The Big Dance

About the Authors: Barry Wilner has been a sports writer for the Associated Press since 1975. He has covered virtually every major sporting event, including nine Olympics, seven World Cups, nineteen Super Bowls, the World Series, and Stanley Cup finals. He has written eighteen books. He lives in Garnerville, NY. Ken Rappaport covered every major sport out of New York for thirty years and was the AP's national hockey writer for thirteen years. He lives in Old Bridge, NJ.

More About This Book: This is an overview of the tournament, from humble beginnings to national passion.
March Madness, the NCAA Men's Basketball Championship, has become one of the most anticipated sporting events in the country, with millions of fans filling out "brackets", predicting the ultimate winner. This single-elimination tournament starts with 68 teams and ends (in April...) with a sole winner.

Chapters and summaries:

• Wizard of Westwood--Profiles John Wooden, who stands alone among the Mount Rushmore of coaching giants in the NCAA tournament with 10 titles.
• Rings on Their Fingers--Other coaching giants, including Adolph Rupp with four titles, Mike Kzryzewski with four and Bobby Knight with three.
• The UCLA Dynasty--Covers a 12-year period from 1964-75 in which the Bruins ruled college basketball like no other team in history.
• The First--Profiles the Oregon Ducks, first team to win the NCAA title in 1939, and their coach, Howard "Hobby" Hobson.
• Simply Perfect--The nine teams with perfect records en route to the national title.
• Not Only a Man's Game--The women's NCAA tournament.
• Biggest Surprises--Start with Villanova over Georgetown in 1985. Then 1974, when North Carolina State stopped UCLA's tournament winning streak at 38. And in 2006, unheralded George Mason makes a memorable run to the Finals.
• Black and White--Texas Western (now Texas-El Paso) beat a heavily favored Kentucky team in the 1966 finals. That wasn't the most important story. The Miners were the first team to feature an all-black starting lineup in the championship game. Features other racial issues, particularly in southern basketball.
• Greatest Tournament Performances--Injured David Thompson courageously led North Carolina State over UCLA in the 1974 tournament. In 1973, Bill Walton made an amazing 21 of 22 shots from the field to help UCLA beat Memphis State.
• NCAA, NIT at odds--Their often uneasy relationship helped to shape college basketball.
• Point-Shaving Scandals--CCNY was the only team to win BOTH the NCAA playoffs and NIT in an era when the latter was a true national title. But the stunning "Grand Slam" in 1950 was clouded by a point-shaving scandal that reached across the country.
• Lighting the Way--The impact of television on the playoffs.
• Extra Bounces--Examines the conference tourney phenomenon and how it affects the NCAAs.
• Youth Movement--The controversial trend of players leaving school after one year to join the pros. See North Carolina, which won the national championship in 2009, then dropped out of contention the following year and settled for the NIT.
• Epilogue--Looking to the future: The controversial side of the playoffs dealing with the move away from college campuses to larger arenas, and the debatable push to expand the field even further than the current number. Chapter features Selection Sunday and the use of the Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) which helps to determine how teams are chosen.