Transition Game: How Hoosiers Went Hip-Hoop - Softcover

L. Jon Wertheim is an award-winning writer for Sports Illustrated. He is the author of Venus Envy, a book about Venus Williams and the women's pro tennis circuit. Wertheim also regularly appears as a sports commentator on TV stations such as ESPN, CNN, and Fox, and on sports radio.

*Starred Review* Wertheim, a Sports Illustrated writer, graduated from basketball-crazy Bloomington North High School in south-central Indiana in 1989. When he was in school, his classmates played typical Indiana ball, founded on crisp cuts, screens, and accurate midrange shooting, all performed at ground level. The new Bloomington Cougars, now a state powerhouse under coach Tom McKinney, play a hip-hop, high-flying style more akin to the NBA than to the classic Indiana style on view in the movie Hoosiers. Wertheim uses the changes at his old high school as a base to understand the changes in basketball throughout the country. He explores the history of the Indiana Pacers NBA team, now operated by Larry Bird, who, as a Boston Celtic, embodied the fundamental soundness that purists now claim is missing from the game. He also goes to Indiana University, where he explores that program's tumultuous--but generally very successful--history under controversial coach Bob Knight and his successor, Mike Davis. But Wertheim always comes back to Bloomington North, where McKinney maintains the fine line between demanding sound fundamentals while accommodating his players' desire for a more personally expressive style. And the book touches on more than just hoops. The lives of today's high-schoolers are both different from and similar to previous generations, but rather than just noting the disparities, Wertheim ponders their implications. A wonderfully written peek into the modern game and the people who coach it and play it. Wes Lukowsky
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