Rating: 
Summary: Maybe the best sports book I've ever read
Review: ...and certainly the best book on basketball I've read. Better for me than A Season On the Brink - better written, and the central characters are more sympathetic than Bobby Knight. But I'm a long-time ACC fan.The book gives you great perspective on life as a basketball coach: how hard it is to climb the ladder, how uncertain the job is, how coaches' success depends on recruiting great players. The best parts of this book are the portraits of the coaches and how they got where they are today. Stories about Bob Kennedy and Gary Williams getting into a screaming match at the scorers table as assistant coaches; Jim Valvano and Rick Pitino at basketball camps in the off-season; and so on. Really compelling stories about the basketball life, including comments on the toll it takes on coaches' marriages. The book has some drawbacks. For one, you almost need to be an ACC fan. I was already familiar with and interested in most of the characters in the book, but fans in other parts of the country may not be. Also, as time goes by and people move on out of the ACC, the book may become less and less relevent. All the players from that season are gone; many of the coaches too. I think only Herb Sendek, Dave Odom, Gary Williams, Mike Krz. are still coaching at those schools: gone are Rick Barnes, Pat Kennedy, Bobby Cremins, Jeff Jones, and of course El Deano. And the book really doesn't focus on the players at all: it's almost entirely about the coaches. But some of the criticisms made by other reviewers don't seem valid to me: (1) Duke - I thought Feinstein bent over backwards NOT to show a Duke bias. But Duke finished first in the league that year, Duke has been one of the dominant programs in the game, plus Feinstein had some compelling stuff about Duke. Of course they took a prominent position in the book. (2) Dean - I thought Feinstein painted a great and fair portrait of Dean Smith. You get a real feel for the competitive old gentleman, who drinks scotch and beats the pants off you, but is the only ACC coach who doesn't swear ("My parents would never speak to me again."). Opinions of and reactions to Smith permeate the league (of course), so a lot of what other people say about Smith contains little jabs and digs. Feinstein reports on the long-running feuds between Smith and the other colorful coaches in the league, like Lefty Dreisell. But I think Feinstein's attitude is completely respectful. See the introduction, where a fan suggests the game may have passed Smith by, and Feinstein rattles off "Fourteen straight wins, another Final Four appearance..." etc. Feinstein doesn't get as CLOSE to Dean as he does to the other players, but that's not too surprising. (3) The "Les Robinson Game" - Feinstein reports that's what the league COACHES call it, not a nickname he made up. (4) Carolina-Duke - Well, this game is one of the centerpieces of the college basketball season, especially when it's played in Cameron. The league just announced its new TV schedule, and the headline was when the 2 Carolina-Duke games were and what national broadcasters are going to carry them. Of course Feinstein spends a chapter on it. No book on the ACC would be complete without... etc. So some of the criticisms don't make sense to me. But we all seem to agree this is an excellent book. If you have ANY interest in college basketball, this is one bok you have to read.
Rating:
Summary: Almost a 10
Review: A great book. It's almost as if you were there. The only shortcoming was the inability to get full access to Dean Smith (through no fault of Mr. Feinstein). This would have made the book a 10.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is awsome
Review: A March to Madness by John Feinstein is an in depth look at each men's basketball program in the Atlantic Coast Conference. I liked that Feinstein did an equally large amount of research for the history of each school and the conference in general. "On May 8, 1953, at the Sedgfield Inn in Greensboro, the seven schools voted unanimously to leave the Southern Conference and form a new league called the Atlantic Coast Conference."(p95). I also liked how John didn't just tell about the coaches' lives at work, but also their life at home and their person relationship with their players. Another part of the book I liked was the game summaries with how the coaches felt at each part and what they said to their players before, during, and after the game. The theme of the book, in my opinion, is if you are a coach than you lead your life just like you coach your team. You have the same work ethic. You have the same expectations to succeed, and the same drive to their definition to success. As a coach myself, not on the level of these men but a coach no the less, I agree with the theme. In coaching and everything else I do I strive to reach my goal, in coaching its winning it all, in life it could be something as simple as getting to a friend's house the time I say I'm going to be there. This book is a great read. I highly recommend it to anyone remotely interested in learning what goes on behind closed doors in one of the toughest conferences in all of NCAA basketball. I thought the book was a little Duke biased but I have no problem with that because of my Duke ties.
Rating:
Summary: This book is awsome
Review: A March to Madness by John Feinstein is an in depth look at each men's basketball program in the Atlantic Coast Conference. I liked that Feinstein did an equally large amount of research for the history of each school and the conference in general. "On May 8, 1953, at the Sedgfield Inn in Greensboro, the seven schools voted unanimously to leave the Southern Conference and form a new league called the Atlantic Coast Conference."(p95). I also liked how John didn't just tell about the coaches' lives at work, but also their life at home and their person relationship with their players. Another part of the book I liked was the game summaries with how the coaches felt at each part and what they said to their players before, during, and after the game. The theme of the book, in my opinion, is if you are a coach than you lead your life just like you coach your team. You have the same work ethic. You have the same expectations to succeed, and the same drive to their definition to success. As a coach myself, not on the level of these men but a coach no the less, I agree with the theme. In coaching and everything else I do I strive to reach my goal, in coaching its winning it all, in life it could be something as simple as getting to a friend's house the time I say I'm going to be there. This book is a great read. I highly recommend it to anyone remotely interested in learning what goes on behind closed doors in one of the toughest conferences in all of NCAA basketball. I thought the book was a little Duke biased but I have no problem with that because of my Duke ties.
Rating:
Summary: A must read for college basketball fans
Review: Any fan of college basketball, especially of the ACC, will love this book. Feinstein sure picked a great season to chronicle the ACC, made more so by Dean Smith's retirement after one of his best coaching jobs.
Rating:
Summary: A good feel for the 'Hot Seat'
Review: As a graduate of UNC and a rabid fan of the Tar Heels, I had heard ruminations that Feinstein's book was a rather lopsided account of the 1996-97 season, that he fawned upon "Coach K" while giving the occasional subtle slight to Coach Dean Smith. These remarks, I am happy to say, are not so true as to take away from a very impressive and enjoyable book. Yes, Coach K gets some coddling. But Feinstein's "nice" treatment ends up making the incredible coach seem overly sensitive (he "breaks down in tears" in front of his players not once, not twice, but three times over the course of the season). Meanwhile, he portrays Smith a good deal through the eyes of some of his greatest adversaries (only the greatest of coaches would have so many jealous enemies). All it really shows is that Coach Smith is a gentleman with a mean streak. He is respectful, polite, and very very very competitive. The power of the book, to me, was the other coaches, particularly Rick Barnes, Dave Odom, Jeff Jones and Bobby Cremins. Feinstein was able to give these lesser-known coaches life they don't have time to show to the common fan. For basketball fans who wonder what goes on behind closed doors, this book will definitely be worth the investment.
Rating:
Summary: Muy Ecellente
Review: As a lifelong ACC fan and in particular a Maryland fan I have only one complaint about this book. I should have read it years ago. I can't believe I waited this long. I couldn't put it down and I finished it in 2 days. I went out the day I finished and bought "A Season on the Brink". Feinstein is the man.
Rating: 
Summary: Fine, but somewhat unfair
Review: Certainly an engrossing book. However, Feinstein's Duke bias is all-too apparent. The most glaring example comes when he spends nearly a chapter on the Duke-North Carolina game played in Cameron Indoor Stadium (which Duke won), but in the rematch at the Smith Center (which UNC won), he only writes a paragraph. There are also several factual errors in the book - although I'm sure that in the rush to meet deadlines, there wasn't enough time for editing. Feinstein spins a good yarn, but his propensity for revealing his biases wears thin on those of us who don't share his preferences.
Rating:
Summary: Deceivingly filling, but soon left feeling empty...
Review: I am an avid reader of Mr. Feinstein's non-fictional basketball accounts. So when I heard that he was spending a year with the ACC, I was absolutely delighted, since I am a graduate of one of those schools. His book about Bob Knight could be the most interesting text about the inner workings of a college basketball program that I've read and his "A Season Inside" was a tremendous broad stroke analysis of several teams as they traversed through a season. Alas, it seems that Mr. Feinstein is running out of creative approaches for this subject. It appeared to me that Mr. Feinstein used the same template from "A Season Inside" when he wrote "March to Madness," so I was a little disappointed in its lack of originality, in terms of his approach. His approach is basically to give a coach's perspective of the teams development and performance as the season progresses towards its eventual conclusion. Still, he manages to weave in a great number of interesting anecdotes that often had me laughing out loud. Many of the coaching emotions so well depicted in "A Season Inside" show up again and again in the most recent book... In fact, Rick Barnes is a dominant personality in both tomes... though Barnes changes schools, his approach to coaching remains similar. Mr. Feinstein gives best coverage to those coaches who allowed him access... unfortunately his depictions of Dean Smith and Herb Sendak are limited by his lack of access... of course, this is not Mr. Feinstein's fault. I am probably most disappointed with Mr. Feinstein's, apparently jaundiced view of Coach Smith... while, the writer pays some grudging homage to Coach Smith's accomplishments and how his 1997 team develops during the course of the season, he also paints a rather dismal picture of Smith's personality through the biased viewpoints of some of his antagonistic, perhaps jealous, peer competitors over the years... in fact, Smith is mugged by Feinstein's use of quotes from coaches such as Lefty Drizzel, Norm Sloan and Terry Holland... On the other hand, Duke coach Mike Kryzyzewski is painted in saintly tones, despite the fact that he is also eminently muggable... unfortunately, Mr. Feinstein's Duke roots do show through the fabric of his analysis... Despite all these criticisms, the book was fun to read and I couldn't put it down...
Rating:
Summary: Great for any basketball fan, a must-read for ACC fans.
Review: I bought this book as a Christmas present for my husband, but unwrapped it twice to sneak in a few chapters myself because I couldn't wait. Feinstein spent last season in an ACC fan's dream, with great access to games, coaches and locker rooms. I enjoyed the background material on each coach, and found myself reliving games through his descriptions. There are numerous humorous anecdotes, many of which I'm hearing again as filler commentary during this year's games. I have to admit that Feinstein does show a slight preference for Duke, his alma mater -- mine too, so I didn't mind but even I noticed. The end result is, thanks to Mr. Feinstein, I'm watching EVERY ACC basketball game this year (in the past I'd watch for my school and my husband's, and check other scores for standings). Not only that, because I liked Rick Barnes so much in the book, I have actually cheered for Clemson for the first time in my life.
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