All The Moves

A History of College Basketball By Neil D. Isaacs '53 Harper & Row, 1984. 378 pp., $11.95 paperback

This 1984 revision of All the Moves the original edition, published in 1975, was not reviewed in the Alumni Magazine— should satisfy even the most insatiable college basketball buff. Neil Isaacs loves detail. His "history" is largely a chronicle of successful college basketball coaches and players: over 300 of the former and 1400 of the latter are mentioned in the text and listed (with college affiliation) in the index. Since success in college basketball has for the last half century been measured by performance in national tournaments, Isaacs also provides detailed coverage of both the NIT, which for years was the nation's premier post season event, and the NCAA, which dominates now. All the Moves also includes nearly 200 photographs. It's a superb book to stimulate reminiscence about the great moments and men in college basketball history.

Isaacs, who is a professor of English at the University of Maryland, is concerned with the general as well as the specific. A diligent reader could use material in the book to trace the development of such subjects as styles of coaching, basketball tactics, the recruitment of athletes, and the relationship between college and professional sports. Part 5, "Black is Beautiful," deals with racial integration in college basketball. Issacs' discussion of integration is brief only two pages of text but the second half of All the Moves provides abundant episodic material on the massive impact black players have had on college basketball. Part 8, "Prime Time Players in a Coaches Game," contains many perceptive observations about the influence of television on the sport. At no point, however, does Isaacs let the academic passion for generational get out of hand. Isaacs the basketball fan dominates Isaacs the college professor.

One final set of observations. For the most part, All the Moves, avoids the parading of personal likes and dislikes that infects much popular writing about sports. But not always. The one section in which Isaacs indulges his dislikes, "Plastic Man, Wooden Soldiers," treats UCLA's ascent to national supremacy under coach John Wooden in the 19705. Here, Isaacs carps about Wooden's rigidity, credits the coaching assistants with much of the program's success, and emphasizes team dissension as much as the quality of team play. The tone of the section contrasts sharply with the tone of the book as a whole.

Another of Isaacs' biases should be applauded by readers of this review. He's very fond of Dartmouth basketball and has taken advantage of every opportunity to emphasize its successes. "For decades," he writes at one point, "New England basketball had been colored Big Green. Under Lew Wachter, Dolly Stark, and Osborne Cowles, Dartmouth had been the dominant basketball power in the Ivy League. . . . Beginning in 1938 . . . they won the conference eight out of nine years. . . . Seven times through 1946, the District 1 berth in the NCAA went to New England, and four of those seven teams came from Hanover. . . . Twice Dart- mouth went to the finals, losing to Stanford in 1942 and by just two points to Utah in 1944." Isaacs devotes nearly a full page to the game which must have been the high point in his undergraduate career as a basketball fan, Dartmouth's upset victory over Holy Cross in 1953. He also gives ample attention to the teams led by Rudy Laßusso in the late 19505. Should there be a renaissance in Dartmouth basketball, it's a good bet Neil Isaacs will be out there cheering the team on. Until that happens, he'll have to get his kicks out of knowing he's responsible for the best history of college basketball in print.

Jere Daniell, the Class of 1925 Professor of History at Dartmouth, managed the basketball team as an undergraduate and played in the fraternity league more than a quarter of a century.