A March to Madness: A View from the Floor in the Atlantic Coast Conference Paperback – February 15, 1999

One might even call this book a crib sheet for pre-game and half time pep talks, but Feinstein also does his usual excellent job of "getting to know" the players, coaches and personalities. You'll get to know them too in this inside the lockerroom, season-long report.Feinstein's style is very easy to read and this book would be interesting to people from a sociological perspective in addition to those who are basketball junkies like myself. Does the NCAA and its member institutions exploit athletes? Where did the fun go from the game--playing is a privilege and the competition in an of itself, along with a scholarship should be enough. Feinstein tackles these topics again in his more recent book The Last Amateurs.This is a very worthwhile read and more evenhanded and "fair" to the participants than A Season on the Brink. In fact Dean Smith would not let the author have the same access as every other coach b/c Feinstein is a Duke alum. And that is precisely why the Duke-UNC is one of the top 3 college sports rivalries.

Great read!

I have read several books written by coach K and as I am a Duke fan and none of these books have come close to John Finesteins "A March to Madness". If you are a fan of any team in the Atlantic Coast Conference that was actively a member of the conference of from the late 70's thru the late 90's, this is the book for you. Finestein spends time with the all the coaches and teams in the Atlantic Coast Conference and really gives a birds eye view for all the teams, coaches, and players. There is something for every ACC fan in "A March to Madness." It is really funny and interesting and it takes me back to a great era in ACC basketball. Best ACC basketball book I have read to date.

Enjoyed this book very much even though its probably 20 years old. Gives good insight into the ACC. Feinstein is a great author.

Enjoyed it a lot, like his writing.

one of my favorite sports books. If you come from ACC country you will love it.

excellent

I grew up in the Southeast on a steady sports diet of ACC basketball and football, followed each team closely each year, and, of course, later attended an ACC school. I graduated in the spring of 1996 -- just a few months before the 1996-97 season Feinstein chronicles in this book began. So I thought I knew all about the ACC and its sundry characters.Boy was I wrong. Feinstein's insights and access showed me an entirely different side of the ACC world I only thought I knew. The spotlight here is on the coaches and we get to know most of them intimately -- their background, their fears, their expectations, their personal lives, their triumphs and failures. It's all fascinating stuff, although, frankly, I expected a little bit more about the players themselves. Instead, players like Tim Duncan and Vince Carter have mere bit parts in the background. But they were college players and I guess Feinstein really couldn't drag them into the commercial world of book writing.Since the focus of the book is on the coaches themselves, the amount of access each coach gave Feinstein set the tone for the entire project. It is more than obvious that coaches like Duke's Mike Krzyzewski, Maryland's Gary Williams, Wake Forest's Dave Odom, Clemson's Rick Barnes, Virginia's Jeff Jones, and Florida State's Pat Kennedy gave Feinstein as much access and interview time as he wanted and they are covered thoroughly in the book. On the other hand, it's apparent NC State's Herb Sendek, Georgia Tech's Bobby Cremins, and, most importantly, North Carolina's Dean Smith didn't give Feinstein nearly as much time, access, and information as the others. Smith, in particular, is portrayed as an outside, shadowy figure and a pretty mean one at that. Smith could have helped by being more cooperative with Feinstein but, then again, Dean had a job to do and it didn't involve having a writer lurking around his locker room and office for a year. By contrast, Mike Krzyzewski apparently gave the Duke grad the keys to the Duke campus, and that, coupled with Duke's typically great season, give the book a decidely uneven feel. I don't know if that is bias, but I do know when Duke's Greg Newton is mentioned more often than Wake's Tim Duncan or North Carolina's Vince Carter, it's a problem. As much as Feinstein tries to paint a complete portrait of all nine coaches and all nine schools, he simply cannot and the book suffers because of it.Nevertheless, A MARCH TOWARD MADNESS is a treat for ACC fanatics, college basketball fans, and anyone interested in the inner workings of the world of college coaching. The most amazing thing is, the ACC is such a colorful league, you could write a book like this about each and every season. The names may change (a lot of the coaches in this book are already gone) but the passion, the intensity, and the competitiveness are always there.