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The Back Roads to March: The Unsung, Unheralded, and Unknown Heroes of a College Basketball Season
Thirty years ago after changing the sports book landscape with his mega-hit,
A Season on the Brink
, #1
New York Times
bestselling author John Feinstein returns to his first love--college basketball--with a fascinating and compelling journey through a landscape of unsung, unpublicized and often unknown heroes of Division-1 college hoops.
John Feinstein has already taken readers into the inner circles of top college basketball programs in The Legends Club. This time, Feinstein pulls back the curtain on college basketball's lesser-known Cinderella stories--the smaller programs who no one expects to win, who have no chance of attracting the most coveted high school recruits, who rarely send their players on to the NBA.
Feinstein follows a handful of players, coaches, and schools who dream, not of winning the NCAA tournament, but of making it past their first or second round games. Every once in a while, one of these coaches or players is plucked from obscurity to continue on to lead a major team or to play professionally, cementing their status in these fiercely passionate fan bases as a legend. These are the gifted players who aren't handled with kid gloves--they're hardworking, gritty teammates who practice and party with everyone else.
With his trademark humor and invaluable connections, John Feinstein reveals the big time programs you've never heard of, the bracket busters you didn't expect to cheer for, and the coaches who inspire them to take their teams to the next level.
John Feinstein has already taken readers into the inner circles of top college basketball programs in The Legends Club. This time, Feinstein pulls back the curtain on college basketball's lesser-known Cinderella stories--the smaller programs who no one expects to win, who have no chance of attracting the most coveted high school recruits, who rarely send their players on to the NBA.
Feinstein follows a handful of players, coaches, and schools who dream, not of winning the NCAA tournament, but of making it past their first or second round games. Every once in a while, one of these coaches or players is plucked from obscurity to continue on to lead a major team or to play professionally, cementing their status in these fiercely passionate fan bases as a legend. These are the gifted players who aren't handled with kid gloves--they're hardworking, gritty teammates who practice and party with everyone else.
With his trademark humor and invaluable connections, John Feinstein reveals the big time programs you've never heard of, the bracket busters you didn't expect to cheer for, and the coaches who inspire them to take their teams to the next level.
417 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2020
205 people are currently reading
510 people want to read
About the author
John Feinstein
75 books591 followersJohn Feinstein was an American sportswriter, author, and sports commentator.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 96 reviews
July 25, 2020
This book deserved to be so much better than it was; it is saved only by its topic being of the utmost interest to me.
‘Journalist travels the country for an entire season spending time with various mid-major men’s college basketball programs’ is an idea for a book created by a flawless algorithm that has explored my soul, a book destined to be one of my favorites; it took only a couple dozen pages to realize this was not that book.
The meaning of the title “The Back Roads to March” is self-evident; the journey to the NCAA Tournament for most mid-major programs is, like the locations of the schools, off the beaten path. Everyone who will ever pick up this book gets that. We don’t need paragraphs in most chapters about mid-atlantic highways and estimated travel times and memories about that one time decades ago a similar trip took forever. The same sort of focus on the environment and lifestyle of this level of college basketball can be achieved through information about the school’s history or the town or the travel tales of the team itself. But it’s not interesting to hear about the route someone took to get to a college town in New York 16 months ago.
The book is nearly 400 pages; that’s acceptable if this were the optimal version of this book -- filled to the brim with history and stories from all across the nation. But in the version we were granted, take away the driving descriptions and often far too lengthy play-by-play summaries of games he did not attend and the chapters that are less 2018-2019 mid-major anecdotes and more an old reporter emptying out his notebook from ~30 years ago via humble-braggy stories about the legendary coaches he's interacted with, and there’s gotta be close to 100 pages of bloat there.
I suppose a dose of old-man-thinks-it-was-better-back-in-his-day is to be expected, but Feinstein comes across as bitter and snobby rather than endearing or self-aware. There are times when his emphasis of the purity and passion of mid-major hoops starts to sound too much like the college basketball fans who never shut up about how much they hate the NBA. Let’s not confuse your personal preference with objective fact. There are several bizarre shots at Zion Williamson, to the point where either Feinstein and his editors didn’t realize how many times he’d already picked on him, or Feinstein has an actual grudge against a once-in-a-generation basketball prodigy and the people who pay attention to him. Even his justifiable complaints about NCAA marketing and the corporate overload of March Madness have a pretentious undertone and seem directed at least as much at the players (who provide all the value in exchange for artificially restricted compensation) as the executives (who are the ones actually making the choices and also don’t have artificially restricted compensation). In one instance, that criticism is interrupted by some deeply pathetic whining about how “political correctness” mandates people say “NCAA *Men’s* Basketball Tournament.” Dude, WHAT? There are two tournaments -- one for men’s teams and one for women’s teams. How else would you like us to draw a distinction between the two?
I don’t know if John Feinstein is too famous to be edited, or if everyone involved was fine to let his big name and reputation take the place of doing their best work; all I know is this book reads like it was edited for grammar, but not content. It also doesn’t feel like there was much negotiation or pushback on big-picture, conceptual stuff. The most egregious instance of this is that at least 75% of this book takes place in either Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Virginia, Maryland, or Delaware. There are a couple trips south to the Carolinas, and a venture ‘west’ to Akron, Ohio (and then an additional trip to Dayton and Columbus for the NCAA Tournament), and that’s as far as it stretches. How can you write a book purporting to be about the glory and pageantry of mid-major college basketball without ever leaving the eastern time zone?! Even the trip to Akron is just to profile Buffalo! Loyola-Chicago is the westernmost school that gets a significant chunk dedicated to them and that only comes when they play in Philly! I know Feinstein is an east coast guy who has responsibilities for the Washington Post and as a broadcaster for UMBC and Atlantic 10 games in the area, but he’s the one who chose to write this book! It easily could’ve been a book about Philadelphia college basketball and its roots stretching throughout the region (and for long stretches, it basically is), but that obviously is more difficult to market widely. This book can’t be done the way it deserves without making trips to Gonzaga, Northern Iowa, the Dakotas, Kentucky, Tennessee, New Mexico, Utah, a couple schools each from Florida, California, and Texas, and sure, a few of the eastern schools within driving distance of Feinstein’s house. Can’t do that? Don’t want to do that? That’s okay, but then you don’t get to write this book and you definitely don’t get to subtitle it “The Unsung, Unheralded, and Unknown Heroes of a College Basketball Season”. Those are the rules! The real shame of it is that an accomplished author like Feinstein is probably the only person who can get the time, budget, and leeway to write the best version of this book, and instead he managed to put together this one, where he loses sight of the Atlantic Ocean for a combined 14 minutes.
Objectively, the book is fine, I guess. I am just so disappointed to see an opportunity squandered like this that I am left with nothing but negative thoughts about it. Any enjoyment I derived was in spite of the writing, and purely a result of my passion for the subject matter.
‘Journalist travels the country for an entire season spending time with various mid-major men’s college basketball programs’ is an idea for a book created by a flawless algorithm that has explored my soul, a book destined to be one of my favorites; it took only a couple dozen pages to realize this was not that book.
The meaning of the title “The Back Roads to March” is self-evident; the journey to the NCAA Tournament for most mid-major programs is, like the locations of the schools, off the beaten path. Everyone who will ever pick up this book gets that. We don’t need paragraphs in most chapters about mid-atlantic highways and estimated travel times and memories about that one time decades ago a similar trip took forever. The same sort of focus on the environment and lifestyle of this level of college basketball can be achieved through information about the school’s history or the town or the travel tales of the team itself. But it’s not interesting to hear about the route someone took to get to a college town in New York 16 months ago.
The book is nearly 400 pages; that’s acceptable if this were the optimal version of this book -- filled to the brim with history and stories from all across the nation. But in the version we were granted, take away the driving descriptions and often far too lengthy play-by-play summaries of games he did not attend and the chapters that are less 2018-2019 mid-major anecdotes and more an old reporter emptying out his notebook from ~30 years ago via humble-braggy stories about the legendary coaches he's interacted with, and there’s gotta be close to 100 pages of bloat there.
I suppose a dose of old-man-thinks-it-was-better-back-in-his-day is to be expected, but Feinstein comes across as bitter and snobby rather than endearing or self-aware. There are times when his emphasis of the purity and passion of mid-major hoops starts to sound too much like the college basketball fans who never shut up about how much they hate the NBA. Let’s not confuse your personal preference with objective fact. There are several bizarre shots at Zion Williamson, to the point where either Feinstein and his editors didn’t realize how many times he’d already picked on him, or Feinstein has an actual grudge against a once-in-a-generation basketball prodigy and the people who pay attention to him. Even his justifiable complaints about NCAA marketing and the corporate overload of March Madness have a pretentious undertone and seem directed at least as much at the players (who provide all the value in exchange for artificially restricted compensation) as the executives (who are the ones actually making the choices and also don’t have artificially restricted compensation). In one instance, that criticism is interrupted by some deeply pathetic whining about how “political correctness” mandates people say “NCAA *Men’s* Basketball Tournament.” Dude, WHAT? There are two tournaments -- one for men’s teams and one for women’s teams. How else would you like us to draw a distinction between the two?
I don’t know if John Feinstein is too famous to be edited, or if everyone involved was fine to let his big name and reputation take the place of doing their best work; all I know is this book reads like it was edited for grammar, but not content. It also doesn’t feel like there was much negotiation or pushback on big-picture, conceptual stuff. The most egregious instance of this is that at least 75% of this book takes place in either Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Virginia, Maryland, or Delaware. There are a couple trips south to the Carolinas, and a venture ‘west’ to Akron, Ohio (and then an additional trip to Dayton and Columbus for the NCAA Tournament), and that’s as far as it stretches. How can you write a book purporting to be about the glory and pageantry of mid-major college basketball without ever leaving the eastern time zone?! Even the trip to Akron is just to profile Buffalo! Loyola-Chicago is the westernmost school that gets a significant chunk dedicated to them and that only comes when they play in Philly! I know Feinstein is an east coast guy who has responsibilities for the Washington Post and as a broadcaster for UMBC and Atlantic 10 games in the area, but he’s the one who chose to write this book! It easily could’ve been a book about Philadelphia college basketball and its roots stretching throughout the region (and for long stretches, it basically is), but that obviously is more difficult to market widely. This book can’t be done the way it deserves without making trips to Gonzaga, Northern Iowa, the Dakotas, Kentucky, Tennessee, New Mexico, Utah, a couple schools each from Florida, California, and Texas, and sure, a few of the eastern schools within driving distance of Feinstein’s house. Can’t do that? Don’t want to do that? That’s okay, but then you don’t get to write this book and you definitely don’t get to subtitle it “The Unsung, Unheralded, and Unknown Heroes of a College Basketball Season”. Those are the rules! The real shame of it is that an accomplished author like Feinstein is probably the only person who can get the time, budget, and leeway to write the best version of this book, and instead he managed to put together this one, where he loses sight of the Atlantic Ocean for a combined 14 minutes.
Objectively, the book is fine, I guess. I am just so disappointed to see an opportunity squandered like this that I am left with nothing but negative thoughts about it. Any enjoyment I derived was in spite of the writing, and purely a result of my passion for the subject matter.
March 14, 2020
While most college basketball fans know much about the high-profile programs such as Duke, Kentucky, Kansas and North Carolina, there are plenty of good basketball players and teams at smaller schools and conferences. These are referred to as “mid-major” conferences and they are the subject of this excellent college basketball book by John Feinstein.
Feinstein wrote his first college basketball book over thirty years ago and he has become one of the most respected authors on the sport. This book adds to his legacy as he does a wonderful job of covering so many of the unheralded schools in the mid-major conferences, or as Feinstein calls them often throughout the book, the “one-bid” leagues. This reference is used because these conferences very rarely send more than one team, the winner of the conference tournament, to the NCAA tournament.
While most of the conferences highlighted are in the East, such as the Patriot League, Colonial Athletic Association and Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference just to name a few, Feinstein covers a lot of territory and puts a lot of miles on his vehicle as he takes the reader on his journey to visit many of these players and coaches to share their stories and experiences. He writes about so many schools, players and coaches in this book that is it impossible to cover them all in a review without practically rewriting the book. It is safe to say, however, that no matter what type of story one wants to hear about college basketball, especially a story from a coach, then this is the book to read.
Even avid college hoops fans may learn something new from this book. For this reviewer, the best example of that was Feinstein’s many stories about an old arena in Philadelphia, the Palestra. Many games between the Big Five schools have been played there and from Feinstein’s descriptions of the place, he and many others consider it a shrine for college basketball. Despite its rich history, I had never heard of the place before reading this book. After reading this, I, along with probably many other readers, will now want to make a trip to Philadelphia to visit this arena and catch a game or two there.
This book is not only a terrific read, it is one that gives some much-needed exposure to the many talented teams, players and coaches in the mid-major – sorry, one-bid – leagues. For some, including myself, seeing these teams pull off upsets over schools in the power conferences are what make March Madness (trademarked by the NCAA, something Feinstein writes about with some disdain) special. It is highly recommended for all college basketball fans, no matter what level of fandom or who their favorite school may be.
I wish to thank Doubleday Books for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
https://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/20...
Feinstein wrote his first college basketball book over thirty years ago and he has become one of the most respected authors on the sport. This book adds to his legacy as he does a wonderful job of covering so many of the unheralded schools in the mid-major conferences, or as Feinstein calls them often throughout the book, the “one-bid” leagues. This reference is used because these conferences very rarely send more than one team, the winner of the conference tournament, to the NCAA tournament.
While most of the conferences highlighted are in the East, such as the Patriot League, Colonial Athletic Association and Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference just to name a few, Feinstein covers a lot of territory and puts a lot of miles on his vehicle as he takes the reader on his journey to visit many of these players and coaches to share their stories and experiences. He writes about so many schools, players and coaches in this book that is it impossible to cover them all in a review without practically rewriting the book. It is safe to say, however, that no matter what type of story one wants to hear about college basketball, especially a story from a coach, then this is the book to read.
Even avid college hoops fans may learn something new from this book. For this reviewer, the best example of that was Feinstein’s many stories about an old arena in Philadelphia, the Palestra. Many games between the Big Five schools have been played there and from Feinstein’s descriptions of the place, he and many others consider it a shrine for college basketball. Despite its rich history, I had never heard of the place before reading this book. After reading this, I, along with probably many other readers, will now want to make a trip to Philadelphia to visit this arena and catch a game or two there.
This book is not only a terrific read, it is one that gives some much-needed exposure to the many talented teams, players and coaches in the mid-major – sorry, one-bid – leagues. For some, including myself, seeing these teams pull off upsets over schools in the power conferences are what make March Madness (trademarked by the NCAA, something Feinstein writes about with some disdain) special. It is highly recommended for all college basketball fans, no matter what level of fandom or who their favorite school may be.
I wish to thank Doubleday Books for providing a copy of the book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
https://sportsbookguy.blogspot.com/20...
December 15, 2020
Two main takeaways from John Feinstein’s book “The Back Roads to March,” a journal by the famous sportswriter during the 2019 NCAA Men’s Basketball season, with particular attention given to mid-major teams and conferences: (1) The world would be better off if we all were bigger fans of our local college basketball team; not the big-name, big-TV-money team from the nearest city, but the small school down the road or the next town over, with the fifth-year senior playing through a sprained ankle out of love for the game. I agree. (2) It would also be (really) nice if it were 20 or 30 or 40 years ago––when all of Feinstein’s buddies were in their coaching primes, when one-and-done’s didn’t dominate the headlines as much, when conferences hadn’t yet realigned several times over, and when Philly basketball and the Big Five still ruled. Mostly agree.
Overall, it was nice to zone out into the ups-and-downs of a sports season, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that this was far from Feinstein’s best work. I’m now very much looking forward to “A Season on the Brink,” which is supposed to be his best, and seeing Bobby Knight and Indiana’s 1985-86 title run up close.
Overall, it was nice to zone out into the ups-and-downs of a sports season, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that this was far from Feinstein’s best work. I’m now very much looking forward to “A Season on the Brink,” which is supposed to be his best, and seeing Bobby Knight and Indiana’s 1985-86 title run up close.
July 1, 2020
I really did honestly and truly want to love this book the mostest. Unfortunately John Feinstein spent 50% of the
book talking about , gasp, basketball, 25% complaining about the NCAA, and 25% pretentiously talking about his basketball ~connections~ and tagging on Zion Williamson for having the Audacity to be a very good basketball player. This book did have several redeeming qualities though! I liked the part about Army basketball and the look into the HBCUs because those are concepts you never see during the tournament. Unfortunately it was vaguely overshadowed by Feinstein incessantly talking about his life. It was a good book though! Probably an 8.213/10.
My favorite part? The last pages when Feinstein talks about a conversation he had with UVA coach Tony Bennett, otherwise known as God’s favorite coach...
“‘Tony,’ [he] said, ‘the way you won those last three games... almost makes me believe in God.’
He looked at me very seriously and said, ‘You should believe in God, John.’”
book talking about , gasp, basketball, 25% complaining about the NCAA, and 25% pretentiously talking about his basketball ~connections~ and tagging on Zion Williamson for having the Audacity to be a very good basketball player. This book did have several redeeming qualities though! I liked the part about Army basketball and the look into the HBCUs because those are concepts you never see during the tournament. Unfortunately it was vaguely overshadowed by Feinstein incessantly talking about his life. It was a good book though! Probably an 8.213/10.
My favorite part? The last pages when Feinstein talks about a conversation he had with UVA coach Tony Bennett, otherwise known as God’s favorite coach...
“‘Tony,’ [he] said, ‘the way you won those last three games... almost makes me believe in God.’
He looked at me very seriously and said, ‘You should believe in God, John.’”
March 4, 2020
https://www.themaineedge.com/sports/o...
There are few times on the American sports calendar as eagerly anticipated as March Madness. The NCAA basketball tournament is one of the most celebrated sporting stretches of the year, with teams from all over the country harboring hopes of championship glory.
Now, the reality of the tournament is that, while there will be 64 teams that gain entry to the bracket (68, technically, when you take the play-in games into account), only a handful of those have realistic aspirations of winning it all. For the majority of these teams, the real victory is getting there in the first place.
A handful of those hopefuls serve as the primary subjects for legendary sportswriter John Feinstein’s newest book “The Back Roads to March: The Unsung, Unheralded, and Unknown Heroes of a College Basketball Season.” It’s a look at the teams and people who live the college game off the beaten path. Sure, there’s some mention of the Dukes and Kentuckys and Virginias of the world, but this book isn’t about them – it’s about the teams grinding it out in conferences where if you don’t win the whole thing, you have no shot at The Dance.
It’s about the University of Maryland Baltimore County – UMBC, the perpetrator in the single greatest upset in the history of the NCAA tournament. Feinstein spends time with the coach and players of this team, just one year removed from their victory over the University of Virginia – the first-ever triumph of a 16-seed over a one.
It’s about a scrappy Army team that has to fight for every inch it gains, even as it carries with it an almost unmatched pedigree of past coaching brilliance – legends like Mike Kryzyzewski and Bobby Knight got their starts with the Black Knights nee Cadets.
It’s about Tommy Amaker, coaching the Harvard Crimson through the tangled tendrils of the Ivy League and hoping to find a way to take his team to the top, even when injuries and other issues threaten to push his team back to the pack.
It’s about the University of Buffalo and about Nate Oats, the guy Bobby Hurley plucked from the high school ranks to serve as his first assistant and who wound up replacing him when he moved on to Arizona State. It’s about
And it is DEFINITELY about Philadelphia’s Big 5. The five schools – Villanova, Temple, Penn, St. Joseph’s and La Salle – have a storied history of inter-city competition. Perhaps more than any other hoops hotbed, there’s a competitive tradition here – one that in some ways outstrips even the NCAA tournament itself. The Big 5 matters in a way that those who have never experienced it will never understand.
Feinstein combines the collective might of his passion for the game, his gift for evocative descriptive prose and his unparalleled access to paint a vivid and memorable portrait of a handful of the Davids that seek every year to topple the power conference Goliaths that litter the tournament bracket.
“The Back Roads to March” is a walk through the convoluted and cynical path navigated by the NCAA come Selection Sunday, a place where a middling school with a marketable name gets elevated to the Dance over a strong, hungry team that had the bad luck to lose in the semis of their conference tournament, leaving them to cross their fingers for the NIT or cough up the cash to hit one of the pay-to-play postseason tourneys.
That’s the truth inherent to Feinstein’s aptly-chosen title. For these schools to make it, to fulfill the lifelong dreams of all involved, the stars must truly align. Only via a perfect storm can these schools, these coaches, these players navigate their way to the NCAA. The basketball gods must smile and allow all the cosmic dominoes to tumble in the precise necessary order. Whereas teams from power conferences view berths as their birthright, these teams know that shots at the big time are precious few and far between.
If there’s a Mount Rushmore of sportswriters, John Feinstein has a pretty good argument to be on it. You can count on one hand the number of writers who can match what Feinstein brings to the table … and you can’t count the number who surpass him at all, because they simply don’t exist.
That gravitas makes him ideal for a project like this. His gifts as a chronicler of the sport are well-documents; seeing those gifts aimed not at the legends that sit atop the game, but rather those who sit a notch or three lower down the ladder, is a delight. Feinstein passes no judgment on these teams, nor does he view them as inferior in any way. He recognizes the quality of their play, both in terms of the young men on the court and the coaches guiding them along their way.
“The Back Roads to March” isn’t about championships. The players at UMBC or Harvard or Army or Buffalo will almost certainly never stand on stage as “One Shining Moment” rings through a confetti-littered football stadium, the only venue large enough to contain the financial megalith that March Madness has become. But here’s the thing – as clichéd as it sounds, these guys really are just happy to be here.
So when that first tourney weekend hits, take a moment to consider the truth of that 15-seed facing down a Kansas or an Ohio State or a UCLA; remember that their journey was a long one … and that for them, victory was assured before a single point was scored.
There are few times on the American sports calendar as eagerly anticipated as March Madness. The NCAA basketball tournament is one of the most celebrated sporting stretches of the year, with teams from all over the country harboring hopes of championship glory.
Now, the reality of the tournament is that, while there will be 64 teams that gain entry to the bracket (68, technically, when you take the play-in games into account), only a handful of those have realistic aspirations of winning it all. For the majority of these teams, the real victory is getting there in the first place.
A handful of those hopefuls serve as the primary subjects for legendary sportswriter John Feinstein’s newest book “The Back Roads to March: The Unsung, Unheralded, and Unknown Heroes of a College Basketball Season.” It’s a look at the teams and people who live the college game off the beaten path. Sure, there’s some mention of the Dukes and Kentuckys and Virginias of the world, but this book isn’t about them – it’s about the teams grinding it out in conferences where if you don’t win the whole thing, you have no shot at The Dance.
It’s about the University of Maryland Baltimore County – UMBC, the perpetrator in the single greatest upset in the history of the NCAA tournament. Feinstein spends time with the coach and players of this team, just one year removed from their victory over the University of Virginia – the first-ever triumph of a 16-seed over a one.
It’s about a scrappy Army team that has to fight for every inch it gains, even as it carries with it an almost unmatched pedigree of past coaching brilliance – legends like Mike Kryzyzewski and Bobby Knight got their starts with the Black Knights nee Cadets.
It’s about Tommy Amaker, coaching the Harvard Crimson through the tangled tendrils of the Ivy League and hoping to find a way to take his team to the top, even when injuries and other issues threaten to push his team back to the pack.
It’s about the University of Buffalo and about Nate Oats, the guy Bobby Hurley plucked from the high school ranks to serve as his first assistant and who wound up replacing him when he moved on to Arizona State. It’s about
And it is DEFINITELY about Philadelphia’s Big 5. The five schools – Villanova, Temple, Penn, St. Joseph’s and La Salle – have a storied history of inter-city competition. Perhaps more than any other hoops hotbed, there’s a competitive tradition here – one that in some ways outstrips even the NCAA tournament itself. The Big 5 matters in a way that those who have never experienced it will never understand.
Feinstein combines the collective might of his passion for the game, his gift for evocative descriptive prose and his unparalleled access to paint a vivid and memorable portrait of a handful of the Davids that seek every year to topple the power conference Goliaths that litter the tournament bracket.
“The Back Roads to March” is a walk through the convoluted and cynical path navigated by the NCAA come Selection Sunday, a place where a middling school with a marketable name gets elevated to the Dance over a strong, hungry team that had the bad luck to lose in the semis of their conference tournament, leaving them to cross their fingers for the NIT or cough up the cash to hit one of the pay-to-play postseason tourneys.
That’s the truth inherent to Feinstein’s aptly-chosen title. For these schools to make it, to fulfill the lifelong dreams of all involved, the stars must truly align. Only via a perfect storm can these schools, these coaches, these players navigate their way to the NCAA. The basketball gods must smile and allow all the cosmic dominoes to tumble in the precise necessary order. Whereas teams from power conferences view berths as their birthright, these teams know that shots at the big time are precious few and far between.
If there’s a Mount Rushmore of sportswriters, John Feinstein has a pretty good argument to be on it. You can count on one hand the number of writers who can match what Feinstein brings to the table … and you can’t count the number who surpass him at all, because they simply don’t exist.
That gravitas makes him ideal for a project like this. His gifts as a chronicler of the sport are well-documents; seeing those gifts aimed not at the legends that sit atop the game, but rather those who sit a notch or three lower down the ladder, is a delight. Feinstein passes no judgment on these teams, nor does he view them as inferior in any way. He recognizes the quality of their play, both in terms of the young men on the court and the coaches guiding them along their way.
“The Back Roads to March” isn’t about championships. The players at UMBC or Harvard or Army or Buffalo will almost certainly never stand on stage as “One Shining Moment” rings through a confetti-littered football stadium, the only venue large enough to contain the financial megalith that March Madness has become. But here’s the thing – as clichéd as it sounds, these guys really are just happy to be here.
So when that first tourney weekend hits, take a moment to consider the truth of that 15-seed facing down a Kansas or an Ohio State or a UCLA; remember that their journey was a long one … and that for them, victory was assured before a single point was scored.
March 30, 2023
I used to read John Feinstein books quite a lot when I was younger. I kind of drifted away from reading so many sports books as my interests grew wider. But I decided to pick a new one up on a whim as "March Madness" started a few weeks ago and the Final Four approaches this weekend.
This book describes Feinstein following several teams which would be described as mid-majors during the 2018-2019 NCAA basketball season.
The Pros- Feinstein knows a lot about the ins and outs of college basketball, he is an insider for sure. He has access to a lot of key people and knows them well. He has been doing sports reporting, at least professionally, since the early 80's. He has accumulated an amazing collection of stories, many of them quite amusing. Hearing him tell his stories is very enjoyable and life affirming. Also, he is not a corporate shill. He is willing to call out the NCAA for its hypocrisy and call a spade a spade. He sees how money, corruption, and greed threatens to ruin sport. He clearly roots for the little guy.
The Cons- His book is poorly edited. I lost count of how many times he would tell a story or explain something and then 80 or 150 pages later, there is the exact story or incident all over again. The fact that it happens frequently tells me that this book was rushed to get to print without taking the time to be carefully proofread. Sloppy. Feinstein has written over 40 books and this is a compliant that I have about more than one of his books. It seems as he has gotten older, or maybe as his reputation increases, this becomes a larger problem. He also tends to insert himself in the story too often. This book became more about his observations about a college basketball season than it did about the teams or players that he followed. When he wrote the Last Amateurs, which was a book about the Patriot League teams and players, I felt I really got to know the players, teams, and coaches of that league. This book is similar to that one, but without the depth that allows the reader to get to know the players and coaches as well. As Feinstein has gotten older, his focus shifts to his observations instead of those of the players and coaches. It makes for a less interesting read, in my opinion.
Still, I have a love for the sport of college basketball. Each spring I get excited to feel out my bracket and await the awesome joy of the hoops Davids downing the hoops Goliaths. Feinstein gets the reason that it appeals to so many of us.
This book describes Feinstein following several teams which would be described as mid-majors during the 2018-2019 NCAA basketball season.
The Pros- Feinstein knows a lot about the ins and outs of college basketball, he is an insider for sure. He has access to a lot of key people and knows them well. He has been doing sports reporting, at least professionally, since the early 80's. He has accumulated an amazing collection of stories, many of them quite amusing. Hearing him tell his stories is very enjoyable and life affirming. Also, he is not a corporate shill. He is willing to call out the NCAA for its hypocrisy and call a spade a spade. He sees how money, corruption, and greed threatens to ruin sport. He clearly roots for the little guy.
The Cons- His book is poorly edited. I lost count of how many times he would tell a story or explain something and then 80 or 150 pages later, there is the exact story or incident all over again. The fact that it happens frequently tells me that this book was rushed to get to print without taking the time to be carefully proofread. Sloppy. Feinstein has written over 40 books and this is a compliant that I have about more than one of his books. It seems as he has gotten older, or maybe as his reputation increases, this becomes a larger problem. He also tends to insert himself in the story too often. This book became more about his observations about a college basketball season than it did about the teams or players that he followed. When he wrote the Last Amateurs, which was a book about the Patriot League teams and players, I felt I really got to know the players, teams, and coaches of that league. This book is similar to that one, but without the depth that allows the reader to get to know the players and coaches as well. As Feinstein has gotten older, his focus shifts to his observations instead of those of the players and coaches. It makes for a less interesting read, in my opinion.
Still, I have a love for the sport of college basketball. Each spring I get excited to feel out my bracket and await the awesome joy of the hoops Davids downing the hoops Goliaths. Feinstein gets the reason that it appeals to so many of us.
March 13, 2020
Written especially for NCAA Basketball fans, isn’t it ironic that there won’t be a March tournament this year? There are lots of details about the 2018-2019 basketball season, mostly about unheard of teams, players, and coaches. Each chapter is specified by date, but the author tends to get sidetracked with other details while he is discussing a certain game, player or coach. I see another book in John Feinstein’s future, one with details about viruses in sports.
November 15, 2024
A great look at lower levels of a sport especially at a time the top end is getting more and more professional. Reminded me of how great a half empty gym where teams aren’t always playing for seeding or nba draft stock can be
December 11, 2025
Entertaining, but for some reason he hates on Zion Williamson for no reason lol. Cool peek at some of the smaller leagues. Good book, but not his best work
April 8, 2020
America's great sports story teller does it again. John Feinstein captures the soul of mid-major Division I basketball -- and a little D3 and high school thrown in, too -- along the eastern seaboard. I feel John must know ever basketball coach in the Northeast, and many in the South, too.
Feinstein is at his best writing about the underdog. I've delightfully finished "Where Nobody Knows Your Name", "Tales from Q School", and "The Last Amateurs", stores about minor league baseball, pro golfers scrambling to make the PGA tour, and Patriot League basketball, respectively. Each book about the underdog, the little guy trying to make it. It's so much more interesting than any tale about Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods and their bland, narcissistic personalities.
In "The Back Roads to March" Feinstein attends and covers many leagues, American East, Ivy League, Patriot, Big South, Atlantic 10, and on and on, getting in-depth with players who attend law and graduate school instead of eyeballing the NBA, though some players are on their way there. He knows colorful coaches continually trying to climb the ranks, or guys like Jeff Jones, who were at the big time and proud to be practicing his craft at Old Dominion. It's a joy to picture Feinstein on a rural back road entering a small town that happens to have an old, historic university situated there, and one that plays decent basketball.
Like other Feinstein books, it might be best to keep a notebook of all the players, coaches, teams, and conferences, it gets dizzying sometimes. I enjoy John's pot shots at big time college basketball, 1-and-done players, the NCAA, ESPN and other TV networks, and commercial licensing. He's not afraid to take on his alma mater, but long time buddy Coach K is off-limits, warts and all.
After reading the book, I'm more than ever convinced that there's some good basketball being played in the hinterlands across this country. I'm also convinced that there doesn't need to be 350+ Division I teams who are all playing for a CBS TV paycheck instead of a title. Still, another awesome read by the master storyteller.
Feinstein is at his best writing about the underdog. I've delightfully finished "Where Nobody Knows Your Name", "Tales from Q School", and "The Last Amateurs", stores about minor league baseball, pro golfers scrambling to make the PGA tour, and Patriot League basketball, respectively. Each book about the underdog, the little guy trying to make it. It's so much more interesting than any tale about Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods and their bland, narcissistic personalities.
In "The Back Roads to March" Feinstein attends and covers many leagues, American East, Ivy League, Patriot, Big South, Atlantic 10, and on and on, getting in-depth with players who attend law and graduate school instead of eyeballing the NBA, though some players are on their way there. He knows colorful coaches continually trying to climb the ranks, or guys like Jeff Jones, who were at the big time and proud to be practicing his craft at Old Dominion. It's a joy to picture Feinstein on a rural back road entering a small town that happens to have an old, historic university situated there, and one that plays decent basketball.
Like other Feinstein books, it might be best to keep a notebook of all the players, coaches, teams, and conferences, it gets dizzying sometimes. I enjoy John's pot shots at big time college basketball, 1-and-done players, the NCAA, ESPN and other TV networks, and commercial licensing. He's not afraid to take on his alma mater, but long time buddy Coach K is off-limits, warts and all.
After reading the book, I'm more than ever convinced that there's some good basketball being played in the hinterlands across this country. I'm also convinced that there doesn't need to be 350+ Division I teams who are all playing for a CBS TV paycheck instead of a title. Still, another awesome read by the master storyteller.
April 9, 2020
Once again John Feinstein has written a great college basketball book. This was the 29th book I've read by Feinstein and athough I didn't enjoy as much as classics such as The Legends Club, Season on the Brink, A Season Inside or March to Madness, it's still a good book on some of the smaller schools in college basketball that don't get much attention come tournament time in March. Feinstein's book is kind of similar to the one he wrote called Last Amateurs, which chronicles a season inside the Patriot League. However, unlike that book, this book skips from league to league and at times, that is the one thing I didn't like about this book. It skips around TOO much. Although I get Feinstein's "Travels with Charley" type book that this is by him describing where he is going, often battling snowstorms or traffic in order to get from place to place, it just seems like he covers TOO much. As soon as you really get to know a coach or player by Feinstein's descriptive and informative writing, the chapter ends and goes off to describe another team, not to return for 100 or so pages. That being said I believe Feinstein gets the reader inside the heads of his subjects, whether it be a coach or player or athletic director, better than any sportswriter a live and for a while now. I can read golf books by this author, just because he is so good at getting the reader inside the head of the subject. This book talks about teams such as Temple, Loyola of Chicago a year after they somehow made the Final Four, Howard, Richmond, UMBC and then a year after the biggest upset in March Madness history, Bradley, Navy, Army, American, Bucknell, Winthrop, LaSalle, Norfolk and many many other teams you have or may or may not have heard of. He also takes about great arenas like the Paelstra, and great coaches like Frank Dunphy, Lefty Driesell, Ryan Odom and Tubby Smith to name a few. Good stuff that true college basketball fans will love. I read this book during the shelter in place of 2020 during the time the Final Four would have gone on.
March 12, 2020
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. Reading about the East Coast schools, for the most part, was not a problem for me even though I live on the West Coast. The way Mr. Feinstein spoke of Palestra makes me want to make another trip back East during basketball season just to be in the stands to see a game there. He's talking about and with the different coaches that first he has been around for decades and the stories he told about them reminds me of those times years past when my grandfather and I would listen to “Big Red” football (cornhuskers) on Saturdays and hear his stories from when he went to college there in the early 1900s. reading about the different players working there way from player to coach was also very interesting.
Really for me, there was not a part of this book that I did not like, except for the fact that he took me back to when I remembered a simpler time and when the game was the game and not about money, T.V. deals and all of the rest of the new wave of college basketball.
Because of the money, you are also shown how some schools have suffered by leaving one conference joining another because of their football program and the hopes of maybe an FBS bowl game. Really though in most cases it won’t happen it is just alumni wishing and forcing new presidents to make the move not looking at the total package but just one program.
Really though the author takes you through the different games and maybe just maybe we can have another 16 seed upset a number 1 seed. He also goes into his not so fair selection by the committee which I also think is a fair assessment of the selection committee. A very good book and very much worth the read. I received this book from Netgalley.com I gave it 5 stars. Follow us at www.1rad-readerreviews.com
Really for me, there was not a part of this book that I did not like, except for the fact that he took me back to when I remembered a simpler time and when the game was the game and not about money, T.V. deals and all of the rest of the new wave of college basketball.
Because of the money, you are also shown how some schools have suffered by leaving one conference joining another because of their football program and the hopes of maybe an FBS bowl game. Really though in most cases it won’t happen it is just alumni wishing and forcing new presidents to make the move not looking at the total package but just one program.
Really though the author takes you through the different games and maybe just maybe we can have another 16 seed upset a number 1 seed. He also goes into his not so fair selection by the committee which I also think is a fair assessment of the selection committee. A very good book and very much worth the read. I received this book from Netgalley.com I gave it 5 stars. Follow us at www.1rad-readerreviews.com
June 25, 2020
You can never go wrong with a sports book written by John Feinstein. Feinstein covers mid major basketball teams not Duke, Kentucky, Kansas and all the usual basketball powerhouses. Instead he follows teams like Army, Temple, LaSalle, Lafayette, Harvard etc. who are competitive but don’t have the resources, huge arenas and TV exposure.
The interesting parts of the book are the challenges that the coaches face in the smaller schools. Limited recruiting budgets and opportunities, transfers, modest travel arrangements, staffing etc. Feinstein has a special affection for the Palestra and The Big Five. He covered the last year of coaching for Fran Dunphy and Phil Martelli. Feinstein intimates that Dunphy got a raw deal on his way out.
All these teams and coaches are under pressure to win their conferences in order to get into the NCAAs as very few of them get at large bids. If their teams don’t get into the NCAA tournament or the NIT, coaches will generally get fired.
Most of Feinstein’s travels are for teams in NY, NJ, PA, DE, VA, NC, CT that are driving distance from his home. There are a number of great profiles and Feinstein recounts interesting stories of coaches like Lefty Driesell, Bobby Knight and Jim Calhoun.
If you like college basketball, you’ll really enjoy this book...
The interesting parts of the book are the challenges that the coaches face in the smaller schools. Limited recruiting budgets and opportunities, transfers, modest travel arrangements, staffing etc. Feinstein has a special affection for the Palestra and The Big Five. He covered the last year of coaching for Fran Dunphy and Phil Martelli. Feinstein intimates that Dunphy got a raw deal on his way out.
All these teams and coaches are under pressure to win their conferences in order to get into the NCAAs as very few of them get at large bids. If their teams don’t get into the NCAA tournament or the NIT, coaches will generally get fired.
Most of Feinstein’s travels are for teams in NY, NJ, PA, DE, VA, NC, CT that are driving distance from his home. There are a number of great profiles and Feinstein recounts interesting stories of coaches like Lefty Driesell, Bobby Knight and Jim Calhoun.
If you like college basketball, you’ll really enjoy this book...
February 27, 2020
If you are a casual fan of College basketball you are probably know about schools or programs like Duke, Kansas, and Kentucky. But if you are an ardent fan you are familiar with what are called the mid-major's these are the schools and the conferences they are apart of this is what this book is about. You know the schools that I am talking about the giant slayers during "March Madness" they come from conferences that no matter how good a team is if they do not win their conference tournament championship they do not get to go to the big dance. A recent example is UMBC remember they were a 16th seed who defeated 1 seeded Virginia. This goes over many of the coaches who are hall of fame coaches who do not always get the limelight like coaches at the bigger schools.
John Feinstein talks how some of these schools in support of their football teams if they have one will jump into bigger conferences ends being a disservice to their basketball teams. Did you know that the author does color commentary for some of these games ? I also learned that their others tournaments besides the NIT and NCAA and I thought I knew college basketball. The tournament is great where even the smaller schools have a chance. I received an ARC from Netgalley for a fair an honest review.
John Feinstein talks how some of these schools in support of their football teams if they have one will jump into bigger conferences ends being a disservice to their basketball teams. Did you know that the author does color commentary for some of these games ? I also learned that their others tournaments besides the NIT and NCAA and I thought I knew college basketball. The tournament is great where even the smaller schools have a chance. I received an ARC from Netgalley for a fair an honest review.
March 20, 2020
John Feinstein is the spokesman for smaller colleges and the true meaning of what the NCAA tournament is really about. Sure, there's the Duke and Kentuckys and North Carolinas and Kansas teams that always fare well. But there are also the Princetons and UMBCs (which was the only 16th seeded team to beat a No. 1 in the opening round).
Feinstein captures the feel of the tournament and college basketball in general in this great look at the smaller schools, the mid-majors. His enthusiasm for the games is contagious and it's an awful loss that we're not having the March Madness, Big Dance, Final Four and all the other NCAA-trademarked names for the tournament this year. Feinstein's book will have to suffice, and it does a good job of filling in the need to see basketball.
I think this book really shows Feinstein is the emperor of the college basketball sports writers. We've all read "Season on the Brink," his look at the 1985-86 Indiana Hoosiers, and know him to be fine at his craft. This one elevates him. I'm totally sold on this book and will probably read it every year in conjunction with the tournament. Great stuff!
Feinstein captures the feel of the tournament and college basketball in general in this great look at the smaller schools, the mid-majors. His enthusiasm for the games is contagious and it's an awful loss that we're not having the March Madness, Big Dance, Final Four and all the other NCAA-trademarked names for the tournament this year. Feinstein's book will have to suffice, and it does a good job of filling in the need to see basketball.
I think this book really shows Feinstein is the emperor of the college basketball sports writers. We've all read "Season on the Brink," his look at the 1985-86 Indiana Hoosiers, and know him to be fine at his craft. This one elevates him. I'm totally sold on this book and will probably read it every year in conjunction with the tournament. Great stuff!
June 28, 2020
This is Feinstein’s 30th book. On page one, he tells this is “Not my first rodeo.” He has a long and engaging list of writing that goes beyond who won and what was the score.
He tells us engaging good examples to tell give us an in-depth understanding of the annual NCAA Basketball Tournament. In his years at Washington Post he has established a record of engaging and thoughtful writing about sports.
The book tells a lot of stories about the tournament. He uses narrative to make a series of what has happened to college basketball. He expects the reader to see the problem.
He wants the readers to know that the well known music of the tournament, “One Shining Moment” should be "Show Me the Money." At times, his sentences make an impact. At other times, the many, many stories get too long.
He doesn’t want to talk about the scores (or who made it). It’s a book about what’s wrong with the tournament.
His message is “To win the game is great…To play the game is greater…But to love the game is the greatest of all.” (p. 11)
The book is long—sometimes too long. But the message comes through.
He tells us engaging good examples to tell give us an in-depth understanding of the annual NCAA Basketball Tournament. In his years at Washington Post he has established a record of engaging and thoughtful writing about sports.
The book tells a lot of stories about the tournament. He uses narrative to make a series of what has happened to college basketball. He expects the reader to see the problem.
He wants the readers to know that the well known music of the tournament, “One Shining Moment” should be "Show Me the Money." At times, his sentences make an impact. At other times, the many, many stories get too long.
He doesn’t want to talk about the scores (or who made it). It’s a book about what’s wrong with the tournament.
His message is “To win the game is great…To play the game is greater…But to love the game is the greatest of all.” (p. 11)
The book is long—sometimes too long. But the message comes through.
July 9, 2020
John Feinstein has written sports books with great insight and heart, and this book is a prime example. When most people think about college basketball, Duke, Kentucky, UCLA, and Kansas, among other big schools, come to mind. How many would ever mention Gardner-Webb, Belmont, or Maryland Baltimore County? Yet the players on these teams have at least as much desire, willingness to work hard, and especially love for the game, that the big-time players at big-time schools have. It was a real joy to read about these young men, their coaches, and their dreams of glory, but most of all, to feel, through Mr. Feinstein's elegant, intimate reporting, their sheer love for competition and for the game of basketball. These teams and schools rarely garner headlines in newspapers around the country, unless they pull off a shocking upset, as Maryland Baltimore County did to top-ranked Virginia a few years ago. But thank goodness, in the pages of this excellent book, they get their "day in the sun" and these young men and their coaches are deserving of our admiration.
August 10, 2021
Feinstein is generally my favorite author. He has great passion and access to wonderful stories and people in the world of college basketball. This one excited me because it made me think it would be like Last Amateurs - following smaller college teams. But it really wasn't. I mean it was about smaller teams, but he followed too many and never got in depth enough to feel connected to any of them. He also made it very regionally biased (there are hundreds of teams not in the northeast). And he also went on so many tangents. Ultimately this ended up not being about college basketball - it was about Feinstein himself. He took pot shots at people and programs he didn't like and focused on his friends in the business. If he weren't such a talented writer and it was under the vague guise of being about college hoops, it probably only warrants a two star rating. It's too bad he spent an entire season so intentionally trying to miss so much great college basketball - and then felt he needed to share that experience with us. I have come to expect much, much more.
December 26, 2020
My 84th, and last book, of 2020 turned out to be a good ending to my year of reading. It was a subject that I like-college basketball- and an author whom I enjoy-John Feinstein.
This was one man's journey-Feintsein-through the back roads leading to the college basketball team playing in arenas on those back roads. There was no Duke, no Kentucky or North Carolina. He covered Howard, Towson, UMBC, Loyola of Chicago, St. Peter's, Hofstra, Old Dominion-the schools you only know about during March Madness (do I need to pay a copyright fee here?) or you're a serious hoophead.
Feinstein's stories are touching, humorous, insightful and numerous. Sometimes they feel a bit repetitive and interchangeable but that didn't diminish them because these men-coaches and players-love what they're doing even though they're not "prime time players"-a nod to Dickie V!
A must read for anyone who loves college basketball.
This was one man's journey-Feintsein-through the back roads leading to the college basketball team playing in arenas on those back roads. There was no Duke, no Kentucky or North Carolina. He covered Howard, Towson, UMBC, Loyola of Chicago, St. Peter's, Hofstra, Old Dominion-the schools you only know about during March Madness (do I need to pay a copyright fee here?) or you're a serious hoophead.
Feinstein's stories are touching, humorous, insightful and numerous. Sometimes they feel a bit repetitive and interchangeable but that didn't diminish them because these men-coaches and players-love what they're doing even though they're not "prime time players"-a nod to Dickie V!
A must read for anyone who loves college basketball.
August 16, 2020
John Feinstein normally has a way of telling sports stories that is super engaging and draws you in even when he's writing about sports you don't even care about. I am not a big sports person, but I have read a lot of his books because he really knows how to spin a narrative. I did not find that to be as much the case with this book. He follows some of the mid-level Division I basketball schools who are not generally expected to win and only ever make it to the NCAA tournament if they win their conference tournaments. Instead of fully concentrating on following some of these teams through the season he brings in a lot of history and stories from his long career as a sports writer. It just makes it feeling like a bit of a mish mash without a through storyline, which made it much less engaging than I normally find his books.
March 16, 2022
This really feels like Feinstein had a contract and had to turn something in and so emptied out his notebook of errata and anecdotes. He clearly loves college basketball, but this book felt slapped together on a whim. I really enjoyed The Last Amateurs about Patriot League basketball (hard to believe that came out 20 years ago) but this just feels like a C-minus level version of that book. Spending an entire season in one league is a much better way to do this kind of book, rather than bouncing around numerous leagues and teams.
Also, his random political asides and obvious grudges towards the NCAA as a whole and some people and schools were just weird and felt self-indulgent. He’s a better writer than this, so hopefully his next book is better planned out, better edited, and free from irrelevant social commentary.
Also, his random political asides and obvious grudges towards the NCAA as a whole and some people and schools were just weird and felt self-indulgent. He’s a better writer than this, so hopefully his next book is better planned out, better edited, and free from irrelevant social commentary.
December 9, 2020
Great topic to write about and one that really interests me. Feinstein has some sort of personal vendetta towards Zion Willamson and he talks about his distaste for the NCAA and their trademarks endlessly. Enjoyed the content about mid-major schools, strongly disliked his constant nagging at the NCAA and a 19 year old.
If you have a problem with the NCAA—that’s fine—don’t talk about it constantly through the book. If you have a problem with highly acclaimed recruits garnering notoriety for their talents—don’t take it out on a kid.
I actually enjoy a lot of Feinstein’s books. I just think he is seeing how much college basketball is changing and has changed over the years and he takes every opportunity to express those feelings in this book.
If you have a problem with the NCAA—that’s fine—don’t talk about it constantly through the book. If you have a problem with highly acclaimed recruits garnering notoriety for their talents—don’t take it out on a kid.
I actually enjoy a lot of Feinstein’s books. I just think he is seeing how much college basketball is changing and has changed over the years and he takes every opportunity to express those feelings in this book.
June 3, 2020
Not a typical type of book for me, but I love college basketball. I especially love the stories of the schools that are not from power conferences and one of my favorite parts of March Madness are the anecdotes and the Cinderella teams. This book chronicles the 2018-19 season for many of the smaller schools on the East Coast. Parts of it had too much minutia for me...dates, scores, stats, etc. but the stories, relationships and the author’s passion for the game were really enjoyable. Being a newer release it was about a season and a tournament that i could recall. Definitely not a book for everyone.
July 9, 2020
These are the stories of the college teams that play Division 1 basketball in the mid major conferences of the NCAA and never get far in the March tournaments. Most of the players graduate and never play in the NBA, yet their college basketball careers are just as exciting and interesting as those of those players at Duke, Virginia, Kansas and the other powerhouse schools. What makes this book even more interesting is that the author actually knows so many of the people he writes about, and he’s writes for my hometown newspaper, the Washington Post.
You don’t have to know much about college basketball to enjoy this book and if you cheer for the underdog in sports, it’s an enjoyable read.
You don’t have to know much about college basketball to enjoy this book and if you cheer for the underdog in sports, it’s an enjoyable read.
February 19, 2025
I don’t know much about basketball. Like I couldn’t tell you any basketball players names aside from Michael Jordan until I was married. But I loved this book and plan on reading or listening to more of John Feinstein’s books.
I love how he shares his passion for basketball and made it accessible to me, even inspired me to want to love basketball as much as he does. I love the themes about people and coaches and resilience in all the stories he focuses on. I love his humor. I love how he respects coaches and hates the NCAA.
It took work for me to learn how to listen to this audiobook and understand anything, but it was absolutely work it and I will be listening again and again.
I love how he shares his passion for basketball and made it accessible to me, even inspired me to want to love basketball as much as he does. I love the themes about people and coaches and resilience in all the stories he focuses on. I love his humor. I love how he respects coaches and hates the NCAA.
It took work for me to learn how to listen to this audiobook and understand anything, but it was absolutely work it and I will be listening again and again.
March 14, 2025
A wonderfully informative and immersive look at what makes March Madness some of the most compelling moments in all of sports. What has always made March so special is the underdogs, the guys who won't play in the NBA taking on the big dogs and biting back. John Feinstein sought to highlight as many of those players, coaches, and teams as possible, and the result is a love letter to the best tournament on earth.
It feels surreal to say this, but John Feinstein passed away the day I finished reading this book. He was a wonderful writer and I look forward to diving into some of his other work. May he rest in peace.
It feels surreal to say this, but John Feinstein passed away the day I finished reading this book. He was a wonderful writer and I look forward to diving into some of his other work. May he rest in peace.
May 5, 2020
If you enjoy watching college basketball and observing the journey of some of the hardest working teams, often called the Cinderella / Bubble teams during March Madness, then this is the book for you! It’s long - a whole basketball season (2018-2019), but well worth the read.
Fun Fact: Did you know that there is a kid from Columbus, Ohio who plays for Harvard?!?!? It’s teams like Harvard, Iona, Buffalo, Coastal Carolina, and more - their players and coaches that helped make this book what it IS! I thoroughly enjoyed the journey!
Fun Fact: Did you know that there is a kid from Columbus, Ohio who plays for Harvard?!?!? It’s teams like Harvard, Iona, Buffalo, Coastal Carolina, and more - their players and coaches that helped make this book what it IS! I thoroughly enjoyed the journey!
August 15, 2020
ok, this does it. I'm done reading Feinstein books. I loved Season on the Brink, and he's had some decent ones since, along with variable WaPo columns, but I can't slog through another of these unedited (doesn't anybody read it all the way through first and notice that he already made the crack about Atlantic 10 not having 10 teams etc. or recited the inspirational plaque at the Palestra or mentioned his take on some college coaching change that seemed unfair.......?) name-droppy meanderings.
We're around the same age, and I love basketball too, but enough is enough.
We're around the same age, and I love basketball too, but enough is enough.
February 3, 2021
This came across as one of the lazier books I’ve read in quite some time. A prime example:
Pg. 226
“Gallagher had played under Phil Martelli at St. Joseph’s in the late nineties, then worked as an assistant at La Salle, at Lafayette (under Fran O’Hanlon), at Hartford, and then at Penn. When Steve Donahue took the Boston College job in 2010, he hired Gallagher as his top assistant. Two weeks later he was offered the head coaching job at Hartford. Donahue told him he had to take it.”
Pg. 326
“Gallagher is about as pure Philadelphia hoops as they come. He grew up there, played for Cardinal O’Hara in the revered Philly Catholic League, then spent four years at St. Joseph’s under Phil Martelli. He was an assistant at La Salle and then at Lafayette - under Fran O’Hanlon, another born and bred Philly guy - then went to Hartford for two seasons, before going back to Philly to work at Penn.
When Steve Donahue - you guessed it, a Philly guy - offered him a job as his top assistant at Boston College in 2010, Gallagher took it. But two weeks later, he was offered the Hartford job and, at thirty-three, became a Division I head coach.”
This doesn’t necessarily even feel like a cherry pick! The general feel of the book was a loose collection of independently written “essays”, but it never came to a cohesive whole. I felt spread very thin, and it was exhausting trying to track all of the coaches that tended to blend together very quickly with little narrative arc. The most consistent part of the book was an out of left field shot at Zion Williamson every few chapters, as if he should feel guilty for being ultra-talented and we should be slightly ashamed of our enjoyment of Power 5 hoops.
Above all, it felt too self-indulgent to me, most notably in the 10ish pages beating the fact that Lefty Driesell may have an accent to death. I’m sure it was great for the author to visit all of his old pals he’s made over the years, but it just didn’t make for interesting reading.
I’d recommend just revisiting The Last Amateurs again instead for a better version of this theme.
Pg. 226
“Gallagher had played under Phil Martelli at St. Joseph’s in the late nineties, then worked as an assistant at La Salle, at Lafayette (under Fran O’Hanlon), at Hartford, and then at Penn. When Steve Donahue took the Boston College job in 2010, he hired Gallagher as his top assistant. Two weeks later he was offered the head coaching job at Hartford. Donahue told him he had to take it.”
Pg. 326
“Gallagher is about as pure Philadelphia hoops as they come. He grew up there, played for Cardinal O’Hara in the revered Philly Catholic League, then spent four years at St. Joseph’s under Phil Martelli. He was an assistant at La Salle and then at Lafayette - under Fran O’Hanlon, another born and bred Philly guy - then went to Hartford for two seasons, before going back to Philly to work at Penn.
When Steve Donahue - you guessed it, a Philly guy - offered him a job as his top assistant at Boston College in 2010, Gallagher took it. But two weeks later, he was offered the Hartford job and, at thirty-three, became a Division I head coach.”
This doesn’t necessarily even feel like a cherry pick! The general feel of the book was a loose collection of independently written “essays”, but it never came to a cohesive whole. I felt spread very thin, and it was exhausting trying to track all of the coaches that tended to blend together very quickly with little narrative arc. The most consistent part of the book was an out of left field shot at Zion Williamson every few chapters, as if he should feel guilty for being ultra-talented and we should be slightly ashamed of our enjoyment of Power 5 hoops.
Above all, it felt too self-indulgent to me, most notably in the 10ish pages beating the fact that Lefty Driesell may have an accent to death. I’m sure it was great for the author to visit all of his old pals he’s made over the years, but it just didn’t make for interesting reading.
I’d recommend just revisiting The Last Amateurs again instead for a better version of this theme.
March 8, 2021
For an author of tens of books (as he trumpets in the acknowledgements), man does he repeat himself in this book. It could easily be half the length, follow a consistent chronology and still fit the premise. He also limits his observations to his corner of the US, and frequently spends whole chapters on the decidedly major roads of the multi-bid conferences.
Only the fact that I'm a diehard basketball fan kept me reading through all of that.
TL;DR : Good premise, bad choice of author for it.
Only the fact that I'm a diehard basketball fan kept me reading through all of that.
TL;DR : Good premise, bad choice of author for it.
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