The Last Amateurs: Playing for Glory
and Honor in Division I College
Basketball by John Feinstein
A Tale With An Emotional Resonance For College Hoops Fans
If theres any doubt about John Feinstein being one of sports true
believers, The Last Amateurs readily dispels it. After years of smartly
dissecting our games at their highest levels in bestsellers like The Majors,
A Good Walk Spoiled, and A Season on the Brink, he returns to
dissecting our games at their purest level, ground he first staked out quite
stirringly in A Civil War, his chronicle of Army-Navy football. In The Last
Amateurs, he mines the 1999-2000 season of Patriot League basketball.
Given the high-stakes, high-profile, and often dirty world of college hoops
these days, Feinstein comes up with a remarkably refreshing place to
visit, a sporting environment short on scandals, prima donnas, and
sneaker contracts, but long on a pure passion for the game that
complements achievement in the classroom. In the leagues seven
schools--Bucknell, Lehigh, Lafayette, Colgate, Holy Cross, Army, and

Navy--academics come first, the hardwood second. These are campuses
populated by students who happen to be athletes, not athletes stopping
off on the way to lucrative careers in professional sports. Indeed, these
are young athletes who have their post-college focus on the rest of their
lives, not the NBA. Sports, for them, builds character, not bank accounts.
Still, the Patriot League is a Division I conference, with its champion
earning an automatic berth in the NCAA tournament. It takes the games
seriously--often, as Feinstein reveals, heartbreakingly so--even if it
doesnt necessarily play to ACC, SEC, Big 10, and Pac-10 standards.
Feinsteins interviewing, skillful as ever, brings the players, coaches, and
administrators of the colleges in this league to full form, making The Last
Amateurs a rarity among sports books--a smart volume about smart
people with their heads and priorities pointed in the right direction. Like
the conference itself, its in a league of its own. --Jeff Silverman
Personal Review: The Last Amateurs: Playing for Glory and
Honor in Division I College Basketball by John Feinstein
I generally enjoy Feinstein's writings and his commentary. 'The Last
Amateurs' is Feinstein's best work. Following his standard procedure,
Feinstein gets inside access to the teams of the Patriot League, an east
coast league of mostly small private colleges. At the time the schools did
not offer athletic scholarships. The players played because they wanted to
keep playing competitive hoops and they were all required to be real
students.
These games are played in small arenas far way from the glare of the big
time spotlight. Nonetheless, these players and coaches passionately want
to win. The big dream is to make the NCAA post-season tournament. The
conference torunament championship that determines which team goes to
the the Big Dance is one of the great sporting events on the modern
scene.
With very few exceptions, none of these players have the slightest chance
of making the NBA. For the coaches, things are a little different because
coaching college hoops is their career and they are looking to move up.
Feinstein does a great job of taking the reader behind the scenes. In a
way, these players and games are the ideal of amateur competition that
has a deep emotional resonance for many fans - and therein lies a danger
that too much exposure will ruin the very thing that makes the league
attractive.
Highly recommended for college sports fans.
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