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. This is the only book that gives a true picture of the character of John Wooden and the influence of his assistant, Jerry Norman, whose contributions Wooden  ignored and tried to bury.

Compiled with more than 40 hours of interviews with Coach Wooden, learn about the man behind the coach. The players tell their 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. Also available on Kindle.

30 Minutes or Less (4/10)

by Tony Medley

Run time 83 minutes.

Not for Children.

This is just another reprehensible, profane film masquerading as a comedy. Oscar®-nominee Jesse Eisenberg wastes his talents on this relatively unfunny tale of a pizza delivery man who has a bomb strapped to his body to get him to rob a bank. What's worse is that this "comedy" is based on a true incident that occurred in 2003 in which a pizza delivery man with a bomb strapped to his body robbed a bank, asked the police to help him and was then blown up. That's not funny; it's a tragedy, and it's a disgrace that Hollywood wants to make it into a comedy.

The first hour of this is truly dreadful, filled with gutter language and tedious situations. Director Ruben Fleischer and screenwriter Michael Diliberti strain for laughs, mostly by the new school filmmaking gimmick of substituting shocking language for humor.

Eisenberg is an Oscar®-nominee. He should feel an obligation to his craft to avoid junk like this. His appearance in this film degrades his reputation.

The movie finally comes alive in the last half hour when Michael Peña makes his appearance as a hit man from Detroit. But for him, I couldn't give this more than a 1. He makes the last half hour entertaining. Without him it would be a complete waste of time.

August 4, 2011