Book Review: Blue Blood

Wally was on the road this week and was looking forward to the Duke-Carolina game on Tuesday, so he had a little plane time to read a fair bit of Blue Blood : Duke-Carolina: Inside the Most Storied Rivalry in College Hoops by Art Chansky. Chansky definitely needs a better editor and uses too much slang, but Wally tells us that he's enjoying it so far and has even learned some things about Duke hoops. There's a great story about Coach K standing up to Dean Smith - read it for yourself, as Coach K's statement to old Deano is not something we can repeat on this web site (and quite frankly Wally shoudn't be reading, but that's a subject for another day).

Chansky also sets up the Larry Brown - Art Heyman fight quite well, and really gives the reader a better understanding of why the rivalry is so great, beyond private vs. public school, being so close together and the usual items cited in naming it the best rivalry in college sports (sorry, Michigan-Ohio St.). Chansky's a Carolina grad, but Wally gives him two green thumbs up for a balanced approach. Oh, and that Frank McGuire sounds like a real character.

In its Play magazine on Sunday, The Times gave a thumb up to To Hate Like This Is to Be Happy Forever : A Thoroughly Obsessive, Intermittently Uplifting, and Occasionally Unbiased Account of the Duke-North Carolina Basketball Rivalry by Will Blythe. Wally will check that one out too and let his faithful readership know.

Think the New York Review of Books needs a green monster on staff?