Title/Author:
“The Unlikeliest Champion: The Incredible Story of the 2011
UConn Huskies and Their Run to the College Basketball National Championship” by Aaron Torres
Tags:
Basketball,
college, history
Published:
January 5,
2012
Length:
284 pages
Rating:
4 of 5
stars (very good)
Review:
The
Connecticut Huskies have become one of the elite college basketball programs with
four national championships in fifteen years.
The most improbable of these occurred in the 2010-11 season. This book by journalist and blogger Aaron
Torres recaps that season for the Huskies and also includes short biographies
of many of the players, including All-American guard Kemba Walker.
Walker
gets the lion’s share of credit for the team’s success, but Torres makes sure
to include all players in the book as he relies on research and his knowledge of
Huskies basketball to write a detailed account of not only the championship season,
but also insight into many of the players. It made for an interesting and
informative book in which I learned a lot about that team.
It should
be noted that I made these observations and enjoyed the book even though I am
not a die-hard fan of this team. Because
of this, at times I felt it was written in a fashion that not only showed
Torres’ fandom, but also that he was talking only to other UConn fans and
forgetting that the reader may not have the passion and knowledge that he does.
This isn’t necessarily a bad thing,
especially if reaching out to fellow Huskies fans was his goal, but at times it
just didn’t feel like a book to simply learn about the team.
The book
covers the entire season, and I enjoyed the section on the Huskies’ run during
the Big East tournament as well as the championship tourney. The Huskies’ became the first team to win
five games in five days to win that tournament, which some felt was even harder
than winning the national championship.
Torres does a nice job of covering both of these and putting them into
perspective.
Overall,
this is a very good recap of both the season and the key players that made the
2010-11 season one of the more memorable ones for Huskies basketball. Fans of the team will especially want to read
this book.
Did I skim?
No.
Pace of the book:
Personally,
the book felt a little choppy to me as Torres mixed in chapters on player
biographies in between accounts of the 2010-11 championship season. While this
is a common format and good for breaks in the “action”, so to speak; my
personal preference is for a beginning-to-end continuous recap of the
season.
Do I recommend?
This is a
good read for college basketball fans, especially fans of the University of
Connecticut team. Torres wears his
fandom on his sleeve and it shows in this book. That isn’t necessarily a bad
thing if the reader also roots for that team.
Book Format Read:
Ebook
(Kindle)
Buying Links:
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