Birds, Dogs and Kangaroos: Life on the Back Roads of College Basketball [Perfect Paperback]

Rich Zvosec (Author), Greg Echlin (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 15, 2008

When the 65-team field is announced for the NCAA tournament in March, all the schools are lumped into one bracket. But, with the fact that no number-16 seed has ever beaten a number-1 seed serving as evidence, there is a group of schools in the bracket that are worlds apart from the BCS schools. Some of the schools, labeled the mid-majors make it into the Sweet 16, practically their version of making it to The Final Four. Rarely these days does a team go so far as George Mason University from the Colonial Athletic Conference did in 2006 when the Patriots played their way into The Final Four. Or Davidson, a little liberal arts school from Charlotte, taking Kansas all the way to the final seconds in the 2008 Midwest Regional final. The mid-majors have a better shot at knocking off the big boys. The low majors the schools from The Summit Conference, the Ivy League et al most often have no shot. Yet coaches from the low majors stake their careers and reputations at getting into the NCAA tournament field. Rich Zvosec was one of those coaches. Zvosec takes you into the world of low majors that s never been revealed before in detail. It s a world that involves less coaching. More on the time demands centered around fund-raising, commuting and handling off-the-court affairs. It wasn t unusual for Zvosec or any other coach on the low major level to be doing the team laundry, searching for housing on behalf of his players or finding themselves as make-shift mechanics when the commuter vehicles broke down. Such as filling a hole in the roof a van with a female hygiene product. Zvosec takes you into the world of coaching that makes you ask, Why do you do it? And most often the answer is, Because they love it.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

These days Rich Zvosec (pronounced zuh-VOH-sick) enjoys a successful career as a television basketball commentator, a speaker and an actor. But the foundation for this stage of his life was built from a successful college basketball coaching career. When Zvosec was hired at St. Francis College in New York, he was the youngest NCAA Division I head coach in the country at the time at age 27. After his third season as coach of the Terriers (the dogs), named the Northeast Conference Coach of the Year, Zvosec was hired to build the University of North Florida Division I program from scratch. In the fourth year of the Osprey (the birds) program, UNF reached the Sunshine State Conference championship game. His success at St. Francis and UNF didn t go unnoticed when he was hired at UMKC. So when the Kangaroos head coach departed for a job in the NBA, the Kangaroos administration didn t hesitate in turning the program over to Coach Z. The UMKC Kangaroos (commonly known as the Roos) never more enjoyed more success in Division I basketball than during its six seasons under Coach Z. In 2005, he was named Mid-Continent Conference, the College Insider and CBS Sportsline Coach of the Year. From his roots in the state of Ohio, Coach Z learned how to successfully navigate the back roads. He was never one to shy away from hard work, which has carried on to this day in his current endeavors.

Product Details

• Perfect Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Ascend Media; 1st Edition edition (October 15, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0981716644
• ISBN-13: 978-0981716640
• Product Dimensions: 8.8 x 6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #640,994 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #44 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Basketball > College & University
  • #90 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Basketball > Coaching

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Coach Z is on the money!, May 19, 2011

By 

CoachingisInMyBlood - See all my reviews

This review is from: Birds, Dogs and Kangaroos: Life on the Back Roads of College Basketball (Paperback)

I love this book for it is written from a coach's perspective and that perspective is from working at a lower NCAA Division 1 experience where these jobs are very difficult in terms of funding, getting recruits, and just the daily battle of surviving and keeping one's job in the midst of aspiring AD's that no zero about running athletic programs. Besides turning out a great book Coach Z is a fantastic motivational speaker and TV color analyst for ESPN to boot!

5.0 out of 5 stars Happy Birthday ... You're Fired!, June 28, 2010

By 

Ed Swartley "Ed" (Aurora, Colorado) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Birds, Dogs and Kangaroos: Life on the Back Roads of College Basketball (Perfect Paperback)

Who hasn't been called into the boss's office to hear the most-times devastating and often surprising news that the boss is about to become your ex-boss?

Rich Zvosec, now an ESPN commentator and motivational speaker, was shocked and devastated upon receiving exactly that news on the morning of his 46th birthday. Fired. No longer the head coach of the University of Missouri-Kansas City Kangaroos -- one of the lesser-known Division I NCAA basketball programs. No longer mentor, disciplinarian and friend to an ever-rotating cast of characters arriving on campus each year at a particularly impressionable time of life.

UMKC's loss. Our gain. The compassionate portrait Zvosec paints of "life on the back roads of college basketball" is a story for the Everyman in all of us: Those cut from the junior varsity, those who don't get to kiss the girl, don't make it to the intersection before the light turns red.

For some, NCAA basketball is "One Shining Moment." This book puts a leash on that image and helps us remember that sport -- any sport -- unfettered by the need to be "worthy" of prime time TV, is sport in its truest form. An honorable occupation where kids makes mistakes, learn, and move on.

This book will make your Sweet 16 of favorites.

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book, January 23, 2009

By 

David W. Fazekas "Dave Fazekas" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Birds, Dogs and Kangaroos: Life on the Back Roads of College Basketball (Perfect Paperback)

If you enjoy college basketball, you'll enjoy this book. Coach Zvosec shares the behind the scenes stories of players, administrators, etc. that don't end up on the nightly broadcasts. Truly a fun read.