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A March to Madness: the View from the Floor in the Atlantic Coast Conference Book Review

A March to Madness: the View from the Floor in the Atlantic Coast Conference is a book by John Feinstein, a well-renowned sportswriter that dives into what it is really like inside the NCAA March Madness Basketball tournament. It was published in 1999 and covers all the information, coaches, and players that participated in the tournament for that year. This book was Feinstein’s first book back from a period of time where he wasn’t writing, but he made a shocking comeback. This book, however, doesn’t just cover aspects of what happens on the court. It portrays a picture of the locker room, the sideline, and even how the game is coached to give an accurate description of what the game is truly like beyond what one might see from the stands.

Just like other sports having their big tournaments like the Super Bowl, or the World Series, this is basketball’s main event. A tournament that viewers and fans bet on, have watch parties for, and even pay thousands of dollars to go and see the final game. The thrill of the tournament gives many curveballs and Cinderella stories. Because of this Feinstein took a closer look to see how much it takes for one to coach or play the game. The thrill that comes from winning, or the hardship that comes with losing.

Little boy watches UNC Chapel Hill play in a March Madness Tournament game.

Feinstein first sets the stage by showing how important the tournament is to a team’s career. In the first chapter Feinstein shares that “Monday night” is the night that every coach looks forward to in their basketball career; the championship. It is also the night when no one can actually predict what team will be participating. Feinstein goes on to explain that only a certain number of teams are actually granted a ticket into the tournament. Out of over 300 schools that could be in the tournament, only about 50-60 teams are selected. This makes the games throughout the season even more critical so that a team can make sure to secure a spot to play in March.

There are many colleges and universities all around the nation that have basketball teams within different divisions and conferences. According to Feinstein, the Atlantic Coast Conference is one of the biggest competitors for this tournament and seems to have many teams entered into the tournament every year. Feinstein makes sure to state on page 4, that “The ACC may not be the most powerful basketball conference in the country every single year, but year in and year out it is the most consistent.” The ACC conference includes universities such as UNC Chapel Hill, Duke University, Clemson University, and NC State.

This book is offered on many different websites, stores, and even as audiobooks and not one time has there been a terrible review about the book. One supporter of the book stated on Goodreads that, “It's a college hoops fan's dream book.” Many have found the book very insightful on how in depth the story goes within the teams. In a way, Feinstein makes it into a drama and is able still able to also make it insightful. But he does this by continuing to keep the passion and the drive for the sport there, because after all he still wants people to love the game of basketball. By taking every detail and going into each coach’s background, style of coaching, and record. And yet turning right back around and doing the very same thing for every star player that steps their foot onto the court.

When someone idolizes anyone of popularity, it seems easy to generalize what their life might be like, how they are feeling, or what they should be wearing. For athletes, people who idolize those athletic stars will go as far as to place money on a bet on how well they will perform that game or, more relevant, a tournament such as March Madness. For an author such as John Feinstein to really take the understanding of the player and coaches to another level is what we think has granted him all of the appreciative feedback on how these tournaments really work.

Not only is this book for any reader or for any sports fanatic that just wants the inside scoop on the March Madness basketball tournament, but more so one could look at the book from a sociological point of view. Kevin C. Kropf writes a review of the book on Amazon stating, “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.” Remember how Feinstein went deep into each coach and player’s life? Well, he decided to go so far back into the history of who the coach is and Feinstein established a trend on each coaching style based on how they were raised as a child. In Chapter Two Feinstein decided to dive right into Dave Odom, former basketball coach for Wake Forest University, even writing about the coach’s family life, and how he was incredibly close with all his family. The book even goes further to state that from childhood Coach Odom knew he was going to be a basketball coach. While this review is only from a simple reader of the book, he makes a good point to state out the obvious, that there are so many perspectives that this book can be looked at.

This type of thinking also has a great relevance to how the player might act or have a certain attitude. In some cases, with colligate athletics, their only way of financially having the ability to attend school is to have coaches come and recruit them on a very high or full ride scholarship. The attitudes of the players and how appreciative they are on the matter really comes from the background of their childhood and how they were raised. All these characteristics have the ability to show themselves on the court.

One could also look at this book from the perspective of how busy a coach’s life is during this time of the year. At the time when this book was written Coach Jeff Jones was the head coach for the Virginia Cavaliers. On page 14 of the book mentions that Coach Jones missed the first half of the championship game that year due to being on the phone with a recruit. The coach knew that his team needed to get better and get some more players so while in the middle of a game he was doing just that.

If a college basketball fan was to ever read this book, they would probably remember the games discussed in the book and how they went or what were the exciting moments, or the upsets that might have lost the team’s momentum. Therefore, many say that it is so intriguing to read the book and see what was going on behind the scenes that day. It might even make the outcome of a game make sense. For instance, if one’s favorite team were to have a bad game in that tournament, then one might want to know what happened to make them lose that game. Chances are, Feinstein is going to cover it and reveal the true reason as to why that team had such an eventful game.

Every time this tournament occurs there is some type of history being made. In 2016 when Villanova beat favored to win UNC Chapel Hill in the last 2 seconds of the game, only to win by 3 points. Or going all the way back to 1996 when Darvin Ham, player for Texas Tech, went up to dunk the ball and shattered the back glass of the basketball goal. Or looking even more recently at 2020 when the March Madness Association completely cancelled the entire tournament due to COVID-19. That might have been one of the biggest upsets for basketball fans.

This book is almost 24 years old, being published in 1999, and yet it still has the ability to continue to be such a great conversation starter in the world of basketball. It encourages fans to look inside and see what might have been happening in their idol’s lives. Or make them take a closer look into their childhood and reveal to the reader about who they really are. Even if you aren’t a fan of basketball, looking at the sociological perspective is a great point of view to have, reminding oneself that even though these guys might be great on the court, they have lives too. The lasting impact that this book will have on people’s perspectives about the game and the tournament is unforgettable. It is easy to only focus on one object instead of looking at the whole picture, but this book makes you do just the opposite and look beyond the court.

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