"Let us be able to lose gracefully and to win courteously; to accept criticism as well as praise; and to appreciate the attitude of the other fellow at all times." That timeless advice was offered by James Naismith, a young gym instructor for the Young Men's Christian Association in Springfield, Massachusetts, who invented the sport known as basketball in 1891 – looking for a way to channel the energies of young men between baseball and football seasons. He had no idea what he had started.
Basketball may have started with beach baskets nailed to opposing ends of an old gym, but the sport is now big business and a major cultural event. The annual NCAA tournament makes and breaks teams, players, coaches, athletic directors, and even university presidents. There is a lot more than pride riding on that bouncing ball.
With March comes "March Madness," the annual festival of obsession with the round ball. The tournament began in 1939 with eight teams playing in a single elimination format. Now, the twenty-day tournament includes sixty-five teams. Thirty-one teams receive automatic bids due to conference championships and the remaining thirty-four teams are selected by a committee. With stakes so high, the selection process is itself a matter of controversy. This year, controversy has centered on the omission of schools such as the University of Michigan, and Missouri State – all of which held higher RPI ratings than schools such as Air Force and Utah State, which received at-large selections. CBS, the NCAA's $6-billion dollar broadcast partner, expressed frustration through analyst Billy Packer. After all, a bad tournament selection can hurt ratings for the tournament. In reality, CBS has little to fear. March Madness is contagious.
Among players and coaches, the twenty-day tournament is often known as the "Big Dance," the culmination of every player and coach's obsessive dream. At the end of the tournament lies the greatest dance of all – the Final Four.
As University of Maryland coach Gary Williams acknowledged, "the Final Four is the Holy Grail. We all talk about how we shouldn't judge our careers on making the Final Four or on winning it, but every single one of us wants to be there."
Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski, who has coached his team to no less than ten Final Four appearances since 1986, explains, "I'm not sure you have to be a great coach to get to the Final Four. Probably you have to be a good one who catches a few good breaks – during the tournament, during the season, during your career." Krzyzewski is not known for false humility. Basketball fans know that putting the entire season on the line for a single elimination tournament is itself a form of madness – but they glory in it.
Speaking of the Final Four, Krzyzewski expanded his comments: "To get to one, you have to have a number of ingredients. You have to have been able to recruit very good players, you have to have a very patient family, you need excellent assistants, and you need luck. You need to keep key players healthy and, most of the time, you need to win at least one game that you probably deserve to lose."
For the coaches, the Big Dance is making the big time. For many of the players, it is the biggest experience of their lives – win or lose. John Feinstein, one of the great sports writers of our time, brings all this to life in Last Dance: Behind the Scenes at the Final Four. Feinstein, author of best-sellers such as A Good Walk Spoiled and A Season on the Brink, spent over a year talking to coaches, officials, players, and veterans of the sport. He brings it all to life and, with a rare power of description, can convince even someone who didn't think basketball was all that important that the Big Dance is truly a big story.
Coaches go to the tournament hoping to reach the Final Four and to seal their future in collegiate athletics. Making the Final Four is a virtual ticket to a lifetime career as a head coach – if not at the same school, then at any number of the hungry athletic programs looking for a winner.
