Read Your Way into March Madness

Photo courtesy of Eric Wong

My journey to becoming a college basketball fan started out while attending graduate school in Indiana. I was getting a degree in Student Personnel Administration, which would lead me to (what I thought would be) a life of working on college campuses. I was surrounded by die hard fans of Coach Bobby Knight, and basketball season was treated as a sacred time of year. (To get a glimpse of what I’m talking about, just watch Hoosiers.) A classmate insisted I read John Feinstein’s A Season on the Brink, so I could gain a better understanding of the local basketball mentality.

During my time in student affairs, I had the opportunity to work on college campuses where the month of March turned towns into a frenzy of excitement. My favorite day of the year was the first day of the NCAA tournament. The anticipation in the air was palpable. If the school’s team was successful during the tournament, streets would fill with students, faculty, and community members in one huge celebration. Yes, it’s “just a game,” but it can unite the masses in a heartbeat.

When my calling to librarianship led me back to graduate school -- this time for a graduate degree from the University of North Carolina. A friend gave me A March to Madness: A View from the Floor in the Atlantic Coast Conference, another Feinstein book, to read in preparation for my move. I was excited to be sharing a campus with Coach Dean Smith and immersed in a town with a rich history of college basketball - with its primary rival just 21 miles away.

While Feinstein has been a major part of my basketball journey, there are a large number of books available to supplement anyone’s interest in the history or evolution of the sport. A variety of topics include the growth of women’s college basketball, biographies, inspirational stories, the controversies associated with the game, and intricate analyses of a single season or game. Below is a sampling of titles available at the Mercer County Library System.

When March Went Mad: The Game That Transformed Basketball by Seth Davis
The dramatic story of how two legendary players burst on the scene in an NCAA championship that gave birth to modern basketball. Thirty years ago, college basketball was not the sport we know today. Few games were televised nationally and the NCAA tournament had just expanded from thirty-two to forty teams. Into this world came two exceptional players: Earvin "Magic" Johnson and Larry Bird. Though they played each other only once, in the 1979 NCAA finals, that meeting launched an epic rivalry which transformed the NCAA tournament into the multibillion-dollar event it is today, and laid the groundwork for the resurgence of the NBA.

Wooden: A Coach's Life by Seth Davis
A provocative assessment of legendary UCLA coach John Wooden, by the best-selling author of When March Went Mad, draws on hundreds of interviews from all periods of his career to offer insight into his driving ambition, divided relationships and hard-won lessons.

The Legends Club: Dean Smith, Mike Krzyzewski, Jim Valvano, and an Epic College Basketball Rivalry by John Feinstein
The Legends Club is a sports book that captures an era in American sport and culture, documenting the inside view of a decade of absolutely incredible competition. Feinstein pulls back the curtain on the recruiting wars, the intensely personal competition that wasn't always friendly, the enormous pressure and national stakes, and the battle for the very soul of college basketball allegiance in a hot-bed arena. Getting to the roots of the NCAA Goliath that is followed religiously by millions of fans today, Feinstein uses his unprecedented access to all three coaches to paint a portrait only he could conjure.

The Perfect Game: How Villanova's Shocking 1985 Upset of Mighty Georgetown Changed the Landscape of College Hoops Forever by Frank Fitzpatrick
A veteran Philadelphia Inquirer sportswriter and Pulitzer Prize finalist, Frank Fitzpatrick has long followed and covered Villanova basketball. In all that time, nothing compares with the Wildcats' legendary 1985 upset of Georgetown--a win so spectacular and unusually flawless that days after its conclusion, sports columnists were already calling it "The Perfect Game."

Shattering the Glass: The Remarkable History of Women's Basketball by Pamela Grundy
Over the past decade, women's basketball has exploded onto the national sports scene. WNBA and NCAA television ratings have skyrocketed; movies, magazines, and clothing lines showcase female players. But as the authors of Shattering the Glass show, women's basketball has a much longer history, reaching back over a century of struggle, liberation, and gutsy play. Shattering the Glass offers a sweeping chronicle of women's basketball in the United States, from its invention in the late nineteenth century to its dominant position in sports today. Offering vivid portraits of forgotten heroes and contemporary stars, it also provides a broader perspective on the history of the sport, exploring its relationship to changing ideas of womanhood, efforts to expand women's economic and political rights, and definitions of sexual equality.

Madness: The Ten Most Memorable NCAA Basketball Finals by Mark Mehler and Charles Paikert
The annual NCAA Basketball Tournament, which has become known as "March Madness," has emerged as a major sports event, matched only by the Super Bowl and the Olympics. In Madness, Mark Mehler and Charles Paikert tell the stories behind the ten most compelling and memorable championship games in tournament history, from North Carolina's triple-overtime victory over Wilt Chamberlain's Kansas Wildcats in 1957 to Duke's heart stopping victory over underdog Butler in 2010.  As a bonus, five more games that just missed the cut are also examined. Madness goes beyond the games to tell the the backstories of these classics, each entirely unique unto itself. For example, Jim Valvano taking his impossible dream of a national title and making it come true for the 1983 North Carolina State Wolfpack; Rollie Massimino turning spaghetti and clam sauce into inspiration for his underachieving 1985 Villanova team; and Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, breaking down in tears while taking a Broadway curtain call in front of a wildly-applauding audience who two hours earlier didn't know who these two guys were.

Dust Bowl Girls: The Inspiring Story of the Team that Barnstormed Its Way to Basketball Glory by Lydia Reeder
At the height of the Great Depression, Sam Babb, the charismatic basketball coach of tiny Oklahoma Presbyterian College, began dreaming. Like so many others, he wanted a reason to have hope. Traveling from farm to farm, he recruited talented, hardworking young women and offered them a chance at a better life: a free college education if they would come play for his basketball team, the Cardinals. Despite their fears of leaving home and the sacrifices faced by their families, the women followed Babb and his dream. He shaped the Cardinals into a formidable team, and something extraordinary began to happen: with passion for the game and heartfelt loyalty to one another and their coach, they won every game. Combining exhilarating sports writing and exceptional storytelling, Dust Bowl Girls conveys the intensity of an improbable journey to an epic showdown with the prevailing national champions, helmed by the legendary Babe Didrikson. And it captures a moment in American sports history when a visionary coach helped his young athletes achieve more than a winning season

Standing Tall: A Memoir of Tragedy and Triumph by C. Vivian Stringer
Coal miner's daughter, gifted athlete, and head coach of the Rutgers University Scarlet Knights, C. Vivian Stringer tells her story of facing punishing odds yet managing to carry her burdens with grace and lead her team twice to the national championships.

Sum It Up: 1,098 Victories, A Couple of Irrelevant Losses, and a Life in Perspective by Pat Summitt
Pat Summitt, the all-time winningest coach in NCAA basketball history and bestselling author, tells for the first time her story of victory and resilience, as well as facing down her greatest challenge: early-onset Alzheimer's disease.

The Last Great Game: Duke vs. Kentucky and the 2.1 Seconds That Changed Basketball by Gene Wojciechowski
The definitive book on the greatest game in the history of college basketball, and the dramatic road both teams took to get there. March 28, 1992. The final of the NCAA East Regional, Duke vs. Kentucky. The 17,848 at the Spectrum in Philadelphia and the millions watching on TV could say they saw the greatest game and the greatest shot in the history of college basketball. But it wasn't just the final play of the game-an 80-foot inbound pass from Grant Hill to Christian Laettner with 2.1 seconds left in overtime- that made Duke's 104-103 victory so memorable. The Kentucky and Duke players and coaches arrived at that point from very different places, each with a unique story to tell.

- by Anna V., Hopewell Branch