Customer Reviews

BraveHearts: The Against-All-Odds Rise of Gonzaga Basketball

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

seriously, probably one of the worst books i have ever read. in fact, i used it to wipe... i live in a shack, so i also used chapters 4, 5, and 6 as blankets.