The History Book Club discussion

Yeah, my brackets are worthless now. Go UVa.

It looks a lot like last year.......#1s getting knocked off and my bracket goes does the flusher. Go WVU....ooops, they aren't there this year. At this point, I will just root for the underdogs.

Thanks all for the posts and adds.

It is interesting to note that a survey was done (I think by ESPN) about how many people filed brackets with them and how many actually had UConn and UK in the Championship.........11 million brackets completed, 11,000 picked UConn/UK. It just goes to show that it is a crap shoot when it comes to March Madness!!!!

For sure.

I really don't like professional basketball.....in fact I detest it but the Donald Sterling "scandal" is certainly getting a lot of press. Does anyone have any thoughts about forcing an owner to sell his team based on his politically incorrect and racist statements.?

Jill wrote: "I really don't like professional basketball.....in fact I detest it but the Donald Sterling "scandal" is certainly getting a lot of press. Does anyone have any thoughts about forcing an owner to se..."

He's a member of a private organization. If he is hurting that organization (and they are not violating any civil rights of his) they have the right to force him out. And his comments had the potential to deeply hurt the NBA.

Thanks for your comments, Stuart. His comments were truly offensive.

Anyone who is a college basketball fan and of a certain age, remembers when the huge underdog North Carolina State went to the 1983 Final Four and won it all with a last second shot by Wittenberg. The sight of Coach Valvano running around the court is one that is always included in great sports moments films. This book is a loving tribute to the coach, his coaching days and his public bout with the cancer that finally took him much too young. He was an inspiration.

I Remember Jim Valvano

by Mike Towle(no photo)

Synopsis:

College basketball and its annual March Madness extravaganza have emerged over the last three decades as one of the most popular sporting phenomena in America. Perhaps no one personifies the excitement of this tournament better than Jim Valvano, whose heavily underdog North Carolina State Wolfpack achieved the pinnacle of success in college basketball in 1983 with an unlikely run through the NCAA Tournament, culminating in an incredible one-point victory over Houston's heavily favored Phi Slamma Jamma squad in the championship game.While that Cinderella story was Valvano's only national championship, he quickly came to symbolize the exuberance and excellence of the exciting world of college basketball. Valvano transcended his sport, touching millions as he emerged as one of the most charismatic and, ultimately, courageous figures in American life who touched millions.

Diagnosed with bone cancer, he joined ESPN to comment on college basketball games. Later he received the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage at ESPN's first ESPY Awards, where he announced that he was starting the V Foundation for Cancer Research. Shortly after receiving the award, he died at the age of forty-seven. In I Remember Jim Valvano, he is remembered by former players, fellow coaches, a variety of other basketball experts, close associates, and many others as one of college basketball's great movers and shakers, a man with a heart as big as his popularity. Valvano's life is the classic story of courage and determination as borne out in his memorable line: Don't give up. Don't ever give up".
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Here is a little added attraction.....a video of the final shot of the game and Jimmy V going bonkers. (The images are not the best quality)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubCybJ...

Thanks Jill - a great post

Jimmy V was quite a guy!!!

Strong Inside: Perry Wallace and the Collision of Race and Sports in the South

by Andrew Maraniss

Synopsis

Based on more than eighty interviews, this fast-paced, richly detailed biography of Perry Wallace, the first African American basketball player in the SEC, digs deep beneath the surface to reveal a more complicated and profound story of sports pioneering than we've come to expect from the genre. Perry Wallace's unusually insightful and honest introspection reveals his inner thoughts throughout his journey.

Wallace entered kindergarten the year that Brown v. Board of Education upended "separate but equal." As a 12-year-old, he sneaked downtown to watch the sit-ins at Nashville's lunch counters. A week after Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, Wallace entered high school, and later saw the passage of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights acts. On March 16, 1966, his Pearl High School basketball team won Tennessee's first integrated state tournament--the same day Adolph Rupp's all-white Kentucky Wildcats lost to the all-black Texas Western Miners in an iconic NCAA title game.

The world seemed to be opening up at just the right time, and when Vanderbilt recruited him, Wallace courageously accepted the assignment to desegregate the SEC. His experiences on campus and in the hostile gymnasiums of the Deep South turned out to be nothing like he ever imagined.

On campus, he encountered the leading civil rights figures of the day, including Stokely Carmichael, Martin Luther King Jr., Fannie Lou Hamer, and Robert Kennedy--and he led Vanderbilt's small group of black students to a meeting with the university chancellor to push for better treatment.

On the basketball court, he experienced an Ole Miss boycott and the rabid hate of the Mississippi State fans in Starkville. Following his freshman year, the NCAA instituted "the Lew Alcindor rule," which deprived Wallace of his signature move, the slam dunk.

Despite this attempt to limit the influence of a rising tide of black stars, the final basket of Wallace's college career was a cathartic and defiant dunk, and the story Wallace told to the Vanderbilt Human Relations Committee and later The Tennessean was not the simple story of a triumphant trailblazer that many people wanted to hear. Yes, he had gone from hearing racial epithets when he appeared in his dormitory to being voted as the university's most popular student, but, at the risk of being labeled "ungrateful," he spoke truth to power in describing the daily slights and abuses he had overcome and what Martin Luther King had called "the agonizing loneliness of a pioneer."

March Madness is slowly sneaking up on us but what the polls look like now and what they will look like when it is time to pick the participants will change dramatically ......they always do. Love, love, love it!!!!

One of the great college basketball coaches in history passed away this weekend. Dean Smith, of North Carolina, a Hall of Famer and two time National Champion will be missed by basketball fans.

Very sad Jill - I was not at familiar with him

Another great NCAA coach passes. Jerry Tarkanian, the colorful coach of UNLV died this week. He took his team to the final four several times and won one championship. He was famous for chewing on a towel during the games. He was quite a character.

I saw this game on television and it was heart-stopping. A game for the ages.

The Last Great Game: Duke vs. Kentucky and the 2.1 Seconds That Changed Basketball

by Gene Wojciechowski (no photo)

Synopsis

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 inbounds bass from Grant Hill to Christian Laettner with 2.1 seconds left in overtime- that made Duke's 105-104 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.

In "The Last Great Game," acclaimed ESPN columnist Gene Wojciechowski tells their stories in vivid detail, turning the game we think we remember into a drama filled with suspense, humor, revelations and reverberations. The cast alone is worth meeting again: Mike Krzyzewski, Rick Pitino, Bobby Hurley, Jamal Mashburn, Christian Laettner, Sean Woods, Grant Hill, and Bobby Knight. Timed for the game's 20th anniversary, "The Last Great Game" isn't a book just for Duke or Kentucky or even basketball fans. It's a book for any reader who can appreciate that great moments in sports are the result of hard work, careful preparation, group psychology, and a little luck.

RIP, Earl Lloyd. He was the first African-American to play in the NBA....for the Detroit Pistons. He graduated from the WV College for the Colored (in the days before integration), which is now WV State University. He lived to see his statue placed at the school last year in his honor. A fine man who helped his college in many ways over the years.

The Secret Game: A Wartime Story of Courage, Change, and Basketball's Lost Triumph

by Scott Ellsworth (no photo)

Synopsis:

In the wartime fall of 1943, at the little-known North Carolina College for Negroes, Coach John McLendon was on the verge of changing the game forever. Within six months, his Eagles would become the highest scoring college basketball team in America, a fast-breaking, hard-pressing juggernaut that would shatter its opponents by as many as sixty points per game. The last student of James Naismith, basketball's inventor, McLendon had opened the door to its future.

Across town, at Duke University, the best basketball squad on campus wasn't the Blue Devils, but was an all-white military team from the Duke medical school. Comprised of former college stars from across the country, they dismantled every team they faced, including the Duke varsity. They were prepared to play anyone-that is, until an audacious invitation arrived, one that was years ahead of anything the South had ever seen before.

Based on years of research, The Secret Game is a story of courage and determination, and of an incredible, long-buried moment in the nation's sporting past. The riveting true account of a remarkable season, it is the story of how handful of forgotten college basketball players not only changed the game forever, but also helped to usher in a new America.

Thanks Jill and Jerome.

OK, fans.....March Madness is upon us. If you want to look at the brackets, try this link below. If your team made it, (mine did), best of luck. If they didn't, then pick an underdog....they are always the spoilers of the big boy's hopes! I have a feeling that Kentucky will be in the big game. They are undefeated but that doesn't always bode well. If they win, it will be the first time that an undefeated team has won the championship since Indiana under Coach Bobby Knight back in the 70s.

http://www.businessinsider.com/ncaa-t...

I ask this same question every year.......how can my brackets go down the flusher in one day? But, so far I am still dong well. I picked some "maybes" and they won. Our state University (WVU) is still in the hunt after beating Bobby Hurley's Buffalo team and will play Maryland tomorrow...frankly I don't have much hope but one never knows. Go Mountaineers!!!!

What's not to love about March Madness?! Always a wild ride, great back stories, drama, controversy, and the athleticism and college spirit. Having a bracket is super fun. Mine is doing okay still (in our office standings, otherwise I am no expert). Sure is fun. Saw that WV is in it. I kept them into the sweet 16!

You are a good woman, Alisa, keeping WVU into the Sweet 16......I don't and have them being beaten tonight by Maryland. I hope you are right. I am dreaming about basketball since our state high school tournaments were also going on and I was watching NCAA on tv and listening to high school on the radio. My husband is ready to take the horse whip to me but he just sighs!!!!

Kentucky humiliated WVU tonight in the Sweet 16, although it wasn't a surprise. It was just awful.....as my sister said, "Boys against men". Oh well, they got that far and the state is very proud of them.

The biography of one of the strangest and most controversial NBA player ever.

No Bull: The Unauthorized Biography of Dennis Rodman

by Dan Bickley(no photo)

Synopsis:

A chronicle of the life of the infamous basketball star, exploring Rodman's childhood, rookie year playing with the Detroit Pistons, and his on- and off-court antics as one of the Chicago Bulls.

An upcoming book:
Release date: May 1, 2016

Wartime Basketball: The Emergence of a National Sport during World War II

by Douglas Stark (no photo)

Synopsis:

Wartime Basketball tells the story of basketball s survival and development during World War II and how those years profoundly affected the game s growth after the war. Prior to World War II, basketball professional and collegiate was largely a regional game, with different styles played throughout the country. Among its many impacts on home-front life, the war forced pro and amateur leagues to contract and combine rosters to stay competitive. At the same time, the U.S. military created base teams made up of top players who found themselves in uniform. The war created the opportunity for players from different parts of the country to play with and against each other. As a result, a more consistent form of basketball began to take shape.

The rising popularity of the professional game led to the formation of the World Professional Basketball Tournament (WPBT) in 1939. The original March Madness, the WPBT was played in Chicago for ten years and allowed professional, amateur, barnstorming, and independent teams to compete in a round-robin tournament. The WPBT included all-black and integrated teams in the first instance where all-black teams could compete for a world series of basketball against white teams. Wartime Basketbal how the WPBT paved the way for the National Basketball League to integrate in December 1942, five years before Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in baseball.

Weaving stories from the court into wartime and home-front culture like a finely threaded bounce pass, Wartime Basketball sheds light on important developments in the sport s history that have been largely overlooked.

Another:
Release date: March 15, 2016

Boys Among Men: How the Prep-to-Pro Generation Redefined the NBA and Sparked a Basketball Revolution

by Jonathan Abrams (no photo)

Synopsis:

When Kevin Garnett shocked the world by announcing that he would not be attending college—as young basketball prodigies were expected to do—but instead enter the 1995 NBA draft directly from high school, he blazed a trail for a generation of teenage basketball players to head straight for the pros. That trend would continue until the NBA instituted an age limit in 2005, requiring all players to attend college or another developmental program for at least one year.

Over that decade-plus period, the list of players who made that difficult leap includes some of the most celebrated players of the modern era—Garnett, Kobe Bryant, LeBron James, Dwight Howard, Tracy McGrady, and numerous other stars. It also includes notable “busts” who either physically or mentally proved unable to handle the transition. But for better or for worse, the face of the NBA was forever changed by the prep-to-pro generation.

In compelling, masterfully crafted prose, Boys Among Men goes behind the scenes and draws on hundreds of firsthand interviews to paint insightful and engaging portraits of the most pivotal figures and events during this time. Award-winning basketball writer Jonathan Abrams has obtained remarkable access to the key players, coaches, and other movers and shakers from that time, and the result is a book packed with rare insights and never-before-published details about this chapter in NBA history. Boys Among Men is a thrilling, informative, must-read for any basketball fan.

Rise and Fire: The Origins, Science, and Evolution of the Jump Shot --- and How It Transformed Basketball Forever

by Shawn Fury (no photo)

Synopsis:

It’s hard to believe that there was a time when the jump shot didn’t exist in basketball. When the sport was invented in 1891, players would take set shots with both feet firmly planted on the ground. Defenders controlled the sport, the pace was slower, and games would frequently end with scores fit for a football field. It took almost forty years before players began shooting jump shots of any kind and sixty-five years before it became a common sight. When the first jump shooting pioneers left the ground, they rose not only above their defenders, but also above the sport’s conventions. The jump shot created a soaring offense, infectious excitement, loyal fans, and legends. Basketball would never be the same.

Rise and Fire celebrates this crucial shot while tracing the history of how it revolutionized the game, shedding light on all corners of the basketball world, from NBA arenas to the playgrounds of New York City and the barns of Indiana. Award-winning journalist Shawn Fury obsesses over the jump shot, explores its fundamentals, puzzles over its complexities, marvels at its simplicity, and honors those who created some of basketball’s greatest moments. Part history, part travelogue, and part memoir, Rise and Fire bounces from the dirt courts of the 1930s to today’s NBA courts and state-of-the-art shooting labs, examining everything from how nets and rims affect a shooter to rivalries between shooting coaches to how the three-pointer came to rule the game. Impeccably researched and engaging, the book features interviews and profiles of legendary figures like Jerry West, Bob McAdoo, Ray Allen, and Denise Long---the first woman ever drafted by the NBA, plus dozens more, revealing the evolution of the shot over time.

Analyzing the techniques and reliving some of the most unforgettable plays from the greats, Fury creates a technical, personal, historical, and even spiritual examination of the shot. This is not a dry how-to textbook of basketball mechanics; it is a lively tour of basketball history and a love letter to the sport and the shot that changed it forever.

Thank Jerome and Jill

It is that time again........March Madness!!!!!!!!!!! It all comes down to this, so if your team is in the tournament, I wish them luck. If they are not, you can just root for WVU!!!!

For a look at the brackets, go to the link below.

http://www.ncaa.com/interactive-brack...

(Source: ncaa.com)

WVU, ceded 2nd goes down in their first game of the Big Dance to Stephen F. Austin, ceded 14th!!!!! What a time for WVU to play like a high school team. Well, my best to SFA as they move forward. And my brackets are down the flusher as a lot of the top cedes got knocked out early. Oh well, what's new. That's what makes March Madness so much fun......you never know when some almost unknown team comes out of the woodwork and starts knocking off the big guys.

Jack no - we do not allow that - I use to have an author's thread where those author's who joined to contribute to the group and were contributing would get their books mentioned. But unfortunately we have found that as soon as their book was posted - we did not see their contributions and that is a shame because we love authors and books and that is why we are here.

Lorna will be contacting you so that you can repost your welcome and we will send you a copy so you do not have to reinvent it - most was fine. You can repost it minus the self promotion.

I am going to try to think of some way to reward those authors who make great contributions to the group and I will let you know.

Our rules are pretty straight forward. And if it is not self promotion but you have other books and authors you would like to recommend - we encourage the latter and prohibit the former.

I appreciate your cooperation on this - I really do.

The Book of Madness

by Bill Simmons (no photo)

Synopsis:

There is only one writer on the planet who possesses enough basketball knowledge and passion to write the definitive book on the NBA.* Bill Simmons, the from-the-womb hoops addict known to millions as ESPN.com’s Sports Guy, is that writer. And The Book of Basketball is that book.

Nowhere in the roundball universe will you find another single volume that covers as much in such depth as this wildly opinionated and thoroughly entertaining look at the past, present, and future of pro basketball.

From the age-old question of who actually won the rivalry between Bill Russell and Wilt Chamberlain to the one about which team was truly the best of all time, Simmons opens–and then closes, once and for all–every major pro basketball debate. Then he takes it further by completely reevaluating not only how NBA Hall of Fame inductees should be chosen but how the institution must be reshaped from the ground up, the result being the Pyramid: Simmons’s one-of-a-kind, five-level shrine to the ninety-six greatest players in the history of pro basketball. And ultimately he takes fans to the heart of it all, as he uses a conversation with one NBA great to uncover that coveted thing: The Secret of Basketball.

Comprehensive, authoritative, controversial, hilarious, and impossible to put down (even for Celtic-haters), The Book of Basketball offers every hardwood fan a courtside seat beside the game’s finest, funniest, and fiercest chronicler.