Five best books on college basketball

Joshua Robinson is a freelance writer based in Manhattan. He has written over 400 stories for The New York Times across the sports, metro, foreign, and obituary sections since his sophomore year of college. His work has also appeared in The Washington Post, Sports Illustrated, the New York Daily News, The International Herald Tribune, The Sunday Times, and Dow Jones News Wires.

For The Daily Beast he named a list of the five best books on college basketball, including:

A Season on the Brink
by John Feinstein

To understand how easily passion can turn to madness in college basketball, you have to understand Bobby Knight. Or at least try to, the way John Feinstein did for one head-spinning season in Bloomington, Ind. Granted total access to the University of Indiana’s men’s basketball program for the entirety of the 1985-1986 campaign, Feinstein details every twist of Knight’s attempt to salvage a winning record.

And it becomes immediately apparent why his players regarded him with both fear and admiration. Any loss, Feinstein writes, “leaves him angry, frustrated, and unable — or at least unwilling — to deal with the world on civil terms for hours, perhaps days, sometimes weeks, depending on the dimensions of the defeat.” Knight’s incomparable drive, after all, did make him one of the most successful coaches in college basketball history. But it also made him the man who once flung a chair across a court when he didn’t like a call.

Read about another book on the list.

A Season on the Brink is one of Marjorie Kehe's ten best books about college basketball.

--Marshal Zeringue