Book Review: When March Went Mad

Seth Davis. When March Went Mad: The Game That Transformed Basketball. New York: Times Books, 2009. 307 pages.

Today, college basketball is big business, with massive TV contracts and incredible hype. During the annual NCAA tournament, college basketball mania reaches its apex with “March Madness.” Every red-blooded American fills out a bracket or ten and watches raptly as Cinderellas, dark horses, and favorites vie for supremacy.

But it wasn’t always this way, and Seth Davis’s When March Went Mad tells the story of the single game that arguably made college ball such a big deal: the 1979 tournament final, which pitted Magic Johnson’s Michigan State Spartans against Larry Bird’s Indiana State Sycamores.

Davis has done his research, with nearly 100 interviews and extensive trips to the radio and television archives. The result is a well-written, informative account of the season that led up to the crucial game. He provides ample background on Bird, Johnson, their teammates, and coaches, and puts the reader on the team bus as they crisscross the country over the 1978-9 season.

The Bird/Johnson classic came at a crucial time: the UCLA dynasty that dominated the sport in the 1960s and 1970s had begun to fade and television executives wondered if the public would continue to watch a game with no obvious favorite. With coverage limited, most of the country did not get to see many of the smaller schools play. With the advent of cable television, though, the game could get more exposure. The question is, would anyone watch?

After reaching into the backgrounds of the two principles, Davis charts the entire season in a way that keeps the reader’s interest. By midway through the book, you’ll be eager to learn what happened at the Michigan State/Northwestern game thirty years ago. Davis keeps it interesting enough to get you through the season and into the tournament.

Even if you already know the results of the final game (and most sports fans do), the book is still a fun read. Davis makes a strong case that this game not only set the stage for the Celtics/Lakers rivalry of the 1980s, but profoundly changed the way Americans watched college basketball.

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