A March to Madness: A View from the Floor in the Atlantic Coast Conference (Paperback)

~ John Feinstein (Author) "IN COLLEGE BASKETBALL, when you say the words "Monday Night," they mean only one thing: the national championship game..." (more)
Key Phrases: hot young coach, number one seed, regular season title, North Carolina, Wake Forest, Florida State (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In terms of work ethic, John Feinstein is the sports equivalent of Stephen King: he's tireless, prolific, and multifaceted. With a past-performance line that includes A Season on the Brink, A Good Walk Spoiled, and A Civil War, he's regularly in the running for his genre's MVP. A March to Madness, which chronicles the 1996-97 Atlantic Coast Conference's ineluctable journey to March Madness, continues his string. Exhaustively reported, and penned with as much poignancy as panache, it's the story of the most competitive college basketball conference in the U.S., filtered through the eyes--and complex lives--of its head coaches. Coaching young in-your-faces is never easy; it's even harder in a pressure cooker such as the ACC, where expectations are enormous, winning is essential, and an NCAA tournament bid is requisite for survival. Feinstein had remarkable access to his high-profile, high-strung subjects, such as Dean Smith, Bobby Cremins, and Mike Krzyzewski, and the drama he records is every bit as fast-paced and stunning as a close Duke-North Carolina game with the final seconds ticking off the clock. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal

The list of great sports books about anything but baseball is limited, but Feinstein (A Civil War, LJ 10/1/96) has increased it by one with this tour-de-force. Similar to his book about Indiana University Coach Bob Knight, A Season on the Brink (S. & S.,1988), Feinstein's latest covers one year with all of the teams in the perennially powerful Atlantic Coast Conference. After introducing each of the schools, their teams, their coaches, and their expectations for the 1996/97 basketball season, the book describes their progress week by week, culminating with Dean Smith's run to the NCAA Final Four. Such a detailed accounting of a sports season could seem interminable to readers, but Feinstein has again produced a narrative that is not only interesting but often exciting. He conveys the exhiliration of a road conference win and the gloom of a home loss. This book should appeal to all readers, not just to sports fans. Highly recommended for all libraries.?William O. Scheeren, Hempfield Area H.S. Lib., Greensburg, Pa.
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 512 pages
• Publisher: Back Bay Books (February 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0316277126
• ISBN-13: 978-0316277129
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #102,337 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Maybe the best sports book I've ever read, September 5, 2000

By	J. Hardy (Columbia, MD USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

...and certainly the best book on basketball I've read. Better for me than A Season On the Brink - better written, and the central characters are more sympathetic than Bobby Knight. But I'm a long-time ACC fan.

The book gives you great perspective on life as a basketball coach: how hard it is to climb the ladder, how uncertain the job is, how coaches' success depends on recruiting great players. The best parts of this book are the portraits of the coaches and how they got where they are today. Stories about Bob Kennedy and Gary Williams getting into a screaming match at the scorers table as assistant coaches; Jim Valvano and Rick Pitino at basketball camps in the off-season; and so on. Really compelling stories about the basketball life, including comments on the toll it takes on coaches' marriages.

The book has some drawbacks. For one, you almost need to be an ACC fan. I was already familiar with and interested in most of the characters in the book, but fans in other parts of the country may not be. Also, as time goes by and people move on out of the ACC, the book may become less and less relevent. All the players from that season are gone; many of the coaches too. I think only Herb Sendek, Dave Odom, Gary Williams, Mike Krz. are still coaching at those schools: gone are Rick Barnes, Pat Kennedy, Bobby Cremins, Jeff Jones, and of course El Deano. And the book really doesn't focus on the players at all: it's almost entirely about the coaches.

But some of the criticisms made by other reviewers don't seem valid to me: (1) Duke - I thought Feinstein bent over backwards NOT to show a Duke bias. But Duke finished first in the league that year, Duke has been one of the dominant programs in the game, plus Feinstein had some compelling stuff about Duke. Of course they took a prominent position in the book. (2) Dean - I thought Feinstein painted a great and fair portrait of Dean Smith. You get a real feel for the competitive old gentleman, who drinks scotch and beats the pants off you, but is the only ACC coach who doesn't swear ("My parents would never speak to me again."). Opinions of and reactions to Smith permeate the league (of course), so a lot of what other people say about Smith contains little jabs and digs. Feinstein reports on the long-running feuds between Smith and the other colorful coaches in the league, like Lefty Dreisell. But I think Feinstein's attitude is completely respectful. See the introduction, where a fan suggests the game may have passed Smith by, and Feinstein rattles off "Fourteen straight wins, another Final Four appearance..." etc. Feinstein doesn't get as CLOSE to Dean as he does to the other players, but that's not too surprising. (3) The "Les Robinson Game" - Feinstein reports that's what the league COACHES call it, not a nickname he made up. (4) Carolina-Duke - Well, this game is one of the centerpieces of the college basketball season, especially when it's played in Cameron. The league just announced its new TV schedule, and the headline was when the 2 Carolina-Duke games were and what national broadcasters are going to carry them. Of course Feinstein spends a chapter on it. No book on the ACC would be complete without... etc.

So some of the criticisms don't make sense to me. But we all seem to agree this is an excellent book. If you have ANY interest in college basketball, this is one bok you have to read.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars If you don't love ACC basketball now..., November 26, 1999

By	Karen Hoffman (Charlottesville, VA) - See all my reviews

you will after reading this book. I read the "Madness" in my first year of college at UVA- the year after it was published- and a love affair began. Whereas I used to not care less about basketball, this book signed over my life to the ACC. The soap opera-like stories, play-by-play excitement, and obvious love for the game captured me, and ever since I have been a virtual hermit during March. The biases are there, but that's part of the charm. In the ACC you love your team, but you love the game even more.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sweat Equity Pays Off, September 15, 2004

By	Bill Slocum (Norwalk, CT USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)    (VINE VOICE)

I'm not a college hoops fan, but having come from the University of Connecticut (back when winning the NIT was a big deal for us), I figured I should try to read something about the sport that has come to define my alma mater.

I chose well. No, UConn is not a part of the Atlantic Coast Conference, the subject of this season-long profile by John Feinstein. But Feinstein gives a solid appreciation for what college basketball is all about through the experiences of the coaches, players, refs, execs, and fans active in the ACC, which Feinstein claims is perhaps the most competitive b-ball conference in Division 1, year in and out. "Let down just the slightest bit and you become instant roadkill," he writes.

Feinstein gives you a sense of the different coaching styles at play here, from Dean Smith's traditional approach at North Carolina to Rick Barnes' cut-up quirkiness at Clemson to Dave Odom's huggy-bear avuncularity at Wake Forest. He relates tales about the history and folklore of the conference that make one feel like an instant Dick Vitale just from reading them, even if the terms "traveling" and "charging" make you flash on American Express. Most importantly, he writes a book that really opens up the world of college basketball to the more casual fan, or even curious non-fan.

That's what I liked the book. I read it, relished it, and enjoyed it with practically no knowledge of the sport going in. The way Feinstein writes about how different refs call different fouls, for example, was both illuminating and entertaining reading.

Feinstein also writes candidly about contracts, recruiting, marriages (failed and successful), burnout, death, and all the other factors that affect college coaches. Players are less the focus, and I get the feeling that Feinstein speaks from personal experience late in the book when he speculates about how an inability to relate to his young players may have moved Dean Smith to retire at 66. The absence of a players' perspective is unfortunate, but it kind of follows with the focus of the book being on the nine coaches, seven of whom gave Feinstein total access.

Feinstein obviously worked hard, and at times his narrative seems to be everywhere at once. Really great work on game descriptions, too, the way he uses them judiciously to punch up the storyline without letting them overtake the rest of the book.

Finally, this is a must-read for fans of Duke and their coach, Mike Krzyzewski. Krzyzewski comes off the best in this book, and while some charge Duke grad Feinstein with bias, the truth is Krzyzewski has the most to offer, both as a man and as a coach. The story of his "drawing the line" before a big game with North Carolina is worth the price of the book by itself. Between him and Dean Smith, I'm surprised Feinstein had time at all for poor Pat Kennedy of Florida State, but he works hard at balance.

What most comes across in this book is the amazing drive of the people involved. "If you're good enough to reach a goal, then there's still someplace else to go," says Maryland coach Gary Williams. "You don't just stop. You keep trying to be better."

There are minor holes in "A March To Madness," but what makes it great is the fact its author shares Williams' passion for excellence. There's no let up.