Barney Polan's Game: A Novel of the 1951 College Basketball Scandals

Rating:
Summary: Great material flawed by credibililty questions
Review: A subject of eternal fascination especially for basketball "nuts" who grew up in New York. We idolized the terribly tarnished CCNY "Wonder Five" who set an unbreakable record by winning both the NIT and NCAA titles in 1950 (it can never be repeated because of the way the tournaments are now scheduled). This book is a fictional addendum to Rosen's non-fiction treatment of the original basketball "scandals", as he outlines in his NPR interview. Unfortunately there are glaring albeit minor errors -- Broadway and 43rd Street cannot be on the east side of Manhattan; Madison Square Garden has been on 23rd Street, and is now above Penn Station; in between it occupied the block bounded by 49th and 50th Streets and Eighth and Ninth Avenues. These errors are particularly galling in a book by a New Yorker who played at Hunter College, and they undermine the author's credibility and care in writing. Since this is a fictionalized account of a real occurrence, the game of who is this really is inescapable. Hence it is most unfortunate that Rosen in his interview avers that some players who were not prosecuted went on to pro careers, and "a couple are in the Hall of Fame." This tarnishes by inclusiveness such stalwarts as Bob Cousy (Holy Cross, '49), Dick McGuire (St. Johns, '48), Bobby Wanzer (Seton Hall, '46), and Frank McGuire, the legendary coach at St. John's, North Carolina and South Carolina.

Rating:
Summary: Great material flawed by credibililty questions
Review: A subject of eternal fascination especially for basketball "nuts" who grew up in New York. We idolized the terribly tarnished CCNY "Wonder Five" who set an unbreakable record by winning both the NIT and NCAA titles in 1950 (it can never be repeated because of the way the tournaments are now scheduled). This book is a fictional addendum to Rosen's non-fiction treatment of the original basketball "scandals", as he outlines in his NPR interview. Unfortunately there are glaring albeit minor errors -- Broadway and 43rd Street cannot be on the east side of Manhattan; Madison Square Garden has been on 23rd Street, and is now above Penn Station; in between it occupied the block bounded by 49th and 50th Streets and Eighth and Ninth Avenues. These errors are particularly galling in a book by a New Yorker who played at Hunter College, and they undermine the author's credibility and care in writing. Since this is a fictionalized account of a real occurrence, the game of who is this really is inescapable. Hence it is most unfortunate that Rosen in his interview avers that some players who were not prosecuted went on to pro careers, and "a couple are in the Hall of Fame." This tarnishes by inclusiveness such stalwarts as Bob Cousy (Holy Cross, '49), Dick McGuire (St. Johns, '48), Bobby Wanzer (Seton Hall, '46), and Frank McGuire, the legendary coach at St. John's, North Carolina and South Carolina.

Rating:
Summary: College Student's Impression
Review: I was given this book to read for a literature class at the University of Kansas. (Basketball is literature out here where it was born). The book starts out slow, instead of a begining that has some kind of hook, it muddles around with Barney Polan talking about his gut (Yawn) and the ancient barnacles that once roamed the sport's world. If you like reading the sports section, you'll like this book. Once you get through the first quarter of the book, it picks up speed and complications. By the end I stayed up to finish because I had to know who got caught in the tightening net,and I couldn't concentrate on my homework. The book has a really unique style; it is all first person, but it switches from person to person, so you get inside everyone's mind, sometimes even as they're having a conversation and you get to see their rationalizations, arrogance, fears, and thoughts on how to play basketball. It's also fascinating to see how they all try to outsmart each other, even when they're being outsmarted. Hoop it up Charley!!

Rating:
Summary: College Student's Impression
Review: I was given this book to read for a literature class at the University of Kansas. (Basketball is literature out here where it was born). The book starts out slow, instead of a begining that has some kind of hook, it muddles around with Barney Polan talking about his gut (Yawn) and the ancient barnacles that once roamed the sport's world. If you like reading the sports section, you'll like this book. Once you get through the first quarter of the book, it picks up speed and complications. By the end I stayed up to finish because I had to know who got caught in the tightening net,and I couldn't concentrate on my homework. The book has a really unique style; it is all first person, but it switches from person to person, so you get inside everyone's mind, sometimes even as they're having a conversation and you get to see their rationalizations, arrogance, fears, and thoughts on how to play basketball. It's also fascinating to see how they all try to outsmart each other, even when they're being outsmarted. Hoop it up Charley!!

Rating:
Summary: good book
Review: Rosen's very good--and this is a fine and readable book of the early 50's scandals...it's nowhere near, however, the book that Rob Roberge's "Drive" is--by far the best basketball book of recent years. But this was agood read.

Rating:
Summary: good book
Review: Rosen's very good--and this is a fine and readable book of the early 50's scandals...it's nowhere near, however, the book that Rob Roberge's "Drive" is--by far the best basketball book of recent years. But this was agood read.