Tales from the Arizona Wildcats Hardwood | 
 enlarge | Author: Steve Rivera
Publisher: Sports Publishing LLC
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $1.78
You Save: $18.17 (91%)
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Rating:  4 reviews
Sales Rank: 990506
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 200
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.8 x 0.8
ISBN: 1582616167
Dewey Decimal Number: 796.323630979173
EAN: 9781582616162
Publication Date: October 2004
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Condition: Brand new item. Perfect condition.
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| Editorial Reviews:
Product Description
The images are forever etched in the minds of Arizona basketball fans, from Miles Simon falling to the court clutching the basketball as Arizona won its first and only NCAA title in 1997, to Lute Olson's hair being mussed in the process, to Jason Terry sleeping in his uniform for four consecutive games in the middle of all the madness. All are indelible in wildcats history as Arizona calmly drove the winding and bumpy road to the Final Four and beyond. Before Simon, Terry, and Olson, however, there were the likes of Sean Elliott, Steve Kerr, Fred Enke, and Pop Mckale--all pivotal figures in Arizona's hoops history. There were also Fred Snowden, Mo and Stewart Udall, and a host of others who helped bring prominence to a school looking for respect in the Southwest first, and then in the rest of the nation. Arizona's rise has made them one of television's must-see teams and one of the country's top winning programs over the past 25 years. In Tales from the Arizona Wildcats Hardwood, author Steve Rivera takes readers back to the time when James Pierce wanted to be more of a movie idol than a coach. They will learn about the troubled times of the 1950s and '60s when racial tensions were high and how Arizona's first black player, Hadie Redd, dealt with them. Rivera also details Arizona's participation in the Border Conference, its switch to the Western Athletic Conference, and its current dominance of the Pacific-10 Conference. Fans will hear from Bob "Big Bird" Elliott, who helped Snowden achieve heights never before seen in the UA program as it fell one game short of the Final Four; from favorite son Steve Kerr, who suffered heartache and achieved hero status while at Arizona; and about theups and downs of Miles Simon, the Most Valuable Player of UA's NCAA championship, as he became a star while in an Arizona uniform. The troubles the program has faced are also detailed, like Ben Lindsey failing as coach in his one and only year; the academic troubles of Simon and Joseph Blair; and the unfortunate death of Bobbi Olson, Coach Lute Olson's wife of 47 years. Tales from the Arizona Wildcats Hardwood is sure to be a must-have book for any true Arizona fan.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Incredibly Poor June 30, 2008
To give you an idea of the quality of this book, it begins something like this: "Seven years after John Naismith invented the game of basketball..." It seems like a book about basketball should not make a mistake when naming the inventor of the game (It was James Naismith). This book really couldn't be much worse. How this author can be so well regarded (According to the book jacket) is beyond me. In one instance, he uses the word "tolds." Well, perhaps not the word "tolds," because I don't believe it to be a word, but you get my point.
Save your money. This could be an interesting and outsdanding book, but is unfortunately and simlpy a disaster.
Terrible "book" that ever die-hard fans should avoid January 23, 2006
5 out of 7 found this review helpful
First, let me say I am a huge AZ Bball fan, and it would not take much to make me happy - but this "book" is terrible and an attempt to just take as much money from fans with as little work as possible. I put the word "book" in quotes, because it really isn't a book - it is just a collection of very short paragraphs that are unrelated to each other. Each tiny paragraph is separated by lots of white space and a seperate "headline". Because of the book size and all the white space, I think the entire book would only be about 9 or 10 pages as a single-spaced Word file (of course, since the subject changes every three sentences, it would be just as unreadable in that form). It is separated into eras (sort of) but is not even entirely cronological. It appears that random paragraphs were taken out of newspaper articles and each one carefully shorn of any context, then vomited into a book. How bad? I wouldn't keep it my house (and I have old press guides and gobs of other Wildcat stuff), and I wouldn't even list it here as used (because I am not going to inflict this on a fellow fan) - I tossed it in the garbage. Avoid this!
 Wildcat Fans Must Read. February 24, 2005
I only gave this book 3 stars because I was deeply disappointed with the writing style. Example: "Little did anyone know that CmCray had a secret. Before the game--at his home--he had drank alcohol before the game to ease his mind". Yes, we get it--it was BEFORE THE GAME. I was ready to give this book the highest rating just because it was about Arizona basketball. My beloved Wildcats. Steve Rivera seems to be a little too much in love with his own writing. The book is broken up into segments such as "Late 80's" or "Early 90's", and each section has short (one paragraph) stories from the, and about, the players and coaches who were instrumental during that era. There is a loose structure to the time line and these stories are often told and placed in random order. All in all though, I am delighted that someone thought the Cats are important enough to write a book about the history of the program. A better project would have been one of those "A Season With . . ." Picking a year and writing in diary fashion about everything that happened during a particular year. However, if you are a Wildcat fan this is an absolute must-read. If you are not, then I would probably recommend that you do not waste the money since their is very little here for the average basketball fan. It is a book that cheers the Wildcats, and rightfully so I suppose. I only wish that there was some real reporting, some "inside" stuff about Lute, Sean (both of them), Steve, Damon, Jason (all three of them), Chris, Khalid, Gilbert, Loren, and on and on. GO CATS!!!!
 Inside stuff from the dean of Wildcat basketball writers October 16, 2004
3 out of 6 found this review helpful
In his first book, award-winning Tucson Citizen reporter Steve Rivera does a fine job of going behind the scenes of the nationally ranked Arizona Wildcats and their Hall of Fame coach, Lute Olson. Rivera covered Sean Elliott, Steve Kerr, Luke Walton, Damon Stoudamire, Mike Bibby, Richard Jefferson, Jason Terry and other Wildcats before they went on to the pros and offers new kernels of info for even the most die-hard Wildcat fan. It's an entertaining read that makes a great gift for that Arizona fan on your list, but it's also a good gift for any fan of college basketball. The publishers have released other books on top intercollegiate programs. Rivera's book on Arizona easily matches the quality of the rest of the series.
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