Out of print for more than 30 years, now available for the first time as an eBook, this is the controversial story of John Wooden's first 25 years and first 8 NCAA Championships as UCLA Head Basketball Coach. Notre Dame Coach Digger Phelps said, "I used this book as an inspiration for the biggest win of my career when we ended UCLA's all-time 88-game winning streak in 1974."

Compiled with more than 40 hours of interviews with Coach Wooden, learn about the man behind the coach. Click the Book to read the players telling their stories in their own words. This is the book that UCLA Athletic Director J.D. Morgan tried to ban.

Click the book to read the first chapter and for ordering information.

88 Minutes (3/10)

by Tony Medley

Usually the thing that stands out about an Al Pacino movie is his overacting. Al will never be accused of seeming to be “natural” in a film. But this thing looks as if they put the cast and crew together by handing out fliers on Hollywood Boulevard asking if anyone wants to write, direct, or act in a Hollywood movie.

This is such a convoluted, confusing story that tension never mounts. There are so many women involved in the telling that it’s difficult to keep them straight. As a result it’s almost impossible to try to figure out whodunit because it’s almost impossible to figure out who is who.

Dr. Jack Gramm (Al Pacino) is a forensic psychiatrist in Seattle who starts getting telephone calls on his cell phone telling him, initially, that he has 88 minutes to live. Each succeeding call reduced the amount of time, apparently in real time. Unfortunately Director Jon Avnet has surrounded him with so many beautiful women, Kim Cummings (Alicia Witt), Lauren Douglas (Leelee Sobieski), Shelly Barnes (Amy Brenneman), and Carol Johnson (Deborah Carol Unger), and a few others, that I just couldn’t figure any of them out.

Jack doesn’t even seem concerned enough to inform the police, and he works with them all the time. The movie starts with him testifying against Jon Forster (Neal McDonough) and sending him to the death house for a horrific torture death. Nine years later, with Jon scheduled to be executed at midnight, Jack starts receiving his calls.

It’s a barely believable plot. But other barely believable plots have succeeded, like “Speed” (1994). Alas, this one doesn’t. When we finally find out the villain the entire story is revealed to be worse than preposterous. What occurs during the 88 minutes couldn’t possibly occur in 88 minutes. The person who accomplished it couldn’t possibly have done what happens. And it’s not just that the story is pretty lame, the acting is as lame. Leelee Sobieski is particularly inept, although William Forsythe as Special Agent Frank Parks gives her a run for her money. However, maybe it’s not their fault because it would be hard for anyone to be convincing uttering the lines in the script (Gary Scott Thompson). But the direction (Jon Avnet) has to take its responsibility, too because there was never an iota of tension or believability.

There have been some pretty horrid endings already this year, but this one must take the cake for the most ridiculous.

April 18, 2008