Last Dance: Behind the Scenes at the Final Four [Paperback]

John Feinstein (Author), Mike Krzyzewski (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 2, 2007

Exploring what it means to a school, a coach, and a player to be in the Final Four or even at The Final, this work features stories of players and coaches who thought they'd never make it to college basketball's final weekend, the spectacular triumphs of the winning teams, and the heartbreaking defeat of those who missed the cut.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Feinstein is turning out the sports books faster than ever, as his whirlwind tour of the NCAA college basketball tournament follows quickly on the heels of his fall 2005 look at pro football, Next Man Up. Maybe that explains the somewhat rushed feel, as Feinstein skips briskly from one anecdote to the next. In his effort to depict the annual climax of "March Madness" from as many perspectives as possible, Feinstein collects stories from coaches, players, referees, sportscasters and others, more often than not finding the positive angle. Even Terry Howard's missed free throw during a 1975 semifinal game is turned into a reflection on what an honor it is just to be able to play in the Final Four. The closest Feinstein comes to controversy is when he criticizes the NCAA's recent decision to add a 65th team to the tournament. The account of last year's battle between Illinois and North Carolina for the championship is largely perfunctory; Feinstein is clearly much more interested in revisiting the past with coaching legends like Dean Smith and Mike Krzyzewski (who also supplies a brief foreword). Then again, in all likelihood, so are most readers. 8 pages of photos. (Feb. 7)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* For sports-challenged individuals, the Final Four is the culmination of the NCAA men's college basketball season and the number-two American sports event, trailing only the Super Bowl. The four best teams from an initial field of 64 meet on semifinal Saturday to decide the participants in Monday's championship final. Feinstein, arguably the best book-length sports journalist working today, employs the 2005 weekend as the catalyst to discuss the history of the event, the key people, and, most significantly, the effect that involvement in the Final Four has had on participants' lives. The book is centered almost exclusively on the Atlantic Coast Conference and Big East Conference. Feinstein's jingoism translates to lots of Duke, North Carolina, Maryland, and Syracuse, with scant attention to the rest of the country with the exception of UCLA and coach John Wooden. That caveat aside, this is a terrific book. Feinstein goes behind the scenes to examine such matters as the often-controversial selection marathon, and the sometimes-petty rivalries between coaches. The anecdotes are entertaining, and the insights into the tournament's logistics fascinating, but what will linger most are the remembrances of players, especially those who ended up on the losing side. The best books take us to places we've never been and let us feel what life there is like. Welcome to the Final Four, courtesy of John Feinstein. Wes Lukowsky
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Back Bay Books (February 2, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316014257
• ISBN-13: 978-0316014250
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 1.2 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #997,491 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

John Feinstein spent years on the staff at the Washington Post, as well as writing for Sports Illustrated and the National Sports Daily. He is a commentator on NPRs "Morning Edition," a regular on ESPNs "The Sports Reporters" and a visiting professor of journalism at Duke University.His first book, A Season on the Brink, is the bestselling sports book of all time. His first book for younger readers, Last Shot, was a bestseller.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable, but repetitive, February 2, 2006

By 

Mark McCann - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Last Dance: Behind the Scenes at the Final Four (Hardcover)

Any fan of college basketball will enjoy this book from John Feinstein. It is a remarkably quick read filled with interesting anecdotes and stories from previous Final Fours and different perspectives from the 2005 Final Four in St. Louis.

However, I felt there were two fairly significant flaws in the book. First, the book is remarkably repetitive. Within the first 15 pages of the book I learned that the Duke class of '86 was Coach K's first "great" recruiting class, that they had a great team in '85-'86 and were stunned, disappointed and impacted by losing in the Final game to Louisville. Great. But I did not need to hear versions of literally the same sentences 3 or 4 more times in the book. Likewise, outside of Harry Potter, I never thought I would see the phrase "Lord Voltemort" 3 or 4 times in a sports book. These were not the only examples.

It seemed that this was a very good 220 page book extended into 330 pages. The book felt like it was made of discrete chapters, but not to be read together due to the repetition. I am no literary critic, but I am curious about the editorial decision to compose the book in a way that so frequently repeats the same stories.

The second, and perhaps more disappointing critique, is that it is not as interesting as I had hoped. Missing from this book, that likely will be read by fairly serious college basketball fans, is any sense of basketball strategy that the Final Four coaches employed during the 2005 games. I presume Feinstein did not have access during the tournament or after to the coaches that could have added detail to the game flow and strategy. With a greater level of "technical detail" the book would have been more interesting to me.

In the same vein, there are a number of anecdotes about various major coaches...all of whom are generally viewed in a positive light. I am sure they are decent, good people and tremendous basketball coaches, but there is not much that grabs you. There were multiple references (again) to Rollie Massimino and his falling out at Villanova, but no flesh on the bones. The NCAA and to a lesser extent the media (sports talk radio) come off as bad guys, but the coaches are treated gently. Feinstein seems to capture all the right folks and hear their anecdotes, but is not as incisive as hoped.

The best part of the book, in my opinion, is where we see strong research and opinion from the author. The chapter on the referees is enlightening and humorous. The chapter on the selection committee is even better. While respectful of their efforts and challenge, Feinstein posits and defends opinions in a manner that is engaging and interesting.

All in all the book is enjoyable; a quick read and worthy of getting fans ready for Selection Sunday. However, I felt the book was unnecessarily repetitive, lacked a component of 2005 Final Four "game strategy" and was overly deferential to the coaching "storytellers".

16 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Very disappointing, February 4, 2006

By 

Arthur Valentine - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Last Dance: Behind the Scenes at the Final Four (Hardcover)

Feinstein's books are getting lazier and lazier. As he has gotten older, his access to the a-players is better and better; his diligence worse. This one has a few good anecdotes, but those are outweighed by the lack of flow and repetition throughout.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not Much New Here...., February 24, 2006

By 

Dale Linkberry (Glendale, AZ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Last Dance: Behind the Scenes at the Final Four (Hardcover)

Wow- this was an easy one for Feinstein!! A rehash of a couple of his earlier books and a couple new stories he picked up while at the Final Four. This book is not bad- it just reads like a look at the Final Four only from the eyes of Duke and Carolina- and honestly much of the info has been covered by Feinstein before- He really mailed it in on this one- I mean you need to dig a little deeper in your source book than Coach K and Dean Smith for comments on everything in college hoops. I like Feinstein's book but have found them getting worse and worse through the years.