Scott Howard-Cooper's retelling of the UCLA Wooden years is a steady stream of consciousness with a plethora of sports and unrelated trivia. For me, too much of the book focuses on the underbelly of college sports boosters (i.e. Sam Gilbert) and a few disgruntled players. Nonetheless, it did little to take away from my loyal fandom of UCLA and my idolization of Johnny Wooden.
I love coach Wooden's pyramid of success and his many great sayings and lessons. Good or bad, I live my live by "Be quick, but never hurry". I respected his modesty, discipline, intensity, and fair play. He won with small, medium, and tall players. He won consistently when basketball was more of a team sport with little or no dunks and no "cross-over" dribble or "euro-step". It takes more than great players to win 10 out of 12 NCAA championships and 88 games in a row.
The book was a series of flashbacks for me, from Gail Goodrich and Keith Erickson years, the Alcindor years, Wicks and Roe, and the Walton years. The lost weekend chapter was particularly long and a brutal reminder of triple overtime loss to North Carolina State. Liz and I drank entirely too much with her college roommates in Del Mar suffering through the loss. Funny how sports can have that effect.
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