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.

Click the book to read the first chapter and for ordering information. Also available on Kindle.

Point Blank (10/10)

by Tony Medley

Run time 90 minutes

Not for children.

If I weren’t on a scale of best out of 10, I’d give this an 11. Brilliantly directed by Fred Cavayé, this starts out with a bang and picks up speed from there. Because it’s not an American big studio film, it is pretty much devoid of special effects. It substitutes a good script and story instead.

Samuel Pierret (Gilles Lellouche) is a fledgling male nurse in a hospital who has a very pregnant wife, Nadia (Elena Anaya). Nadia is kidnapped. Samuel receives a call telling him that she will be killed unless he springs a wounded prisoner, Hugo Sartet (Roschdy Zem) from his hospital room.

That’s what you learn in the first ten minutes. The rest of the film is a non-stop, high tension, chase thriller with Samuel trying to save his wife while being pursued by lots of cops led by Superintendent Werner (Gerard Lanvin). There are lots of twists and turns to this that kept me riveted. I was so involved I didn’t even notice that I was reading subtitles, and can’t remember doing so even after the film has ended.

If this is not a perfect film, it’s a close as one could come. I don’t remember much foul language. There really isn’t much graphic violence. But it is an eminently believable story of an ordinary man suddenly thrust into high adventure, a genre created by novelist Eric Ambler in his string of highly successful World War II-era thrillers, and Samuel reacts in a way that is plausible.

Samuel sets off on a non-stop journey through Paris, into subways, hospitals, warehouses, and police stations trying to find his wife. In the process he gets involved in an intricate plot involving lots of the people with whom he's thrown into contact. It all seems to go from bad to worse.

There might be a few plot holes and there is one scene in which Samuel jumps from one high storied hotel room to a room in another hotel next to it that is impossible. But that’s not enough to tarnish the film.