Rating: 
Summary: The real game of college basketball.
Review: The Patriot League reminds me somewhat of the higher-ranked mid-major Missouri Valley Conference and the schools of the PL remind me of Creighton; high academic expectations and little money.I liked his specific quotes at critical times, for example, before a game or during a time out. If you always wanted to know what the coach is saying to the refs and his players, this is your book. I've read four other Feinstein books and this is my second favorite. I just wish there was an appendix to list the schools, coaches and players. Some more editing would also be nice but that cuts both ways. What I might want to cut someone else would keep. John has his formula and he is sticking to it. As in "A Civil War" I noticed how these big macho athletes are so affected by their parents' divorce. It is a common thing in America today but it really hurts. College basketball is such a great game I can't figure out why it doesn't draw more people to games in leagues such as the MVC and Patriot. Cable ain't that great.
Rating: 
Summary: The Way College Hoops Ought To Be
Review: This book was a bit of a change of pace for me; I don't read too many sports books anymore. However, I was a fan of Feinstein's previous college hoops books -- "A March to Madness" and "A Season on the Brink" -- and this struck me as an uncanny subject. Although the book ostensibly chronicles the 1999-2000 season, Feinstein actually transports us back in time. The Patriot League is college basketball the way it used (and ought) to be -- before TV and avarice transformed the sport into a proving ground for the NBA and a cash-cow for the universities. The kids in the Patriot League play not to audition for the pros, but for the love of the game and the challenge of the competition. Feinstein brings to life the excitement that small-time college basketball can generate -- every bit as electric as the ACC and Big Ten.
Rating:
Summary: Good stories, poor organization
Review: John Feinstein took the time to get to know the coaches, players, and competition style of the Patriot League, and makes a valiant effort to present the PL experience. Having read the book, I feel like I know the "flavor" of the Patriot League, perhaps as well as I know the flavor of my own ACC (Maryland graduate and diehard basketball fan, class of 1987). Feinstein really communicates the feel of being in the PL: the love of the game, but all in balance with academics and the rest of life. These schools, these players, this league, are all of very high quality of character, and glorifying high character quality is certainly a worthwhile endeavor. However, for anything beyond the general feel and character of the league, Feinstein's occasionally brilliant, frequently overly-detailed writing gets lost in the horrible disorganization of the book. Feinstein says he follows a season in the PL, and that's certainly true. The trouble is that the league has seven schools, seven coaches (and multiple former coaches), seven athletic directors, seven school presidents, seventy-or-so players, and each school plays 20-odd games per season. Most of those mean little or nothing to the average reader who would pick up this book. While Feinstein, having lived the season, watched the games, and developed relationships with the people, can keep them all straight, I don't know Fran Fraschilla from Ralph Willard, and I don't remember which one coaches where, and I couldn't tell the difference between Lafayette and Lehigh. Feinstein does absolutely nothing to make these clear to the reader. It seems to me that the obvious organization for telling the much needed story of the Patriot League would have been to write about each team, individually, over the course of their season. Then, after that, use the conference tournament as a means for tying the seven stories together. Instead, Feinstein wrote it as he lived it -- a game at Colgate means telling about them, then off to Holy Cross, over to Bucknell, down to Navy, back to Colgate -- oh they're playing Bucknell, gotta tell more about them... Meanwhile, readers are going crazy trying to figure out which team is which, which coach goes with which school, which player goes with which coach, etc. The result of the disorganization is utter confusion. It is telling that what I remember best from the book is a quote from Duke's Coach K (who was a former Army coach, but the quote is from his time at Duke). He spoke glowingly to his players about the high quality of the character of the players on the Navy team, and then emphasized the need to BEAT them, because they're NAVY and he was ARMY. Which is a great story, but why do I remember that better than any of the actual Patriot League stories? Because I was so lost in the whos, wheres, and whichs of Feinstein's disorganization. There are excellent anecdotes, funny stories, and character-telling quotes and actions described throughout the book, and for that, it's worth reading. But, I recommend one of two ways for reading: Either 1) read lightly, look for the good stories and ignore the flood of names, dates, and details; or 2) take notes as you read, and make a list of a) school, b) coach, c) other school administrators or former coaches, and d) players, just so you have a handy reference sheet to keep them all straight when Feinstein refers back to someone he wrote about 150 pages ago.
Rating: 
Summary: Riveting Hoop Dreams
Review: This book is, hands-down, the best sports book I have ever read. It is filled with the purity of what Division I basketball is supposed to be about. John Feinstein accomplishes a remarkable feat along the way, as well, and that is gettting you acquainted with all of the players and coaches that make up the Patriot League. It is well-written, observant and, even if you didn't go to one of these schools, he makes you care about them. I didn't go to these schools and yet, after reading about them, I find myself scanning the sports page to see who won the Lehigh-Holy Cross game. And when you watch the tournament in March, you'll find yourself paying special attention to the representative from the Patriot League after reading Feinstein's classic. Well done.
Rating:
Summary: Naismith Would Approve
Review: The basketball playing Patriot League consisting of teams from Army, Navy, Lafayette, Lehigh, Bucknell, Holy Cross, and Colgate has a few features unique to most Division 1 leagues in this era of big time college basketball. There are no big bucks national TV contracts, Dick Vitale doesn't hyperventilate over the awesome talents of its athletes, the academic standards are high, and the players actually graduate. Yet the competition within the league is intense and the level of play is surprisingly good. While there are no national champions here, the athletes who play for the love of the competition and the game do get a chance to meet with the "big boys" on occasion. The winner of the league receives an invitation to the NCAA Tournament (where they are usually ousted in the first round) and big time teams are sprinkled throughout the schedules. This year, for example, Penn State, Syracuse, Duke, Arizona State, Texas, and Wake Forest show up among the opponents. John Feinstein takes us on an extended guided tour of the league, its athletes, coaches, and administators and gives us an inside look at college basketball as close to it roots as it gets these days. This is a nicely told tale of the fight to win the league's championship and its only bid to the NCAA Tournament. Its nice to read about athletes going all out to win even though the arenas may be small and the crowds might sometimes number in the hundreds rather than thousands. Caution though, Feinstein includes so much detail, so many names, and so many events that the reader may have a tendency to suffer from information overload. Nevertheless, this is a refreshing look at another aspect of collegiate competition. If you enjoy this book and want to take a look at the other side of the college basketball equation, you might want to look at two other Feinstein books - "A March to Madness" which looks at the Atlantic Coast Conference and "A Season on the Brink" which deals with Bob Knight's Indiana Hoosiers of the Big Ten.
Rating:
Summary: Not as interesting or inspiring as I would have hoped.
Review: He basically just rehashes the season. I didn't really feel connected to the players, coaches or schools. Some of the material that discussed the Army program, gave me a good sense of place, but that was about it. It would have been wonderful to learn more about the day to day lives of these impressive young men. Sitting around and talking hoops with them while they ate dinner after practice--seeing them at home on vacation. That type of thing. None of this really came through.
Rating: 
Summary: Redundant and commercial
Review: Having read all of Feinstein's previous books (and most of his articles) I was an eager purchaser of this book. I was living in Germany at the time and my NCAA tournament addiction was suffering greatly, so I was hoping for another ACC or Bobby Knight sort of book. Needless to say, I was disappointed. John tries to create an image about this league that simply isn't there. Is it nice that the league has certain rules that create a more academic regimen? Sure. . .but only if they enforce it on ALL the teams in the conference. Is it good that there is a 100% graduation rate for most of the schools? Sure. . .but only because most of them will never play in the NBA. Heck, the one kid in the book that was a legitimate NBA prospect left after his sophomore season. Is it a nice story to see the small schools play the Dukes and UNC's of the world? Sure. . .but the truth is that the small schools want the money and the big schools want the 'W'. Let's not kid ourselves. College hoops is a business. I would love to see truly amateur athletics come to the fore again, but it won't happen. There is too much money to be made and Mr. Feistein knows it. Amateur athletics sells. . .why do you think he wrote the book?
Rating:
Summary: Hoops Heaven
Review: John Feinstein is an american treasure. He is the sort of writer that you could sit down with at the bar and talk sports and life. Once again he manages to take the reader inside the world of the athlete in a way no one else can. Once you read this book you will care about the Patriot League and find yourself following their ups and downs next season. If you're tired of overpriced ,coddled, spoiled athletes READ THIS BOOK!!!
Rating:
Summary: The Last Book I'll Ever Read by Feinstein
Review: Review of The Last Amateurs.
This was not the kind of gripping narrative Feinstein had once written like "Season on the Brink" and "A Good Walk Spoiled" He was trying too hard to write another novel as good as those were. The Last Amateurs, or should I call it a notebook of facts, was utterly, "a mess" as another reviewer stated. It was as if Feinstein just read the sports section each day and wrote down the summaries of each game.
In addition, there is a lot of bias in the book created by Feinstein and his opinions. Everybody has bias views on things. What bothers me, though, is that I don't think Feinstein does anything to hide his bias. It is most obvious towards the books ending when he proclaims, "The Patriot League schools all do things the right way in a college basketball world gone very wrong." Readers should be able to decide how they feel about the Patriot League and college basketball without Feinstein shoving his opinions down their throats. Instead of writing about the Patriot League he wrote about his feelings and then intermingled them with facts. Sure, it's a very interesting story about the guys who play for the love of the game. But, there was no focus, the story wasn't really there because you can't talk about the entire league and still expect to have a plot. Feinstein really shows this lack of plot/ story when he talks about the players and coaches. There are some great little stories he tells, but he doesn't expand on them.
For example, the interesting stories among the league's personalities end before they even start, which is truly a shame. Feinstein never seems to say more than something like this, "Stefan Ciosici was a top player trying to regain form after devastating injury, Chris Spitler was an over-achiever who than wins over the coach to become a team leader, and Ralph Willard was a coach trying to rebuild his career by getting his team a bid in the NCAA Championship." It would have been a much better book if he had stuck with one team all season talking about the trials and tribulations of being a Division 1 team in the Patriot League and how important getting their bid to the NCAA was. A lot of things could have been changed, but instead, Feinstein just moves all around the league without any flow and seems to forget that we are trying to read a story not listen to a lecture.
What is the Patriot League? I still ask myself because it seems like this book went on forever. I don't remember what happened in the first 15 chapters and I don't really care because they were just like the last chapters. As I read the last chapters of, "The Last Amateurs" I didn't sense that the book Feinstein wrote, did what it set out to do. I thought it was supposed to tell a unique story about unique people in a league like non other in college athletics and realize that they were truly rare and important. However, after hearing about all their problems, how bad they were, and how so few people even watched them, it only really made me care less about them.
I give this book: 2 STARS
Nick V.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Read
Review: I just finished this book about two days ago. It's refreshing to read about college athletics given the current atmosphere of laughable "student athletes" and early departures to the NBA by 19 year olds.
I was particularly glad given the 2002 NCAA Tourney and Holy Cross' great game against Kansas in the first round. That scenario is nearly identical to the beginning chapter of the book when Feinstein makes his decision to write on the Patriot League after watching a first round game between Kansas and Colgate.
I will be sure to watch the league championship game on ESPN this year!
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