Good Enough to Be Great: The Inside Story of Maryland Basketball's National Championship Season

When I heard about this book, I had an idealistic hope that the book would be very detailed and interesting- Barr was the beat writer, the books title ('the inside story') , and because it took so long to come out (why wasnt it out before xmas?). i assumed it would have a ton that we didnt already read in the papers, saw on tv during the games, talked about on message board, etc.

but it didnt. It was just a summary. A great story but Maryland fans have heard it already.

I didnt really learn anything new from the book. it was very short (about 190 pages) , and i finished it in less than 2 hours probably.

There werent a ton of factual errors but the ones that were in were blatant and annoying. For instance, he says that Maryland lost to Arizona in the NCAAs the year after Steve Francis left, but any casual Maryland can tell you that is mistaken.

The question is - is Josh Barr just trying to make some money off Maryland's successful season? You decide.


A hell of a read   January 23, 2003
 7 out of 9 found this review helpful

This is a great book. I'm not even a big Maryland fan, and I found the whole story riveting. Josh Barr is an excellent reporter who was able to get all sorts of insider details that other reporters couldn't. He clearly knew the coaches and the players really well, but he also doesn't pull any punches. The road to a national championship is always a tough one, but it's amazing what this team had to go through along the way. The book really reinforces what an incredible player and leader Juan Dixon was. Lots of stories I had never heard before.