Customer Reviews

Last Dance: Behind the Scenes at the Final Four

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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".

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.

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.

I love college basketball. John Feinstein's book provided some interesting and fun insights into the workings of the NCAA Tourney. Unfortunately, his editor did nothing but "word-smith" this book from notes. How else can you explain telling stories that were in the book 3 chapters ago magically reappearing! I liked the information, but the book was SOOO repetitive it killed me. Did I mention it was repetitive?

I've only read the first 70 pages or so, but agree with others that this is repetitious. You better love the ACC, because it's mostly about those teams. And UCLA.

And the errors. Clearly the author was trying to churn out two books at once (the other being on the NFL Ravens), and it shows.

1) Coach Krybaby is "his" introduction says Scott May broke his leg at Indiana, and that cost them the national championship in 1975. And K was an assistant to Bobby Knight. Well, actually May broke his arm against Purdue in February 1975. Arm, leg, what's the difference, right????

2) Author says Michigan State beat Penn by 32 in the 1979 semis. Actually it was 34 points (101-67). And Penn had beaten UNC earlier. And UNC had beaten MSU by 1 early in the regular season when Magic Johnson (as Dean Smith points out in the book) had eight turnovers. That's all well and good, but the latter game also was infamous for when one of the Tar Heel radio guys said, "Magic Johnson is no Phil Ford." And MSU fans couldn't agree more. Ain't THAT the truth!!!

All in all, this book is highly disappointing. A slap-dash effort at best.

Very superficial look at the basketball scene, I suspect much of the material was taken from his earlier books and didn't make it into them so he put the remainders in this book. Stories somewhat entertaining,alot of them ring of truth from my experience coaching BB in HS but would like to see some new material for serious fans.

The portions of this book about how the "selection committee" works and about refereeing in the Final Four are interesting, full of information I have not read before. I agree with Feinstein's comments about the favoritism of the "power schools and conferences" over the smaller, lesser-known schools--excuse me, "institutions," in the words of the NCAA. The chapter about the interminable waiting on Sunday and Monday before the championship game is played will have me looking at that day differently this year--though since we're talking about "student-athletes" who are missing loads of school, I wonder if any of them do any studying for their missed classes. . . Yeah, right.

However, the book needed more editing. Mike Krzyzewski's foreword doesn't say anything that isn't said later in the book, offering little insight worth the time to read it. Nothing is said about the academic challenges facing the players who are on the road for days at a time. I, for one, would be interested in seeing something about that. Also, more from the coaches on strategy during the games could have offered insight.

That said, it's full of entertaining stories from the years of the tournament and worth a quick read.

Make no mistake: this is not John Feinstein's best work. Other reviewers have correctly pointed out it is repetitive, a bit too long, and he has a tendency to name drop to the point of kissing arse.

That said, it is a quick read that gives the college basketball fan some interesting stories about this wonderful sport. He gives a good history of the Kansas-Duke-Carolina connections that inform much of the sport. He has some interesting observations on Bobby Knight. And he has some interesting ancedotes (e.g. George Raveling has the original 'I Have A Dream' speech notes because he served as a bodyguard for Dr. King during the speech).

This is a book you can read in a few sittings. If you like college basketball - and need a fix for it during the offseason - it is worth picking up.

I have heard John Feinstein comment on NPR quite a bit but had never read one of his books. I am a Carolina grad and I finished reading the book on the weekend of the ACC Tournament. I enjoyed the book and it will enhance my enjoyment of the Tournament coming up. I especially enjoyed some of the stories about lesser known people like Tom Brennan and Hank Nichols. I did wish that he could have managed to include a chapter on "boosters" - the fans that follow the teams everywhere. The only sense that I got of the "fans" perspective was that there were a lot of Illini boosters in St. Louis and that the Maryland fans stuck around until Monday to give Duke a hard time in 2001. I think that would have added something to the book. I also wish that he could have managed to talk to Bruce Weber of Illinois or some of the Illinois players a bit more. Also, the book did repeat some stories. I had mixed feelings about that. Sometimes it didn't hurt the flow but it definitely would have benefitted from a little more editorial oversight.

Like baseball fans who spend the winter chanting their mantra --- "pitchers and catchers" --- in anticipation of the first day of spring training, college basketball enthusiasts count down the days until March Madness, the tournament to crown the NCAA basketball champions.

The sporting event has become one of the biggest in the country, aided by increased media attention that now includes coverage of all the games, not just those among the teams fighting to be involved in the final face-off.

John Feinstein captures all the tumult in his typically illuminating fashion in LAST DANCE: Behind the Scenes at the Final Four. As in his other books, which encompass baseball, football, basketball, golf and tennis, he focuses on the buildup of the excitement leading up to the championship game rather than dwell on the athletic accomplishments of individual participants.

Feinstein has the ability to entice even those who don't consider themselves sports fans. He makes his subjects human, making them accessible to the level of the average person, while at the same time telling us what makes them remarkable. For example, this anecdote about legendary UCLA coach John Wooden:

"The lobby was still crowded and, as often happens when Wooden crosses a room or a lobby, people stopped what they were doing to watch the great man. At that moment, what they saw was heartbreaking: Wooden pushing his wife's wheelchair, everyone knowing that her time was short.

"To this day, no one is certain how it began, but someone started to clap. Then others did the same thing. By the time the Woodens had reached the elevators, everyone in the lobby was turned in their direction, clapping. It was one of those unrehearsed moments that become remarkable ones."

LAST DANCE is full of such moments, whether it's about coaches and the difficulties of building a winning program or athletes overcoming a range of problems from poverty to violence to academic disadvantages.

College basketball has changed over the years. There was more of a sense of camaraderie in the early days of the tournament. Players and coaches used to mill around the hotel lobby, swapping stories and talking strategy. Now, with hundreds of reporters and broadcasters constantly swimming the waters in search of stories, such innocence is long gone.

Like all high-profile events, the NCAA championships would not be possible without all those spear carriers in the background. Another characteristic of Feinstein's work is to give such supporting casts their due. Referees, college sports information directors (SIDs), boosters, selection committee members ("The committee chairman...is frequently referred to by those interviewing him as "Mr. Chairman," as if he were a member of Congress, not simply someone leading a group charged with picking teams for a basketball tournament."), even the ticket scalpers --- their behind-the-scenes work factors into the success or failure of the colleges' seasons, or the fans' ability to enjoy the spectacle.

Feinstein is most candid when he writes about the desirability (or lack thereof) of the selection of certain schools in the tournament, at least from the point of view of the television decision-makers. While most fans love a Cinderella story, TV is more interested in ratings that high-profile or large-market teams like Duke, North Carolina, Indiana, Syracuse, and Georgetown might bring than some tiny school in Iowa that got lucky.

Fans of college hoops, whether rabid or peripheral, will find LAST DANCE educational, entertaining, and a good way to keep in touch while waiting for the games to begin.

--- Reviewed by Ron Kaplan