If there’s one thing many Kentuckians have in common, it’s a love for college basketball. Especially during March, there’s nothing quite like the excitement of filling out your tournament bracket and watching it inevitably get busted, all while still hoping that the Kentucky Wildcats make it to the championship game.
But with the cancellation of regional and national tournaments this year, as well as requests from government officials to stay home as much as possible in light of the spread of COVID-19, many may be left wondering how to spend their extra time and how to cope with the fact that this March will look much different.
Here at the University Press of Kentucky, we’d like to encourage you to keep the March Madness spirit alive by picking up one (or even a few) of our great basketball reads below! Even though you can’t watch the Cats vie for the national title, you can learn more about your favorite coaches, teams, and figures in the history of Kentucky basketball and the NCAA at large. Purchase now at kentuckypress.com so you can become an expert in time for March Madness next year!
CHANGING THE GAME details the life of college sports marketing pioneer Jim Host, who brought unimaginable revenue to college sports and made March Madness into what we know it to be today! Among other things, Host and his team developed the NCAA Radio Network and introduced the NCAA Corporate Sponsor Program, which employed companies such as Gillette, Valvoline, Coca-Cola, and Pizza Hut to promote university athletic programs and the NCAA at large. CHANGING THE GAME explores Host’s achievements in sports radio, management, and broadcasting; his time in minor league baseball, real estate, and the insurance business; and his foray into Kentucky politics. This memoir also provides a behind-the-scenes look at the growth of big-time athletics and offers solutions for current challenges facing college sports.
Until I was nine or ten, everyone called me Joe or Joe Hall. Then one day, my grandmother, for reasons known only to her, pulled me aside, telling me my name was “too short and too plain.” She said, “Let’s add your middle initial to make it more interesting. From now on, you say your name is Joe B., not just Joe. It’s Joe B. Hall.”
In COACH HALL, former UK men’s basketball coach Joe B. Hall reveals never-before-heard stories about memorable players, coaches, and friends and expresses the joys and fulfillments of his rewarding life and career. Joe B. Hall is one of only three men to both play on an NCAA championship team (1949, Kentucky) and coach an NCAA championship team (1978, Kentucky), and the only one to do so for the same school. During his thirteen years as the head coach at UK, Joe B. Hall led the team to a grand total of 297 victories!
Known as the “Man in the Brown Suit” and “The Baron of the Bluegrass,” Adolph Rupp (1901–1977) is a towering figure in the history of college athletics. In ADOLPH RUPP AND THE RISE OF KENTUCKY BASKETBALL, historian James Duane Bolin goes beyond the wins and losses to present a full-length biography of Rupp based on more than 100 interviews as well as court transcripts, newspaper accounts, and other archival materials. Rupp’s teams won 4 NCAA championships (1948, 1949, 1951, and 1958), 1 NIT title in 1946, and 27 SEC regular season titles. Rupp’s influence on the game of college basketball and on his adopted home of Kentucky are both much broader than his impressive record on the court.
Joe B. Hall, Jack “Goose” Givens, Rick Robey, and Kyle Macy–these names occupy a place of honor in Rupp Arena, home of the “greatest tradition in the history of college basketball.” The team and coaches who led the University of Kentucky Wildcats to their 94–88 victory over the Duke Blue Devils in the 1978 national championship game are legendary. In FORTY MINUTES TO GLORY, Doug Brunk presents an inside account of this celebrated squad and their championship season from summer pick-up games to the net-cutting ceremony in St. Louis. Brunk interviewed every surviving player, coach, and student manager from the 1977–1978 team, and shares unbelievable tales and heart-wrenching moments,
In WILDCAT MEMORIES, author Doug Brunk brings together some of the greatest coaches, players, and personalities from the UK men’s basketball program to reflect on Kentuckians who provided inspiration, guidance, and moral support during their tenure as Wildcats. Featuring personal essays and behind-the-scenes stories from Kentucky legends Wallace “Wah Wah” Jones, Dan Issel, Joe B. Hall, Kyle Macy, Tubby Smith, Patrick Patterson, Darius Miller, and John Wall, this heartfelt collection shares an inside look at what makes UK basketball extraordinary. In candid firsthand accounts, the players and coaches discuss their incredible Kentucky support systems and offer a glimpse into the rarely seen personal side of life as a Wildcat.
Already read the books above? See below for more great basketball titles, and check them out here!
Winner of the 2019 Kentucky Historical Society’s Lifetime Dedication to Kentucky History Award: 
proposal for a Confederate monument evoked allegorical representations of fame and victory. In Nashville, she produced a monumental figure of the Greek goddess Athena for the Tennessee Centennial. Shifting from classical exemplars in her public statuary of monuments and architectural elements of the fairs, Enid’s work became more expressive after the 1890s. Strikingly different from the classical statuary of her works for public spectacle and her traditionally posed busts, in this new body of work, Enid garnered praise alongside a developing public for her art. By late in the decade, she had already developed some interest in busts, usually commemorative, and figureens. Living in Paris, she came into contact with cutting-edge works of sculpture by artists such as Auguste Rodin (1840–1917), with whom Enid grew acquainted on her subsequent stays in Europe as a professional artist from the late 1890s onward. Rodin’s The Kiss (1892), a carved block of marble revealing two figures entwined in each other’s arms, was shown at the Paris Salon in 1898. About this time, Enid began to develop a body of work that took a dramatic turn in terms of form and in its emphasis of expressive qualities and sensuality, emphasizing themes of love, loss, and companionship on a scale both small and large.
intentional practice of choosing an exposition of form that conveyed meaning. And in 1899, amidst the swirl of activity in her studios in Paris and New York, Enid was clearly in pursuit of passion. 
