Feinstein - Last dance: behind the scenes at the Final Four

Copyright 2006 by John Feinstein

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review.

Little, Brown and Company

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First eBook Edition: February 2006

ISBN: 978-0-316-05006-7

Next Man Up

Let Me Tell You a Story (with Red Auerbach)

Caddy for Life

Open

The Punch

The Last Amateurs

The Majors

A March to Madness

A Civil War

A Good Walk Spoiled

Play Ball

Hard Courts

Forevers Team

A Season Inside

A Season on the Brink

Last Shot (A Final Four Mystery)

Running Mates (A Mystery)

Winter Games (A Mystery)

This is for Esther Newberg, who is a wonderful agent, a better friend, and the worlds absolute worst sport. Which is part of her charm.

I HAVE BEEN ACCUSED, on occasion, of being a name-dropper. Actually, I learned the art from perhaps the greatest name-dropper of all time: Dick Schaap, who could begin a sentence by saying something like One night when I was having dinner with Jack Kennedy, Frank Sinatra, and Muhammad Ali, Billy Crystal stopped by the table....

I will never be in Dicks class in the name-dropping category (he wanted to call his memoir Name-Dropping, but some publishing genius came up with Flashing Before My Eyes, which is silly and meaningless), but when I started to think about the acknowledgments for this book, it occurred to me that Dick would be proud of me if he could read them.

Consider the following people I need to thank for taking the time to talk to me about their Final Four experiences: John Wooden, Dean Smith, Roy Williams, Bill Bradley, John Thompson, Jim Calhoun, Jim Boeheim, Gary Williams, Lefty Driesell, Dick Vitale, Billy Packer, and Rick Barnes. I havent even mentioned Mike Krzyzewski, who not only talked to me at length about his Final Four experiences but agreed to write the introduction for the book. Thats a pretty good group of names for starters. Theres more: Jay Bilas, Greg Anthony, Jay Buckley, Bruce Buckley, Clay Buckley, Tom Brennan, Rollie Massimino, Jay Wright, Frank Sullivan, Doug Wojcik, Digger Phelps, Dave Odom, Jeff Capel III, Mike Brey, Phil Martelli, Jeff Jones, Jim Larranaga, Ralph Willard, Pat Flannery, Emmett Davis, Jim Crews, Billy Taylor, Fran OHanlon, Bill Lange, Jimmy Patsos, Billy Hahn, Tom Abatemarco, George Raveling, Bruce Bell, Johnny Dawkins, Tommy Amaker, Chris Collins, Steve Wojciechowski, Kenny Dennard, Rich Clarkson, Dick Weiss, Jim OConnell, and Bill Brill. Special thanks to Wes Miller, who agreed to keep a journal for me during North Carolinas trip to St. Louis. I also owe thanks to Jack Kvancz, Gene Corrigan, Wayne Duke, Dave Gavitt, and Terry Holland, who talked to me about their experiences as members of the basketball committee, and to Tom Jernstedt, who is a walking encyclopedia of tournament history. Whether I could have finished this book at all without the help of Bill Hancock is something I seriously doubt. To say he will be missed by those of us who cover the tournament each year is a vast understatement, but if anyone can straighten out the BCS, it is Bill. Thanks also to Steve Kirschner and Rick Brewer at Carolina, to Mike Cragg at Duke, to Bill Bennett at UCLA, and to Bruce Bosley at Vermont. More thanks: to outgoing committee chairman Bob Bowlsby and incoming chairman Craig Littlepage. Also to Hank Nichols and many of his refs, most notably Larry Rose and Tim Higgins, who are Final Four refs every year as far as Im concerned.

Thats the group that played a crucial role in this book. Then there are the people who play a critical role in every book I write: Esther Newberg, my agent for life, and Michael Pietsch, who truly is a wonderful editor and exhibited great patience on this particular project, especially when my shoulder surgery put the book way behind schedule. Esther and Michael have great assistants: Chris Earle (aka FA/FW) and the precocious Kari Stuart put up with both Esther and with mewhich is pretty close to miraculous. They learned, of course, from Andy Barzvi. Michael is aided immeasurably by both Stacey Brody and Zainab Zakari. Heather Fain (Murphy Brown to her friends) has promised to promote this book as she has promoted no other, since her alma mater won the 2005 national title. Im not certain that Heather Rizzo, Katherine Molina, and Marlena Bittner will be as enthusiastic, but if theyre not, Holly Wilkinson will ride in and crack her whip. Extra thanks are owed to Steve Lamont, who copyedited two of my books in a short period of time and saved me from myself on countless occasions. (Thats not hyperbole, thats fact.)

Friends (still, Im pleased to say, a long list): Barbie Drum, Bob and Anne DeStefano, David and Linda Maraniss, Jackson Diehl and Jean Halperin, Lexie Verdon and Steve Barr, Tom and Jill Mickle, Shelley Crist, Jane Brill, Terry and Patti Hanson, Bob Zurfluh, Pete Teeley, Al Hunt, Bob Novak, Vivian Thompson, Phil Hochberg, Wayne Zell, Mike and David Sanders, Bob Whitmore, Andy Dolich, Mary Carillo, Doug and Beth Doughty, David Teel, Beth (Shumway) Brown, Beth Sherry-Downes, Erin Laissen, Bob Socci, Pete Van Poppel, Frank Davinney, Scott Strasemeier, Eric Ruden, Billy Stone, Mike Werteen, Chris Knoche (still a bitter man), Andrew Thompson, Joe Speed, Jack Hecker, the perennially fabulous Dick Hall, Steve (Moose) Stirling, Jim and Tiffany Cantelupe, Derek and Christina Klein, Anthony and Kristen Noto, Roger Breslin, Jim Rome, Travis Rodgers, Jason Stewart, Tony Kornheiser (still angry after all these years), Michael Wilbon, Mark Maske, Ken Denlinger, Matt Rennie, Mike Purkey, Bob Edwards, Tom Goldman, Jeffrey Katz, Mark Schramm, Kenny and Christina Lewis, Joanie Weiss, Bob Ryan, the soon-to-be-married L. Sandy Genelius, Jennifer Proud-Mearns, David Fay, Frank Hannigan, Mike Butz, Mike Davis, Mary Lopuszynski, Marty Caffey, Jerry Tarde, Mike OMalley, Larry Dorman, Marsha Edwards, Jay and Natalie Edwards, Len and Gwyn Edwards-Dieterle, Brian and Laurie Edwards, Chris Edwards and John Cutcher, Joe Valerio, Rob Cowan, Andy Kaplan, Chris Svenson, Dennis Satyshur, Billy Andrade, Davis Love III, Jim Furyk, Mike Muehr, Tom Watson, Andy North, Joe Ogilvie, Joe Durant, Bob Low, Don Pooley, John Cook, Jeff Sluman, Peter Jacobsen, Lee Janzen, Brad Faxon, and, of course, Paul Goydos. Norbert Doyle has attended, I believe, every Final Four. Thanks also to my team of orthopods: Eddie McDevitt, Bob Arciero, Gus Mazzocca, and Dean Taylor.

Thanks, as always, to Howard Garfinkel, for understanding, and to Tom Konchalski, the only honest man in the gym, who checked on me constantly after my surgery.

The swimmers: Jeff Roddin, Jason (sorry I cant make it) Crist, John Craig, Mark Pugliese, Carole Kammel, Margot Pettijohn, Susan Williams, Amy Weiss, A. J. Block, Danny Pick, Warren Friedland, Marshall Greer, Tom Denes, Peter Ward, Doug Chestnut, Bob Hansen, Paul Doremus, the peripatetic Penny Bates, and the remarkably patient Mary Dowling. The FWRH group remains intact: Clay Britt, Wally Dicks, and Mike Fell.

The China Doll Gang: Red Auerbach (toughest guy going), Morgan Wootten, Hymie Perlo, Aubre Jones, Sam Jones, Rob Ades, Jack Kvancz (again), Joe McKeown, Stanley Copeland, Reid Collins, Arnie Heft, Pete Dowling, Bob Campbell, Chris (the Rookie) Wallace, Stanley Walker, Harry (the Champ) Huang, Herman Greenberg, Joe Greenberg, Alvin Miller, Johnny Auerbach, Charles Thornton, Bob Ferry, and the ombudsman, George Solomon. Zang is still there, too.