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.

Shame (3/10)

by Tony Medley

Run time 100 minutes.

Not for children.

Anybody going to see this as a voyeur to get a sexual rush should be advised that there is nothing sexy in this film. There's lots of nudity, but it's far from erotic.

Why would Carey Mulligan, an accomplished, talented young actress with fine credentials, agree to do a film with full frontal nudity? Her nude scene has nothing to do with sex, or even with the story, such as it is. It's a shower scene. There's no reason for her to have to agree to such a scene, other than it does seem that every actress in the film must have had to agree to at least one topless scene, because most of the ones with speaking parts take off their shirts. But now Mulligan is going to have to live the rest of her life with her nude scenes on porn sites on the internet. How discerning is that as a career move?

Directed by Steve McQueen, it's a dark movie without a raison d'être. Brandon (Michael Fassbender) is a guy with a sexual obsession. The movie starts with him exhausted after a night of sex, getting out of bed and walking towards the camera, totally naked. Right here we see why he was cast because the guy is, well, hung. Then we see him urinate. The shot is from the back and we see his hangieness through his legs and the urine coming out of it.

I would estimate that at least half of the movie's run time consists of Fassbender either masturbating, rutting, thinking, or running. The other half isn't even that interesting. McQueen doesn't get into what is the cause of Fassbender's problem. It just shows how he is.

Mulligan is his sister, Cissy, so if you're going to see her perform some explicit sex act, forget it. She's naked in the shower scene and then she wears a skimpy white, see-through full body shirt right after that scene.

It is really slow. How slow is it? I had to take a bathroom break about 20 minutes from the end. When I left, Fassbender and Mulligan were sitting in front of a TV set talking with the camera behind them. When I returned, the scene hadn't changed. I can't imagine I missed anything. It would be hard to believe that the only substantive scene in the entire movie appeared in the few minutes I missed.

The film gets real down and dirty about 3/4 of the way through as Fassbender wanders through a gay sex bar with scenes of gay men doing all sorts of things to each other, and one does something to Fassbender. But it's all simulated and coyly out of camera range; you know the deal, someone slides down in front of him and then we see him become orgasmic through the expression on his face. Hey, if you're going for an NC-17 rating, why not show the real thing?

I guess it deserves its NC-17 rating, but it's not because of explicit sex acts. McQueen probably wanted the rating to get someone to go see it. Without that rating, it's unlikely to attract crowds. This is a glacial, flimsy, insubstantial, frivolous wink at a serious subject. As an example, it ignores the effects of Brandon's actions on the women he uses. Except for his sister, all the women are just cardboard cutouts devoid of emotion or feelings (but with photogenic breasts). It deserves a new rating, L for lousy.