Out of print for more than 30 years, now available for the first time as an eBook, this is the controversial story of John Wooden's first 25 years and first 8 NCAA Championships as UCLA Head Basketball Coach. This is the only book that gives a true picture of the character of John Wooden and the influence of his assistant, Jerry Norman, whose contributions Wooden  ignored and tried to bury.

Compiled with more than 40 hours of interviews with Coach Wooden, learn about the man behind the coach. The players tell their their stories in their own words. This is the book that UCLA Athletic Director J.D. Morgan tried to ban.

Click the book to read the first chapter and for ordering information. Also available on Kindle.

The Change-up (3/10)

by Tony Medley

Run time 112 minutes.

Not for children.

I am sick of filmmakers with high school sophomore-caliber intellects foisting scene after graphic scene of people accomplishing their daily bodily functions, or, in the vernacular, going to the bathroom. This film, which had good potential, is replete with toilet and groin gags. They aren't funny; they are revolting. My feeling is that some people who have progressed beyond their sophomore year in high school might laugh because they are uncomfortable, not because they find these scenes humorous.

Ryan Reynolds and Jason Bateman star in this profane story of identity switch. Bateman, an uptight attorney yearning for partnership, finds himself in the body of Reynolds, his high school buddy who is a womanizing, shiftless lout. It's kind of an untalented ripoff of the two Freaky Fridays. The last one, in 2003, was one of the funniest movies I've ever seen. It didn't need profanity or toilet humor to be funny. Director David Dobkin and writers Jon Lucas and Scott Moore are apparently from the modern school of comedy-killers because they do their best to destroy a good idea and spoil fine performances by Reynolds, Bateman, Alan Arkin, and Olivia Wilde. Surpassing all of them, however, is Leslie Mann who gives a wonderful performance as Bateman's physically and emotionally neglected wife.

There are some scenes that have the potential to be laugh-out-loud, mainly involving Bateman as he is trying to impersonate his buddy's job as an attorney. But the crummy level of the rest of the film destroys any semblance of reasonable humor.

Memo to Dobkin, Lucas, and Moore: You don't have to be profane and disgusting to be funny. But if they were to recut the film to eliminate the scenes of people urinating and defecating, they wouldn't be left with enough to produce a full length feature.

August 1, 2011