Rating: 
Summary: A Little Uneven, But Still A Treat
Review: I grew up in the Southeast on a steady sports diet of ACC basketball and football, followed each team closely each year, and, of course, later attended an ACC school. I graduated in the spring of 1996 -- just a few months before the 1996-97 season Feinstein chronicles in this book began. So I thought I knew all about the ACC and its sundry characters.Boy was I wrong. Feinstein's insights and access showed me an entirely different side of the ACC world I only thought I knew. The spotlight here is on the coaches and we get to know most of them intimately -- their background, their fears, their expectations, their personal lives, their triumphs and failures. It's all fascinating stuff, although, frankly, I expected a little bit more about the players themselves. Instead, players like Tim Duncan and Vince Carter have mere bit parts in the background. But they were college players and I guess Feinstein really couldn't drag them into the commercial world of book writing. Since the focus of the book is on the coaches themselves, the amount of access each coach gave Feinstein set the tone for the entire project. It is more than obvious that coaches like Duke's Mike Krzyzewski, Maryland's Gary Williams, Wake Forest's Dave Odom, Clemson's Rick Barnes, Virginia's Jeff Jones, and Florida State's Pat Kennedy gave Feinstein as much access and interview time as he wanted and they are covered thoroughly in the book. On the other hand, it's apparent NC State's Herb Sendek, Georgia Tech's Bobby Cremins, and, most importantly, North Carolina's Dean Smith didn't give Feinstein nearly as much time, access, and information as the others. Smith, in particular, is portrayed as an outside, shadowy figure and a pretty mean one at that. Smith could have helped by being more cooperative with Feinstein but, then again, Dean had a job to do and it didn't involve having a writer lurking around his locker room and office for a year. By contrast, Mike Krzyzewski apparently gave the Duke grad the keys to the Duke campus, and that, coupled with Duke's typically great season, give the book a decidely uneven feel. I don't know if that is bias, but I do know when Duke's Greg Newton is mentioned more often than Wake's Tim Duncan or North Carolina's Vince Carter, it's a problem. As much as Feinstein tries to paint a complete portrait of all nine coaches and all nine schools, he simply cannot and the book suffers because of it. Nevertheless, A MARCH TOWARD MADNESS is a treat for ACC fanatics, college basketball fans, and anyone interested in the inner workings of the world of college coaching. The most amazing thing is, the ACC is such a colorful league, you could write a book like this about each and every season. The names may change (a lot of the coaches in this book are already gone) but the passion, the intensity, and the competitiveness are always there.
Rating:
Summary: Life in the ACC revealed.
Review: I guess if you're an ACC basketball fan you will probably enjoy this book. If not, but you're curious about what a season is like in typically one of the better basketball conferences in NCAA basketball,this is the book for you. You get an inside look at the nine teams that comprise the ACC. You get to learn about the coaches of each team, and a bit about them. Of course, the Smith- Kryzewski (sp?) rivalry is talked about in depth. It also talks about how NC State and UNC are public, while Wake and Duke are private schools, and the fans who support them. I found it an interesting read, but not as good as Feinstein's A Season Inside, which chronicled the 1987-88 NCAA basketball season.
Rating:
Summary: Muy Ecellente
Review: I have read a few of other books by this author and I liked this one the best. A March to Madness marches us through the ACC basketball season and on to the NCAA Tournament. Traditionally, the ACC is the toughest basketball conference in the country. Schools like Duke, UNC, Maryland, Clemson, and NC State regularly punish their opponents. The same schools are also seen in the Final Four almost every year. A March to Madness is a great book, one that any college basketball fan will love. I may be a bit biased because of my ACC allegiance (Florida State), regardless it is a great book. I especially liked the short profile of each coach and their respective programs. Then as the season moves on and other teams are left behind (FSU), the coaches get personal. I loved the knowledge of some of the intense rivalries, especially between Coach K and Dean Smith. John Fienstein is a great sports writer, and this book is a slam dunk.
Rating: 
Summary: March On!
Review: I have read a few of other books by this author and I liked this one the best. A March to Madness marches us through the ACC basketball season and on to the NCAA Tournament. Traditionally, the ACC is the toughest basketball conference in the country. Schools like Duke, UNC, Maryland, Clemson, and NC State regularly punish their opponents. The same schools are also seen in the Final Four almost every year. A March to Madness is a great book, one that any college basketball fan will love. I may be a bit biased because of my ACC allegiance (Florida State), regardless it is a great book. I especially liked the short profile of each coach and their respective programs. Then as the season moves on and other teams are left behind (FSU), the coaches get personal. I loved the knowledge of some of the intense rivalries, especially between Coach K and Dean Smith. John Fienstein is a great sports writer, and this book is a slam dunk.
Rating: 
Summary: If you love Duke basketball, you'll love this book
Review: I love the author's previous work, and even in this book he offers insight that i think few others would be able to capture as well. However, Feinstein spends way too much time in certain areas (with the people he obviously likes), specifically the Duke Blue Devils. For some reason, the Dookies, despite a not-so-hot year, get a lot of attention in this book. The book also fails to capture the rivalries that exist outside of Duke/North Carolina or Carolina/N.C. State.
Rating:
Summary: Basketball heaven
Review: I now realize that someone else loves college basketball as much as me. I lost sleep finishing this book because I couldn't put it down.
Rating:
Summary: A behind the scenes look at ACC basketball.
Review: I really enjoyed A March to Madness, because of how interesting it was to read about the coaches, players, and teams in college basketball's strongest conference, the ACC. John Feinstein gives you a behind the scenes look at an entire season of heart pounding ACC basketball. From preseason jitters to the NCAA tournament, Feinstein gives you a chronology of Dean Smith's last games as a coach, Smith breaking the record for wins by a college coach, superstar Tim Duncan's quest to make it to the Final Four, and the inside scoup on all the happenings around the ACC during the exciting 1996-97 season. In short this book was one of the best college basketball books you can find. This book definately deserved a five star rating!
Rating:
Summary: A great read for ACC fans
Review: I really enjoyed this book, though it is hard to know exactly how to rate it. Feinstein goes through a fairly thorough description of the 1996-1997 ACC basketball season from the viewpoints of the nine coaches. I found the behind the scenes stories quite interesting. I especially enjoyed reading about each coach's journey to the big time of college basketball. As much as I enjoyed reading about all the big games and the coaches and teams I am familiar with, I would have liked to have read a little more in-depth analysis on the ACC and college basketball, in general. Being a Duke alum, like Feinstein, and a life-long fan of ACC basketball, it would have been impossible for me not to like this book, but part of me wonders about its appeal to the more general college basketball fan.
Rating:
Summary: Sweat Equity Pays Off
Review: 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.
Rating:
Summary: Hidden Bias Laces Otherwise Great Book
Review: If you can get past obvious Duke bias (and overall ACC bias), you can get a good basketball fix from this one. Feinstein (a Duke graduate) constantly laces read between the lines jabs at North Carolina and NC State. You'll read comments such as "No other ACC coach seems to like Dean Smith, but that's probably because he wins so much" scattered throughout. He refers to the ACC tournament play-in game as "The Les Robinson Game" about 20 times - an obvious shot at the previous NC State coach. Also, the first time I read about UNC having a "wine and cheese" crowd I laughed, but by the 4th time it was annoying. Now, I don't mind a jab here or there, but the lack of similar jabs and critical comments against the other coaches (*especially* Duke) really wore on me after awhile. Is it coincidence that the two teams that refused Feinstein direct locker room access come across the worst? The Duke bias is clearly evident (You'll think Steve Wojo is the second best player in the league after Tim Duncan if you don't know better). Feinstein also spends the first 95% of the book gushing about how wonderful the ACC is, but spends the last 5% apologizing for the league's general collapse in the NCAA Tournament. Snaps at other conferences (like the Big East) really aren't necessary. It would be nice if he gave the rest of college basketball a little credit. I mean, in retrospect, many observers felt that the PAC10 was the best conference that year. Anyways, despite the flaws, I wanted a college basketball fix - and this book gave me one.
|
