There are only two more shopping days until Christmas and if you are still trying to find just the right thing for a special ACC fan, I have your solution. The 2005 Blue Ribbon College Basketball Yearbook.
I got an email a while back from Chris Dortch, the editor of this tome asking me if I’d like a copy to check out. Never one to pass up a freebie, I took him up and I’m damn glad I did. Like any hoops fan, I was aware of the Blue Ribbon books – they’ve been out forever – but I guess I didn’t know them as well as I thought I did. In my mind, I lumped them in with dreck like the Street and Smith’s magazines – stuff in black and white that was written months before the season started and was largely out of date by the time I read it. I was wrong.
The Blue Ribbon book is nothing like those Street and Smith’s magazines. Yes, it’s black and white, but it’s thorough. The thing is huge, nearly an inch thick and with comprehensive reviews of every team in the country. The Duke preview alone is four small-print pages – probably the equivalent of ten Sports Illustrated pages. All of the ACC teams, even the doormats like Virginia, get at least two full pages. I’m telling you, it covers everything.
You may think you can get everything you want on the Internet, and maybe you can, but nothing can beat the convenience and completeness of this book. Do you want the skinny on Ole State U’s matchup with Southwestern Utah State A&M? You can read all about SWUAM’s zone press and experienced backcourt here, but you would have to use all of your Google-Fu to find that info out on the web.
The closest book I can compare it to, and this is the highest of praise, is Barry Jacob’s Fan’s Guide To ACC Basketball that is no longer published.
So if you still need to do some last-minute shopping, or if you think you’ve been good yourself, go get a copy of the Blue Ribbon Basketball Yearbook.