The Divine Nature of Basketball: My Season Inside the Ivy League
If John Feinstein set the standard in covering a college basketball campaign in his landmark A Season on the Brink—on coach Bob Knight’s 1985–86 Indiana Hoosiers—Breslin still animates the form with this account of Yale University’s 2011–12 team. So strongly and often does Breslin voice his unbridled passion for the game that it actually intrudes on his narrative at times. And he throws up the occasional brick: “My rush was so strong I felt like a bulimic at a Roman banquet.” But it’s reasonably countered by solid reporting on the gritty work carried out by Yale coach James Jones, his assistant coaches, and his players to prepare and sustain themselves for the grind of a Division I schedule. Breslin offers especially insightful and detailed breakdowns of the team’s practice sessions and vivid play-by-plays of each game. If Feinstein gives readers an unvarnished look at an NCAA powerhouse, Breslin shows how beautiful—even, yes, divine—the college game can be away from the national spotlight. --Alan Moores