The Back Roads to March

Starred review from January 27, 2020
In this fascinating history, sportswriter Feinstein (A Season on the Brink) takes a look at lesser-known college basketball teams. In order to explore the “real joys of college basketball,” Feinstein eschews the big money and future NBA stars of celebrated universities to focus on the sheer love of the game that characterizes smaller schools, covering the 2018 basketball season from November to the March playoffs. He describes his travels in vivid detail, showing readers the smaller arenas and atmospheres where the schools play, as in his description of University of Maryland–Baltimore County’s 90–85, double-overtime victory over Hartford in the America East tournament, a game “Very few people around the country would even notice” but that “for those who were there, it was a night to be remembered and savored for a long, long time.” Most memorable, though, is Feinstein’s eye and ear for the little-known coaches who aren’t fending off NBA offers, such as Rick Byrd, who had coached at Tennessee’s Belmont University for 33 years, but of whom Feinstein recalls, “I wanted to talk basketball, he wanted to talk golf.” It’s all net for Feinstein’s passionate basketball history.

February 1, 2020
A rousing account of the 2018-2019 college basketball season, a time of surprises and rising stars. Longtime Washington Post sportswriter Feinstein, author of such sports classics as A Season on the Brink and A Good Walk Spoiled, comes by his indefatigable love of basketball honestly: In the late 1960s, his father took him to NIT championship games at Madison Square Garden, seated a few yards from the boards. "There were no Spike Lee seats in those days," he writes, gamely, "so this was about as good as it got." The author is a sympathetic observer, fan, reporter, and scholar all at once, and he delivers reams of information about how the game has evolved in the decades since his childhood. Today, he notes, there are more than 350 teams in Division 1 college basketball, with the first game of the season involving more action than any one person could ever hope to comprehend, all on the path to "March madness." The best parts of this book focus on the people who are involved in shaping the young players, such as the fellow who "gave up an $800,000-a-year job as a lawyer and CEO to become an assistant basketball coach for $32,000 a year--and couldn't be happier." Among Feinstein's other subjects--notwithstanding such giants as Mike Krzyzewski, Tom Izzo, and Jim Calhoun--are coaches from historically black institutions, schools that are well represented throughout the season at every level of play; an episode involving a game between Howard and Harvard reveals coaching worthy of a championship NBA team. The narrative closes steadily in on victory by a school that had never enjoyed a national championship (Virginia) and the defeat of Feinstein's alma mater: "I watched the Duke kids--and they were kids--heads down, tears of shock in their eyes, after the final buzzer on the last day of March and felt badly for them. But, being honest, not that badly." Feinstein writes with warmth and enthusiasm of a beloved sport in a book that will grab any fan.

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Starred review from February 15, 2020
One of the premier events in American sports is the NCAA basketball tournament, which culminates every March with the media event known as the Final Four. But there is much more to college basketball than the premier teams, and Feinstein presents the universe of smaller schools with players who have no illusions of a professional career, coached by men who love the game. This is a book about the players and coaches from those teams, some of whom occasionally, against all odds, make the Final Four. That happened in 2018 when Loyola of Chicago, a small Catholic school cheered on by its unofficial spokesperson, a 98-year-old nun, made a magical run to the Final Four. Feinstein follows Loyola's remarkable year, along with the triumphs of other small schools, but he also shows what happens the next season. Fans expect more magic, but when it's supplanted by mediocrity, the pressure on players and coaches can be crushing. Feinstein interviews many who have been through similar situations. Given the perspective provided by the passage of time, the participants still remember the magic. Feinstein cites a small plaque at the Palestra, the legendary Philadelphia arena, that states: "To win the game is great. To play the game is greater. But to love the game is the greatest of all." Perfect. A wonderful book by a wonderful sports journalist.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

February 28, 2020

To discover the intimacy of an earlier period of college basketball before money and television became involved, best-selling author Feinstein (A Season on the Brink) examines the 2018-19 season from the perspective of coaches at smaller, mid-major schools that rarely send players to the NBA. Feinstein includes stories about the unseen parts of college basketball: watching the Philadelphia Big 5 face off against one another, profiling a second-year law student as they compete for the College William & Mary, and discussing former UConn head coach Jim Calhoun's move to a smaller school. Also highlighted is the unexpected success of the University of Maryland, Baltimore County's team. Feinstein shows how coaches recruit overlooked high school players, while worrying they may transfer to bigger programs later on. He effectively explains how smaller teams are often left out of the NCAA and NIT tournaments because of two factors: power and money. VERDICT Feinstein's geographic scope may be limited to schools in the mid-Atlantic and New England regions, but this insider look into college basketball should nevertheless draw in fans seeking more about teams and coaches outside the power conferences.--Chris Wilkes, Tazewell Cty. P.L., VA

Copyright 2020 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

October 1, 2019

The No. 1 New York Times best-selling author of A Season on the Brink, Feinstein here revisits his beloved college basketball, focusing on the often unknown if still tough and gifted athletes of the Division-1 programs, which cannot claim the top high school athletes and won't likely be sending any stars to the NBA.

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.