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.

Magic Mike (1/10)

by Tony Medley

Runtime 110 minutes.

Not for children.

A-G-0-N-Y. That's how I spell this 110 minutes. A story of male strippers in Tampa, Florida, starring Channing Tatum (who also produced), this is a complete waste of time exhibiting enough male pelvic thrusts to last several lifetimes exacerbated by all the male dancers constantly grabbing themselves.

Tatum is a former male model who found acting, after working as a 19-year-old male stripper, an experience upon which he based this film. He's worked a lot in forgettable movies, except for 21 Jump Street, which I liked. This one is so bad that it can't be termed "forgettable." Whenever I think of horrible movies, I won't be able to forget it.

Technically, director Steven Soderbergh must have saved money buying film stock because the color is so washed out it could pass for black & white. The audio is so bad I often yearned for subtitles.

It's peopled by basically unknown actors, except for the two hunks, Tatum and Matthew McConaughey, who seems to appear in every other movie produced this year.

The "plot" (you should pardon the expression) is that Mike (Tatum) takes 19-year-old Adam (Alex Pettyfer) under his wing to bring him into the fold of the male strip club owned by Dallas (McConaughey). In the process Mike becomes involved with Paige Brooke (Cody Horn), Adam's sister. She's the only character in the film who has a head that's screwed on right, which makes her attraction for Mike all the more unbelievable.

If this is intended to be character development, showing how Mike realizes the vacuity of his life, something is seriously missing from the film. The "plot" seems to be little more than feeble justification for a peep show for women.

Soderbergh, who has 34 films to his credit as a director, apparently forgot everything he ever might have known about pace, because this thing meanders on and on and on with no place to go, or even pass through.

The only positive is that Horn gives a fine performance. I've only seen Tatum play low-IQ types with a constant expression of bewilderment on his face. He does that very well.

Maybe women like seeing buff guys thrust their stuff in bikini bottoms, but I can't imagine any straight guy being anything other than disgusted by this film.