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Title: “The Greatest Book of College Basketball”

Author: Blair Kerkhoff

Publisher: Addax Publishing Group ($10.95)

Here’s one tailor-written for UCLA basketball fanatics and sports followers who are list junkies.

The author starts you off with his ranking of college basketball’s 64 best players. Not a lot of depth here--no explanation of criteria or methodology--but if you’re a Bruin, you probably won’t care. UCLA’s Lew Alcindor and Bill Walton are one-two.

Go to No. 24 and you’ll find another Bruin, John Wooden, who was college basketball’s first three-time All-American at Purdue. Wooden is also No. 1 on the author’s 40 best coaches list.

Some others on the player list: Elgin Baylor (11th), Jerry West (18th), Bill Bradley (20th), Michael Jordan (21st), Magic Johnson (22nd), Shaquille O’Neal (44th), Sidney Wicks (51st) and Walt Hazzard (59th).

There are other lists along the way: the 16 greatest NCAA tournament players, the greatest teams, the greatest games and the greatest comebacks.

Best teams? UCLA ranks first (1968), fourth (1969), fifth (1972), 12th (1967) and 14th (1973). The 1967 team, the author states, is the best ever with no seniors.

Some nuggets:

* Bob Kurland (7 feet) and George Mikan (6-10), two centers in the 1940s, dominated games by swatting away shots on their downward flight. Because of them, the goaltending rule was adopted for the 1944-45 season.

* In 1949, the author says, the Pacific Coast Conference, in an effort to discourage intentional free-throw misses, gave defensive players both inside rebounding positions. The NCAA adopted the rule in 1956 and also widened the key from six to 12 feet.

* From a section about great comebacks: North Carolina, in a 1974 game with Duke, trailed, 86-78, with 17 seconds remaining. North Carolina won in overtime, 96-92.

* John Wooden’s final UCLA salary (in 1975): $32,000.

* TV-rights fees for the NCAA tournament went from $140,000 in 1963 to $1.725 billion in 1995.

* The five most-overlooked high school prospects: Bill Russell (only once in high school did he score 10 points), Elgin Baylor, David Robinson, Akeem Olajuwon, Michael Olowokandi.