way from the bench to the scorer’s table, and as I entered the game, I could tell the P.A. announcer gave a little extra emphasis on my name. I was looking at my teammate Nate Reuvers to high five him, but I could sense that all around the Kohl Center, fans were cheering me on.
The first few minutes back on the court were a little sloppy for me, but as soon as I got the jitters out of my system, I felt like myself again. We won that game, and then beat Tennessee, Rider and #5 Ohio State. It seemed like we had finally righted the ship, only to go through another slump. By the time we lost to Iowa on January 27, our record was 12-9 and our season was on life support. At that point, I’m sure many of our fans were thinking less about a conference championship and more about how we could sneak into the tournament.
But we still believed we could actually win the Big 10.
It would require us making a big run at the end of the season, but we had the talent to turn our season around. Plus, our team was not the kind to point fingers or have hidden agendas. We had the unselfish guys capable of saving our season, and it was going to start the next game with a gut check performance against Michigan State. Brad was out for that game, and we knew this was going to be a must-win game. We pulled that game out 64-63, and even though we lost our next game after that to Minnesota, we had shown signs of competing with anybody in our league.
And then we started to win. And win again. We won five games in a row to set up a big game with Minnesota at the Kohl Center. It was a hard battle the whole way, and with less than two minutes to go we found ourselves down 66-62. Brad hit a pair of free throws to cut the lead to two, and after a stop on the other end, we had a chance to tie the game or take the lead.
Brad put up a three pointer that bounced off the rim, and a mad scramble for the ball ensued. Aleem Ford didn’t have a chance to grab the ball, so he did the next best thing - tip the ball to the back court. The only problem was that the closest player happened to be wearing a Minnesota jersey. Brad, never one to give up on a play, chased the ball from behind and got just enough of it to ricochet it to D’Mitrik Trice, who by this point was about a foot in front of the mid court line. He looked over and fired it to the left corner of the floor.
Sitting there alone was Brevin Pritzl.
Brevin drained the 3-pointer to put us up 67-66, and even though Minnesota responded with a jumper at the other end, Aleem Ford made a dunk with 30 seconds to put us up for good. We won that game 71-69, and after wins over Northwestern and Indiana, we had just done what seemed impossible a month earlier. We had become Big 10 Champions. I’ll never forget that night we clinched the title, when our coach Greg Gard was dancing in the locker room with us.
We were set to carry that momentum into March Madness when all of a sudden our season came to an end.
I remember the exact moment I realized our chances at a National Championship were about to fade away.
It was during the Big 10 Tournament, when Nebraska was playing Minnesota, and NU coach Fred Hoiberg was struggling on the bench. It turned out he didn’t even have Covid-19, but it was right as the virus was just beginning to spread around the country. At that point the Ivy League Tournament had already been canceled, and within a few days, the entire sports world came to a stop. In many ways, our entire way of life came to a stop.
Even though we could see it coming for a few days, it still felt like the season ended in an instant. We were one of the hottest teams in the country at that point, riding an 8-game win streak, and just like that it was all over. There was no closure, no champion, and no basketball.
Then again, when you looked at what happened in places like New York City, basketball doesn’t seem to matter quite as much.
It’s impossible to know why things like this happened, but the one thing I do know is that God has a plan, and we need to trust in Him. In the story of Job, he had everything taken away from him – his family, his health, his finances – and he still refused to curse God. And at the end of the story, he came out more prosperous than he even was before.
When I seek the kingdom of God, it’s not just when I’m playing well on the court. It’s when my team is playing poorly, or when we can’t even play at all.
As for me, I just finished the spring semester online, and I’ll be back next year to try and make another run at the Big 10 Title. But until then, I’ll keep trusting in God’s plan.