BraveHearts: The Against-All-Odds Rise of Gonzaga Basketball [Hardcover]

Bud Withers (Author), John Stockton (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 1, 2002

Tucked away in the corner of country, Gonzaga University, a small Jesuit college in Spokane, Washington, was maybe best known as the alma mater of Bing Crosby. In other words, it really wasn’t known at all.

That all changed in 1998. That year, Gonzaga’s men’s Division 1 basketball team won their first game in the NCAA tournament. Then they won their next game. And their next one. Suddenly, the funny sounding school with little basketball heritage and a fraction of the resources of most big time college basketball programs, was one game away from the Final Four. It stunned the college basketball world and made the once unpronounceable Gonzaga a household name.

Most remarkable of all, however, is that Gonzaga has continued to stun the college basketball world, making deep runs into the NCAA tournament almost every year since then—and without compromising on the small-school values that still separate it from the basketball factories in terrorizes each March.

Little Big Man is the inspirational and touching story of Gonzaga’s rise from college basketball obscurity to near mythic status as everyone’s favorite underdog. Acclaimed college basketball writer Bud Withers has covered the Zags since it all begin. In dramatic, and at times poignant, fashion he reanimates the events of the last few years, adding flesh to the personalities and summoning the details, great and small, that make up this unforgettable story. Readers will meet players such as big time high school recruit Blake Stepp, who chose Gonzaga because of what it wasn’t, a big time school. They’ll meet Dan Dickau, who transferred from the big state school to become an All American and cover boy at Gonzaga. They’ll meet former coach Dan Monson, who instilled a fearless attitude among the players, and Mark Few, the current coach who parlayed that into even greater success. Finally, they’ll meet Father Tony Lehmann, the longtime chaplain who died in March of 2002. The inspirational leader of the basketball team, Lehmann touched the lives of untold numbers of Gonzaga players, past and present, and his life and influence courses through the story.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Bud Withers is the college basketball writer for the Seattle Times. He’s covered college basketball for 31 years and was president of the US Basketball Writers Association for two years (where he succeeded John Feinstein). He’s won numerous writing awards from several different organizations, including the USBWA, Associated Press Sports Editors, and the Football Writers Association of America

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Triumph Books (September 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572434996
• ISBN-13: 978-1572434998
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,197,128 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #92 in Books > Sports & Outdoors > Basketball > College & University

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good school, great team, so-so book, December 27, 2002

By 

Andrew E. Erickson "Andy E" (Seattle, WA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: BraveHearts: The Against-All-Odds Rise of Gonzaga Basketball (Hardcover)

This was a light, fast, enjoyable read, but in the end, my pleasure stemmed from the subject moreso than the author's skill. Having read many of John Feinstein's works, I was expecting an "inside" look at the Gonzaga program: the story of a season through the eyes and words of players and coaches. Instead, Mr. Withers cobbles together a series of brief histories: of the school, of the coaching staff, of the team, of the WCC, etc. Although there are interviews with coaches, players and recruits, it seemed as though Withers spent most of his time compiling and recounting articles from newspaper achieves and school promotional literature.

If you like college hoops, and have enjoyed Gonzaga's seeminingly improbable success in recent NCAA tournaments, then you'll enjoy this book. If, however, you want to know what it's like to be a student-athlete or coach campaigning towards the "big dance" next March, this book doesn't deliver.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Intersting look into successful program, but should've been better, July 12, 2008

By 

Timothy R. Sullivan - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: BraveHearts: The Against-All-Odds Rise of Gonzaga Basketball (Hardcover)

I'm a few years late into getting this book, just having bought it at a used bookstore and finishing it in a weekend. Yes, a quick, light read and a good look into one of college basketball's more intersting programs of the last decade.

Withers, one of the Pacific Northwest's more respected sportswriters, does a solid job of telling how Gonzaga came to be. His background work is nice, especially the historical aspects of the university and program. His insight into the coaches -- former and current -- is excellent. And his take on the differing philosophies between the old coach (Fitzgerald) and the new (Monson and Few) is very astute.

I'm guessing that since it's not a season diary book -- which I'm thankful for -- that Withers wrote and researched much of this book from his Seattle home. Unfortunately, in spots, it shows, and it appears things were thrown together.

What was a five-star book tails off horribly into a three-star edition the longer it goes on.

Withers painstakingly details the politics of a conference post-season tournament late in the book. Gonzaga -- despite it's incredible success in the WCC tourney -- is quite known in the Northwest for whining about their inability to host this event. They've duped the Spokane media into joining this whine-fest, and sadly, Withers' b.s. detector doesn't go up and he joins in the complaining. But not until we've read pages of boring statistics about this tournament. The reader should've been spared this tripe.

Withers is at his best when he's talking about people, not numbers and basketball politics. One feels they really do know Fitzgerald, Monson, Few, and the players, once completed the book.

But I'm just not sure why the author cashed it in at the end. The book's so-called climax -- an NCAA game vs. Wyoming -- is recapped in a short paragraph. Withers, instead, hands the readers a half-page on a stupid mascot and some obscure administrator who takes care of him. The author misses the big choke against Wyoming -- choosing again to join in the Zags' crying over their so-called poor seeding -- and missing the backstory, that being Wyoming's best player, Josh Davis, a Gonzaga recruit, who may have been dropped by GU, seeking revenge and getting it. Unfortunately, Withers misses this and it's obvious he never attended the game. Where's the editor on this? Was there an editor?

The forwards and afterwords by famous hoop names is a bit much. One is fine. Jud Heathcoate's take at the end is just bad rah-rah writing.

This book is in need of a re-write. Let's say Withers takes out the material on the WCC tourney, drops the mascot fluff, goes into detail about the Wyoming game, and then updates it with the Adam Morrison era till today, and you'd have one darn good take on the Zags.

Instead, we're left with a middling book that could've and should've been better.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Zag Fans in the Boonies, January 6, 2003

By 

W. J. Rieger (Reno, NV USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: BraveHearts: The Against-All-Odds Rise of Gonzaga Basketball (Hardcover)

Zag Fans who live in the boondocks like I do (Reno, NV) have had to rely on the internet and the GU athletic department web-site for information on the Bulldogs' recent success. BraveHearts provides a succinct recap of the GU basketball program's up and downs over a longer period of time. I attended GU from Fall '75 to Spring '79 so much of what B. Withers covers in this enjoyable book was news to me. The chapter on ex-coach and athletic director Dan Fitzgerald was good reporting and while Withers may not be John Feinstein, he has certainly put in the time and research needed to portray the Bulldog basketball program in a complete fashion-- warts and all.

If you're a Gonzaga alumni or related to one, this would make a nice gift.