March is undoubtedly one of the most exciting times of the year for any sports fan. March Madness with the college basketball tournament is all-consuming. From the fanfare of Selection Sunday to playing 67 basketball games to get one final champion who endured all the ups and downs, there just isn’t another sporting event like it.

It’s three full weeks of excitement. Following predictions from your own bracket to the buzzer beaters that will dash teams’ hopes and dreams of a national championship, it’s a whirlwind that culminates with the final song, “One Shining Moment” playing for the national champions.

One of the interesting aspects of the tournament though is to follow the coaches’ journeys throughout the tournament. Often, coaches who used to work together will be pitted against each other in the tournament, which just adds another layer of excitement to the games.

The covering TV network will often do feature stories on the coaches, and one of my favorite stories to follow comes from “coaching trees.” A coaching tree is like a family tree, except it follows the lineage of assistant coaches who have had success developing their own programs after leaving the tutelage of a master coach.

If a program has immense success, it’s almost a guarantee that assistant coaches will get plucked from the program to try to emulate that success somewhere else. And if they have success at their new school, it’s likely that their coaches will get lured away to replicate the success somewhere else.

You might think it would be irritating to lose your assistant coaches, and I’m sure it is to some degree, but most coaches today recognize that it’s the greatest form of flattery there is.

The reason these assistant coaches are so sought after is because they have been immersed in the head coach’s system. During the season, most college coaches will work 14-16 hours a day. Their tasks are wide and deep.

They need to be watching film of upcoming teams to scout their tendencies. Recruits need to have regular conversations so that positive relationships are developed for potential incoming players. The coaches put together a practice plan every morning and then distribute responsibilities for accomplishing that day’s goals. The practice needs to be facilitated. Study halls need to be monitored, and many teams now have “team meals” together, so that the players’ nutritional needs are being monitored. Throw in a good weight room session somewhere in there, and it’s a full day. If there’s an evening game, they aren’t getting home until midnight.

It’s a grind — especially during the season. The coaches often become like brothers. They just spend so much time together that they start to rub off on each other. A good strong coach will set the pace and lead by example with the assistant coaches following their lead.

As colleges look to fill coaching vacancies, one of the first things they’ll want from a new coach is that they were part of a successful program somewhere. They are going to trust that the assistant coaches were disciplined well enough to replicate themselves elsewhere. There truly are some amazing coaching trees where one program affected the rest of college basketball through all of the assistants that have moved on.

Well if you are catching my drift here, all of these coaches became the coach they were by simply spending time around the head coach. In a spiritual sense, I would suggest to you that this is exactly what we are supposed to be doing in our Christian walk.

In reading the Bible, you’ll find that the Old Testament points towards Jesus; the New Testament, in part, tells us how Jesus lived his life, fulfilling Old Testament prophecies, and the book of Revelation tells about what it will be like when Jesus comes back.

You see, the whole Bible is a book about Jesus.

If that’s the case, our goal as Believers in Christ should be to spend as much time with Jesus as possible. Reading God’s word, in all aspects, points us to Jesus Christ. The more we immerse ourselves in spending time in the Bible and getting to know Jesus, the more he’s going to rub off on us.

If you are wondering what exactly that means, Galatians tells us in 5:22-23. “…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control….”

The fruits of the Spirit are aspects that we will take on in our own lives by spending time with Jesus. Slowly take a look at that list, and ask yourself if any of those elements are things you want in your own life.

There are no substitutes. It takes placing yourself under Jesus’ teachings, and that happens by spending time with him.

You want to see an amazing coaching tree?

Go back and take a look at how the world was permanently changed by Jesus and his assistants — the disciples.