A March to Madness

January 1, 1998
The list of great sports books about anything but baseball is limited, but Feinstein (A Civil War, LJ 10/1/96) has increased it by one with this tour-de-force. Similar to his book about Indiana University Coach Bob Knight, A Season on the Brink (S. & S.,1988), Feinstein's latest covers one year with all of the teams in the perennially powerful Atlantic Coast Conference. After introducing each of the schools, their teams, their coaches, and their expectations for the 1996/97 basketball season, the book describes their progress week by week, culminating with Dean Smith's run to the NCAA Final Four. Such a detailed accounting of a sports season could seem interminable to readers, but Feinstein has again produced a narrative that is not only interesting but often exciting. He conveys the exhiliration of a road conference win and the gloom of a home loss. This book should appeal to all readers, not just to sports fans. Highly recommended for all libraries.--William O. Scheeren, Hempfield Area H.S. Lib., Greensburg, Pa.

Starred review from November 15, 1997
College basketball's epicenter is the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). It has the most storied tradition and the all-time winningest coach in recently retired Dean Smith, and it often produces the national champion. The author of many memorable sports books, Feinstein first hit the best-seller lists with another look at college basketball, "A Season on the Brink" (1986), which took the measure of Indiana's controversial coach Bobby Knight. This time his focus is broader as he moves from one ACC school to another, observing, interviewing, and profiling each of the nine coaches and their programs. As well as anyone writing today, Feinstein understands the dynamics of team basketball and how coaches use their personalities to forge the essential chemistry. He shows us, for example, how Smith, at North Carolina, was a master of organization, plotting every practice down to the minute, while, at Wake Forest, Dave Odom is more of a friend to his players, even trading gag gifts with them at a team Christmas party. Feinstein begins with the preseason and follows the schools through each team's final game of the year, usually in the NCAA tournament. Through the course of the book, readers get to know all the coaches, many of the players, and even a few fans. They also come to understand how these very public coaches coexist as fierce rivals and also, surprisingly, as comrades in arms. This is a wonderful, thoughtful, and entertaining book, and it is certain to be devoured by basketball junkies nationwide. ((Reviewed November 15, 1997))(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 1997, American Library Association.)