Madness : the ten most memorable NCAA basketball finals

Madness The ten most memorable NCAA basketball finals

Mark Mehler

Book - 2018

The annual NCAA Basketball Tournament, which has become known as "March Madness" has emerged as a major sports event, matched only by the Super Bowl and the Olympics. In Madness, Mark Mehler and Charles Paikert tell the stories behind the ten most compelling and memorable championship games in tournament history, from North Carolina's triple-overtime victory over Wilt Chamberlain's Kansas Wildcats in 1957 to Duke's heart stopping victory over underdog Butler in 2010. As a bonus, five more games that just missed the cut are also examined. Madness goes beyond the games to tell the the backstories of these classics, each entirely unique unto itself. For example, Jim Valvano taking his impossible dream of a national ti...tle and making it come true for the 1983 North Carolina State Wolfpack; Rollie Massimino turning spaghetti and clam sauce into inspiration for his underachieving 1985 Villanova team; and Magic Johnson and Larry Bird, breaking down in tears while taking a Broadway curtain call in front of a wildly-applauding audience who two hours earlier didn't know who these two guys were decades after their head-to-head matchup in 1979.

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Subjects
NCAA Basketball Tournament > History.
Basketball > Tournaments > United States.
Published
New York, NY : Sports Publishing [2018]
Language
English
Main Author
Mark Mehler (author)
Other Authors
Charles (Journalist) Paikert (author)
Physical Description
xii, 243 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 231-235), filmography and index.
ISBN
9781613219935
  • Acknowledgments
  • Introduction-Why We Care
  • Chapter 1. The Hunters: Duke vs. Butler, 2010
  • Chapter 2. The Improbable Game: Michigan vs. Seton Hall, 1989
  • Chapter 3. A Perfect Game from an Imperfect Team: Villanova vs. Georgetown, 1985
  • Chapter 4. Hope Is a Thing with Leather (or Rubber): North Carolina State vs. Houston, 1983
  • Chapter 5. Dean, Redeemed: North Carolina vs. Georgetown, 1982
  • Chapter 6. Too Much, the Magic/Bird Show: Michigan State vs. Indiana State, 1979
  • Chapter 7. The Wiz Waves Goodbye: UCLA vs. Kentucky, 1975
  • Chapter 8. What Price, Glory?: Texas Western vs. Kentucky, 1966
  • Chapter 9. The Contrast Contest: Loyola vs. Cincinnati, 1963
  • Chapter 10. The Slickers vs. the Hicks... and Wilt: North Carolina vs. Kansas, 1957
  • Chapter 11. The Consolation Games (2016, 2008, 2003, 1993, and 1987)
  • Sources
  • Index
Review by Booklist Review

The NCAA basketball tournament always captures the attention of even casual hoops fans, but the culmination of the month of fun is the championship game. There's always the promise of high drama, and the game often delivers. Mehler and Paikert, a pair of veteran journalists, have chosen the 10 championship games they feel are the most memorable. Among the highlights: the 1966 game, which pitted the first all-black starting five in history from Texas Western against all-white Kentucky, coached by old-school Adolph Rupp; the 1963 overtime classic between high-scoring Loyola Chicago against defending champion Cincinnati, which played a deliberate, slow-paced game; and the 1979 matchup between Larry Bird's Indiana State and Magic Johnson's Michigan State, which set the stage for a professional rivalry that rejuvenated the then-struggling NBA. Each game account includes background on the players and coaches as well as behind-the-scenes details gathered from dozens of interviews with players and coaches. This is well researched and very engaging; hoops fans will absolutely love it.--Lukowsky, Wes Copyright 2018 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

In this enjoyable guide, journalists Mehler and Paikert select what they consider to be the NCAA basketball tournament's top-10 final games. The authors interview players and coaches and explore the tournament's history and how it has evolved. For example, Loyola's march to its 1963 championship was racially charged: the all-white Mississippi State team snuck into its game with integrated Loyola against the wishes of Mississippi state politicians. Just over a decade later, the 1979 final featuring Larry Bird, playing for Indiana State, and Magic Johnson, from Michigan State, set the stage for the NBA's rise in the 1980s. In 2010, millions of TV viewers watched as perennial champions Duke battled upstart Butler, in what "would have been considered by many the greatest upset in NCAA finals history." Many of the anecdotes may be common knowledge to serious hoops fans, and some of the descriptions are simply unwieldy ("The story was related to us by a reliable Kansas source on the Yucatan Peninsula, where an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, paving the way for the invention of basketball"). Those shortcomings aside, the narrative's pace is brisk and the stories are entertaining. (Feb.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

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