Going Bigtime: The Spectacular Rise of UMass Basketball

Title: Going Bigtime: The Spectacular Rise of UMass Basketball
Author: Marty Dobrow
ISBN: 9780964525016
Publisher: Summerset Pr
Published: 1999
Binding: Hardcover
Language: English
Condition: Used: Very Good
Clean, unmarked copy with some edge wear. Good binding. Dust jacket included if issued with one. We ship in recyclable American-made mailers. 100% money-back guarantee on all orders.

B 1537835

Publisher Description:
Going Bigtime: The Spectacular Rise of UMass Basketball lives up to its name and then some. While documenting the extraordinary and rapid ascent of the school's basketball program from among the nation's worst to the Final Four, Going Bigtime also covers the entire sweep of UMass basketball history, which includes the college careers of Julius Erving and Rick Pitino.

Dobrow doesn't ignore the price a bucolic state university pays for going bigtime: a grades scandal, a brilliant but erratic coach, the infamous "John Chaney incident" and a star player taking illegal payments from agents, in UMass's case.

Primarily Dobrow emphasizes UMass's 1995-96 season, one of the most fascinating in the history of college basketball. Included are non-pareil profiles of protagonists like National Player of the year Marcus Camby -- "...more goldenrod than dandelion -- physically, intellectually and emotionally, he was a late bloomer" -- and Coach John Calipari --" the man from Moon reaching for the stars" -- as well as many unreported moments and anecdotes from that near-championship season.

When John became UMass basketball coach in 1988, he inherited one of the country's worst programs. When he left in 1996, the Minutement were America's darlings.