Every year, there are over 330 universities that compete for the National Championship of Division I men's basketball. But over two-thirds of those languish in the shadows of the affluent and constantly-televised major conferences, clamoring for chances to take part in America's greatest three-week sports spectacle: the March Madness of the NCAA Tournament. One Beautiful Season: Inside College Basketball's Mid-Majority follows the intertwined stories of the players and coaches, the families and fans -- even the pep bands and mascots -- who inhabited this sports shadow world during the fateful 2009-10 season.

Written by veteran traveling hoops columnist Kyle Whelliston, with a foreword by Sports Illustrated's Luke Winn, this book is both a celebration of college basketball and an alternative history of the game itself. It is a study of how and why NCAA college basketball split between Davids and Goliaths in the first place, 100 years chronologized and crystallized in One Beautiful Season and one perfect Tournament. It is a 15,000-mile November-to-April journey full of hopes, dreams and heartbreak on the road to the Final Four in Indianapolis, and the story of one team that was one shot away from winning it all.

Cover illustration by Mo Moussa
Cover design by Roni Lagin
ISBN: 978-0-578-06617-2
Price: 16.95/17.95 in Canada

ALSO BY KYLE WHELLISTON
Sports Bubble Blues
I Don't Mind Hitting Bottom, I Just Hate Dragging (with Tony Ingle)
Sole Purpose (with Manny Ohomne)
Bally's Dream (with Beth Ann Cosgrave)

©2010 Kyle Whelliston/Flat Roof Press. All rights reserved.