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.

The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2/10)

by Tony Medley

Maria Bello.

I think it’s nice to say something nice about a film.

Except for Maria, this is a real dog. She plays Evelyn O’Connell, the mother of Alex O’Connell (Luke Ford). Brendan Fraser returns for the third time as Rick O’Connell, the intrepid explorer of Mummies. The problem is that Luke Ford is 29 years-old. I think Maria is in her late ‘30s and Fraser just broker over 40. This makes about as much sense as having Dakota Fanning play a grandmother.

That is just a little, teenie-weenie bit of the absurdities of this film, which has been made for the sole purpose of displaying special effects. Mummy stories aren’t intended to make much sense. The two in this series had wit and charm to get the audience through them and Fraser gave scintillating performances. This has no wit and little charm and even Fraser’s talent can’t save it. Jet Li appears as the Emperor. From what I’ve seen of Li, playing a dead man is about the only thing that would not be a stretch for him.

This is “Pirates of the Caribbean” buttressed by the latest Indiana Jones fiasco. Like “Pirates,” it has a bunch of dead people who can’t be killed fighting each other. Like “Indiana” it is chock full of silly chases whose outcomes are pre-ordained.

I skipped the screening and saw it in a theater with real people. I clocked it at 105 minutes, but I could be wrong. It certainly seemed a lot longer than that, but my watch is pretty accurate. I know I shaved before entering the theater but people were mistaking me Santa Claus when I exited.

The Emperor dies as the result of a curse put on him by Zi Juan (Michelle Yeoh), but she is immortal. If someone can bring him back to life and other things happen, he can be immortal, too. The film throws lots of barriers he must cross. First he has to do this and then he has to do that and then he has to do something else. Eventually he gets to do them all, all the while being chased by the O’Connells and Lin (Isabella Leong), who is Zi Juan’s daughter, also immortal, but who falls for Alex. They all want to kill the Emperor by driving a special knife through his heart.

For women, however, all is not lost. Fraser and Ford are, apparently, hunks, so they have something to look at. Except for that, this is all a bunch of stuff to just have lots of chases and lots of special effects. It ends by implying that there are also some Mummies in Peru, so a fourth installment is on the drawing boards. More’s the pity.