It's Not the Patriot League | A March to Madness: A View from the Floor in the Atlantic Coast Conference |...

Great Behind the Scenes Writing | A March to Madness: A View from the Floor in the Atlantic Coast Conference | John Feinstein

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	• A March to Madness: A View from the Floor in the Atlantic Coast Conference John Feinstein Back Bay Books, 1999 - 512 pages average customer review:based on 32 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A Book Every ACC Fan Should Read

John Feinstein is a great writer, and this book is a look at one season in the ACC. He follows the teams around the conference for a season, giving us the background of the players and coaches and showing us the high and low points of the season.

For those of us who didn't go to one of these schools, it's a great way to learn about the basketball traditions of the conference, the history of the rivalries, the conference tournament, the arenas, the fans, etc.

Even if you're not an ACC fan, if you like college basketball you should enjoy this book.

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It's Not the Patriot League

'A March to Madness' follows the Atlantic Coast Conference through the 1996-97 season with Feinstein's signature behind the scenes access. For a fascinating contrast, read this book and then read Feinstein's also excellent 'The Last Amateurs' about the Partiot League. The Patriot League has more true student-athletes, healthier competition, and a lot less money.

'A March to Madness' portrays the high stakes, high pressure, big money atmosphere behind big-time college sports. The ACC is great college basketball conference, but this book tears away most of the romantic myths. The reader is, however, treated to behind the scenes looks at coaches like Dean Smith, Mike Krzyzewski, and Gary Williams, as well as big name players like Vince Carter and Tim Duncan. It's especially interesting to read about Williams' agonies of doubt - this book was written 6 years before the Terps won the NCAA title.

Very highly recommended for readers who enjoy college basketball or John Feinstein.

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Great Behind the Scenes Writing

If you love ACC basketball and cannot get enough behind the scenes information about the coaches then you'll love this book.

Feinstein is amazing in that he has the clout to get into the locker rooms of each of the teams in this conference. Further still, the coaches and players never hold back on their thoughts. So you get one fantastic book, made up of hundreds of interesting basketball stories.

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Fun and interesting read

This book follows ACC basketball for a season. Very fun, like potato chips, hard to stop.

Sweat Equity Pays Off

I'm not a college hoops fan, but having come from the University of Connecticut (back when winning the NIT was a big deal for us), I figured I should try to read something about the sport that has come to define my alma mater.

I chose well. No, UConn is not a part of the Atlantic Coast Conference, the subject of this season-long profile by John Feinstein. But Feinstein gives a solid appreciation for what college basketball is all about through the experiences of the coaches, players, refs, execs, and fans active in the ACC, which Feinstein claims is perhaps the most competitive b-ball conference in Division 1, year in and out. "Let down just the slightest bit and you become instant roadkill," he writes.

Feinstein gives you a sense of the different coaching styles at play here, from Dean Smith's traditional approach at North Carolina to Rick Barnes' cut-up quirkiness at Clemson to Dave Odom's huggy-bear avuncularity at Wake Forest. He relates tales about the history and folklore of the conference that make one feel like an instant Dick Vitale just from reading them, even if the terms "traveling" and "charging" make you flash on American Express. Most importantly, he writes a book that really opens up the world of college basketball to the more casual fan, or even curious non-fan.

That's what I liked the book. I read it, relished it, and enjoyed it with practically no knowledge of the sport going in. The way Feinstein writes about how different refs call different fouls, for example, was both illuminating and entertaining reading.

Feinstein also writes candidly about contracts, recruiting, marriages (failed and successful), burnout, death, and all the other factors that affect college coaches. Players are less the focus, and I get the feeling that Feinstein speaks from personal experience late in the book when he speculates about how an inability to relate to his young players may have moved Dean Smith to retire at 66. The absence of a players' perspective is unfortunate, but it kind of follows with the focus of the book being on the nine coaches, seven of whom gave Feinstein total access.

Feinstein obviously worked hard, and at times his narrative seems to be everywhere at once. Really great work on game descriptions, too, the way he uses them judiciously to punch up the storyline without letting them overtake the rest of the book.

Finally, this is a must-read for fans of Duke and their coach, Mike Krzyzewski. Krzyzewski comes off the best in this book, and while some charge Duke grad Feinstein with bias, the truth is Krzyzewski has the most to offer, both as a man and as a coach. The story of his "drawing the line" before a big game with North Carolina is worth the price of the book by itself. Between him and Dean Smith, I'm surprised Feinstein had time at all for poor Pat Kennedy of Florida State, but he works hard at balance.

What most comes across in this book is the amazing drive of the people involved. "If you're good enough to reach a goal, then there's still someplace else to go," says Maryland coach Gary Williams. "You don't just stop. You keep trying to be better."

There are minor holes in "A March To Madness," but what makes it great is the fact its author shares Williams' passion for excellence. There's no let up.

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Every year, all across America, the excitement builds as March approaches. Like only a few other sports events - the World Series, the Super Bowl, the World Cup - the games that culminate in the national college basketball championship propel sports fans throughout the country into a frenzy. And nowhere is the rivalry more intesnse than in the nine-team Atlantic Coast Conference, which has long been a breeding ground of basketball superstars (Michael Jordon, Grant Hill, and Kenny Anderson among others) and has sent at least one team into the NCAA's Final Four in fifteen of the last eighteen years.

In this widely acclaimed book, John Feinstein takes us behind the scenes of the ACC through an entire unforgettable season. He captures the thrill of the games, the personalities of the players, and, most compellingly, the formidable and surprising challenges that confront the teams' coaches. Feinstein's book is a triumph of sports reporting - a living portrait of how college basketball is coached and played at the highest level.

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