Overview
For sheer intensity and excitement, few contests can match a college basketball game—unless it's one played between two in-state, longtime conference foes separated by only a few miles of the hoops highway known as"Tobacco Road." The four major Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) schools in North Carolina have won eight NCAA titles and continue to dominate the modern college game like no other area in the country. The winners of three national titles, the North Carolina Tar Heels have been a basketball powerhouse since the 1950s. Longtime coach Dean Smith and his famous "Four Corners" offense changed how the game was played and ultimately forced the introduction of the shot clock. Down the road, the N.C. State Wolfpack won two national championships, and their coach Jimmy Valvano brought an extroverted enthusiasm to coaching still recalled with fondness and admiration. A powerhouse of big-time college basketball for five decades, the Duke Blue Devils, coached by Vic Bubas and later Mike Krzyzewski, have been to twelve Final Fours and have won three NCAA titles since 1991. In Winston-Salem the Wake Forest Demon Deacons have produced eleven All-Americans, ten ACC Players of the Year, and scores of successful NBA players. Collectively the Big Four have made North Carolina the center of the basketball universe. This is their story.Synopsis
For sheer intensity and excitement, few contests can match a college basketball game—unless it's one played between two in-state, longtime conference foes separated by only a few miles of the hoops highway known as"Tobacco Road." The four major Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) schools in North Carolina have won eight NCAA titles and continue to dominate the modern college game like no other area in the country.
The winners of three national titles, the North Carolina Tar Heels have been a basketball powerhouse since the 1950s. Longtime coach Dean Smith and his famous "Four Corners" offense changed how the game was played and ultimately forced the introduction of the shot clock. Down the road, the N.C. State Wolfpack won two national championships, and their coach Jimmy Valvano brought an extroverted enthusiasm to coaching still recalled with fondness and admiration. A powerhouse of big-time college basketball for five decades, the Duke Blue Devils, coached by Vic Bubas and later Mike Krzyzewski, have been to twelve Final Fours and have won three NCAA titles since 1991. In Winston-Salem the Wake Forest Demon Deacons have produced eleven All-Americans, ten ACC Players of the Year, and scores of successful NBA players.
Collectively the Big Four have made North Carolina the center of the basketball universe. This is their story.
Library Journal
North Carolina is a college basketball powerhouse--home of the Duke Blue Devils, the University of North Carolina Tar Heels, North Carolina State's Wolfpack, and Wake Forest's Demon Deacons. This is an account of how these programs evolved, starting with the turbulent changes in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when college basketball became a big money sport attracting the attention of gamblers and the infant television industry. Sportswriter Menzer (The Carolina Panthers, Macmillan, 1996) uses extensive interviews to paint a colorful picture of the personalities of the coaches and players behind the history. A good choice for any library collecting team histories or where John Feinstein's A March to Madness: The View from the Floor in the Atlantic Coast Conference (LJ 1/98) has been in demand.--Terry Jo Madden, Boise State Univ. Lib., ID
Editorials
Booklist
“This is a wonderful reading experience for anyone who enjoys college basketball.”—BooklistBooklist
“This is a wonderful reading experience for anyone who enjoys college basketball.”—Booklist