cover image A Season is a Lifetime: The Inside Story of the Duke Blue Devils and Their Championship Seasons

A Season is a Lifetime: The Inside Story of the Duke Blue Devils and Their Championship Seasons

Bill Brill. Simon & Schuster, $19.5 (0pp) ISBN 978-0-671-79811-6

Duke University's basketball team won the national championship in both 1991 and 1992, an amazing feat, since winners of the NCAA tournament virtually never repeat. After a brief recap of the 1991 tourney, with special attention to the Blue Devils' defeat of University of Nevada at Las Vegas, considered one of the best teams of all time, Brill, past president of the U.S. Basketball Writers Association, concentrates on the 1992 season. His strength lies in analyzing the personalities of coach Krzyzewski and of the players, and showing the interaction among them. His focus is on the two main cogs: Christian Laettner, one of Duke's top sports heroes, and Bobby Hurley, the small point guard from New Jersey who served as the field general. And he shows coach Krzyzewski as a master psychologist, smoothing ruffled feathers and massaging wounded egos. An excellent sports analysis. Photos not seen by PW. (Jan.)