Interview With Michael Litos, Author of ‘Cinderella’
Continue Reading April 3rd, 2007
Because I was at last year’s DC regional to see George Mason beat UConn and Wichita State and this year’s NCAA Tournament was in full swing, I felt like reading Michael Litos’ entertaining and informative book, Cinderella: Inside the Rise of Mid-Major College Basketball. So I did and enjoyed Michael’s insider look at the Colonial Athletic Association’s landmark 2005-06 season. Check out the ensuing interview down below, read Extrapolater’s review of the book, pick up Cinderella on Amazon and pay a visit to Litos’ blog … all come recommended.
1. So you set out to write a book chronicling a season in the CAA, and the conference just happens to put two teams in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 20 years and one of them, against all odds, makes it to the Final Four. Does this preternatural good luck carry over into the rest of your life? Or do you have a time machine? If so, will Florida three-peat in 2008?
I can tell you if I had a time machine, I’d be nowhere near here. You would likely find me in about 1921, drinking and playing cards with Babe Ruth as we traveled on trains across the country. And I consider myself the Earl Hickey of college basketball anyway. It’s more karma than luck. If you try to live your life right, good things come back to you. I still shake my head at not just George Mason’s run, but also at the incredible success of all mid majors. It was truly a special season that I was fortunate to see up close.
Florida will most definitely not three-peat, though it may be important to note that I didn’t have Florida two-peating in any of my brackets.
2. I think most college hoops fans recall George Mason’s Tony Skinn punching Hofstra’s Loren Stokes in the man parts during last season’s CAA Tournament. What I had no clue about though is that the next day “Stokes was still urinating blood from the previous night’s punch.” At risk of asking a stupid and stomach-turning question, what the hell happened there?
At risk of going all Marcus Welby on you, and realizing the worst personal experience for me is a poorly played ground ball off the cup, a latent effect of a direct cheapie to the nether region is, well, you know. It’s interesting that you ask about that, though. It was important to me to provide the story beyond boxscores and press conference quotes. I wanted to bring readers the Hofstra locker room immediately following the George Mason game, and the pain Loren Stokes felt 24 hours later. It’s the experience of it all that defines mid major hoops; it is that experience I hoped to convey.
3. Did you really think Greg Gumbel’s last name is spelled “Gumball,” as he’s referred to many times in the book, or were you just trying to tweak the guy?
And now I will give you a scoop; something I have yet to admit publicly. I feel miserable about it, but in so many ways it is funny.
When I was growing up, we used to mangle sports celebrities names just for the fun of it. You know, the exact things 10-year old boys discuss while shooting the heads off of plastic army men with their BB guns. Of course, the Gumbel brothers were so named after the sugary treat. It obviously stuck with my subconscious and made it into print 30 years later.
It’s an innocent and unintentional error and I wasn’t trying for the tweak. Even though he badly needs a new haircut, Gumbel does a great job running the show.
4. In the acknowledgements you wrote, “I can’t even begin to describe the moments immediately following the buzzer ending in the George Mason/Connecticut game … There are so many moments, I could fill another book with those personal stories.” Could you give us a good one that didn’t make it into the book?
First, there was the surreal feel in the arena. It was really a matter of everybody knowing something significant had just taken place, but not knowing what it was, nor how they should react. There were Zombie Faces on some of the most intelligent people I’ve ever met.
As for stories, there are the personal ones that mean more to me than the public–the random, unexpected Tuesday afternoon call from Dick Vitale saying he loved what he was reading. Blaine Taylor spending two hours with me when all I asked for was 15 minutes. Seth Davis responding to my emails within 30 minutes.
But they were personal stories and not in the book for a reason…only I care.
(Yes, I’m ducking that one.)
5. Near the end of the book you struggle to define exactly what the term “mid-major” means in college basketball. That said, there are certain conferences (CAA, Missouri Valley Conference, etc.) that seem to qualify. How would you rank them?
I think clearly the Valley and the CAA are #1 and #2, and in that order. They are very similar up top, but the Valley is a deeper league. The Horizon and Big West are in the mix, but it really gets muddled after those first two. It’s actually very fitting that your question is murky–so too is the definition of mid major.
The thing I love is the mainstream media trying to downplay mid major this year when it discussed Butler and Southern Illinois. It makes me laugh how they move in and out of stereotyped buckets. As my friend Kyle Whelliston says, what are they going to say when Butler wins 13 games?
Still, the important point is that the Winthrops are winning games, showing the competitive balance that exists across all of college basketball.
6. The CAA placed two more teams in the tournament this year, and VCU knocked off Duke in an incredible game. Financially speaking, what does that victory do for the conference?
You really have to define that in two ways. First, there’s the specific NCAA payout from its basketball fund. Each conference gets a credit for any team selected to the field, and one additional credit for each victory (up to the finals). These credits are assigned a revenue number based on how everything shakes out and paid over six years.
Last year, each credit was worth approximately $152,000. Based on that number, VCUs win over Duke was worth $912,000 to the conference. (I needed my calculator for that.)
But the number that is probably most important yet most incalculable is what they do with that money. It becomes a cycle of improvement: use the money for more teevee, which attracts better players to member schools, which makes them better which means more success and more bids, etc.
On the other hand, the schools can use their cut of that money from the conference to improve facilities, which attracts better players, and so on and so on…
7. Mid-major basketball is often a breeding ground for up-and-coming coaches. Case in point: Oklahoma hiring away VCU’s Jeff Capel last spring. His replacement, Anthony Grant, is a Billy Donovan protégé who had a phenomenal season. How long is he for the CAA?
I was fortunate enough to get to know Anthony Grant this past season, and I can unequivocally tell you I have no idea. I’m betting he doesn’t either, and I mean that as a compliment. He won’t waste one minute of his time, which is why I got a full belly-laugh from the South Florida rumors.
Here’s the thing. Grant is no dummy and he is extremely analytical. There’s about a dozen jobs in the country he would seriously entertain and maybe half those that he would accept. He will leave for a specific job that fits within a specific set of criteria and not before. The variable is when that job opens up. Could be two years, could be six.
I do know VCU is will do everything they can to lock him up for as long as they can, and I know his family is very comfortable and happy in Richmond, but there is a reality to all of this.
8. Does the conference figure to be strong again next year? Who are your preseason favorites and players to watch?
George Mason returns every significant contributor, save Gabe Norwood. With their freshmen and Jucos having a year under Larranaga–plus no Final Four headache–they will be near the top. VCU is interesting in that they lose a lot, but apparently are bringing in a lot, too. And if Old Dominion can find somebody to flat out shoot and score, they will be dangerous.
Your key insider tip: read your Blue Ribbon and pick the team that is the preseason sixth place choice. Two years ago it was George Mason, and last year it was VCU. I’m just saying…
As for players, I think everybody is going to have an eye on VCU’s Eric Maynor, especially after his highlight reel NCAA tournament. I personally want to see if Will Thomas (Mason) spends his summer working on a 15-foot jumper. He became easy to guard this past year. Hofstra’s Antoine Agudio will likely be preseason player of the year but I want to see him play without Rivera and Stokes. Abdullah Jalloh is eligible at JMU and Dean Keener needs him in the worst way.
9. What have we failed to mention that I totally should have asked about?
I’m just glad you didn’t ask me about “this year’s George Mason” or expanding the NCAA tournament. If I had a dollar for each time I’ve answered those questions, I’d be writing to you from Aruba, not Richmond.
And hey–I’m available for the follow up project.
As we mentioned yesterday, the schedule NFL game between the Patriots and Seahawks in China 
Yesterday 
As someone who knows the open spaces and empty fields of the Midwest as well as anyone — we lost our virginity in one, after all — we understand how boring it can get out there, how it can feel as if you have no creative outlet and no one to listen to you.
If you’ve already heard about it you’re probably still reeling; as for us, it’s going to take some time to get over the news that 
Phil Jackson, the greatest basketball coach that the state of North Dakota has ever produced, was on Monday sent straight to the Basketball Hall of Fame in his first year of consideration. We assume that it wasn’t for his tenure coaching the Albany Patroons. Jackson of course won six titles with the Chicago Bulls and three with the Lakers, matching Red Auerbach’s record. This is a slightly better resume than that of Dick Vitale, who did not get in. Also in the house on Monday was North Carolina’s Roy Williams, the 1966 NCAA champion Texas Western team, four-time WNBA championship coach Van Chancellor, former NBA referee Mendy Rudolph and international coaches Pedro Ferrandiz of Spain and Mirko Novosel of Yugoslavia. Sorry, Eddie Sutton, you did not make it. 