My Incredible NCAA Journey

Don't Put Me In, Coach by Mark Titus
In high school Mark Titus played basketball with Greg Oden, a future NBA #1 draft pick, and when he doesn't get the scholarship expected to Harvard, he decides instead to follow his friend to Ohio State. He starts of managing the basketball team, but when the team loses a player or two Mark winds up on the actual team. He spends the next 4 years at college, not necessarily playing, but still a member of Ohio State's basketball team.

This wound up being a really funny and amusing memoir. The book seems to promise insider information on a top division 1 program, and while in some ways it does, it's mainly a collection of stories of the the high jinks on the fun times throughout the four years.

My biggest complaint about the book was all the boy bathroom humor. It's just not something I really enjoy reading about. But I get why it's there, and I don't think the book would be the same without it.

One thing I did love about this, as silly as it may sound, was that it's a blog-to-book. Yes, Mark Titus got his book deal because of a blog he wrote while a student athlete. I can't help but enjoy those books, because I always think, "What if that could be me?" A fear always reading these type of books is that the author basically copies & pastes their blogs into book form. I haven't read his blog, so I can't say for sure, but it doesn't feel like this was done here (at least a part from one instances where he comes out and says, "I'm copying this from the blog since I got such great feedback the first time.")

I realize I'm not the target audience but I still enjoyed read this. Yes, there were a few sports jokes I didn't get, but most of those times I asked the boy, and after he laughed he explained them to me. But if I still enjoyed it, I'm sure if you're the target audience, aka a male obsessed with March Madness basketball, you'll probably love this.

4/5

Disclosure: I was provided this book through a Goodreads First Reads giveaway. All opinions expressed are my own.

Today I'm linking up with Blonde Undercover Blonde for Book Club Friday!