Mark Titus is the winningest basketball
player in Ohio State history. The catch: he played in only 32
games for 48 minutes and scored just 9 points. He rode the Buckeye
bench to an NIT Championship, a Sweet Sixteen, and a National Championship
game. In other words, he has my, as well as many other decently
athletic young adults, dream college experience. His book, Don’t Put Me In, Coach, chronicles this four year journey, and the time
he spent with five future NBA players.
Titus is a native of Brownsburg, IN and grew up playing AAU basketball with three of those five future NBA players. His interest in Ohio State was sparked by his three teammates attending Ohio State and he only agreed to attend when his recruitment to Harvard was derailed by his high school basketball coach (a hilarious story included in the book). Titus was then gifted a spot as a team manager (glorified ball boy) because of his nationally prominent youth teammates, but after some injuries was asked to become a walk on. As he points out, he does actually have basketball skills (displayed in his semi-viral Youtube video Mr. Rainmaker). He founded the blog Club Trillion (when you play one minute in a basketball game and record no other stats as walk-ons often do, your box score reads 1 Trillion) to document his college experience and his popularity grew from there.
To preface the review, I don’t read many books, which may surprise you because I am intensely intellectual and soon to be a graduate of the University of Chicago. In fact, in my four years at the University of Chicago AND the four years prior in high school, I have completed two books aside from Titus’ masterpiece. They were both about David Beckham [ed. note: we wish he was kidding].
If it wasn’t apparent from his status as a four-year bench warmer, a role Titus whole-heartedly embraces, his basketball career was not serious in the least bit (he scheduled half hour long bathroom breaks during practice and once spent an entire practice in the Schottenstein Center press box). Titus’ documentation of his career is described similarly, with a stronger focus on the locker room than the court itself. I think anyone who has played or watched sports wonders what goes on behind the scenes of these incredible teams. Titus is perfect for telling such stories, as he was slightly less invested in the on-court results than his future-NBA Lottery Pick teammates (although Titus does declare himself eligible for the NBA Draft in 2009, to which the NBA politely responds with threat of litigation).
He tells of famous teammates like Evan Turner whom he refers to only as ‘The Villain’ for the entire book and describes his propensity for dribbling completely naked in front of their locker room mirror for long periods of time. He also describes NBA lottery-pick bust Greg Oden’s use of a Nerf gun consistently for his entire year at Ohio State, as well as current Buckeye William Buford’s urging the nerdy white Indiana boy to refer to him by the N-word. He even paints the awesome sense of humor of Coach Thad Matta and the coaching staff as a whole, who at one point tells him he could, “do naked cartwheels down the court during practice and no one would know he was there.”
Titus tells everything from life on their private dormitory floor, to waking up in a road trip hotel to a girl in his roommate’s bed, to losing to Florida in the 2007 National Championship. All is told from a unique perspective of unlimited access, with a voice and humor only Titus can achieve. It balances the intense nature of a sports documentary with the personality circus of a Saturday Night Live episode (like a Farley/Sandler SNL, not a Lindsay Lohan SNL) all in one perfect book.
Titus is now a contributor for the highly acclaimed, ESPN financed, Grantland, and writes some of the funniest things I have ever read on college basketball. The book is available on Amazon and at many bookstores near you.
Stanton Coville is a contributing writer (an accomplishment given how little he reads) for the blog. An interview with the author can be found here.
Titus is a native of Brownsburg, IN and grew up playing AAU basketball with three of those five future NBA players. His interest in Ohio State was sparked by his three teammates attending Ohio State and he only agreed to attend when his recruitment to Harvard was derailed by his high school basketball coach (a hilarious story included in the book). Titus was then gifted a spot as a team manager (glorified ball boy) because of his nationally prominent youth teammates, but after some injuries was asked to become a walk on. As he points out, he does actually have basketball skills (displayed in his semi-viral Youtube video Mr. Rainmaker). He founded the blog Club Trillion (when you play one minute in a basketball game and record no other stats as walk-ons often do, your box score reads 1 Trillion) to document his college experience and his popularity grew from there.
To preface the review, I don’t read many books, which may surprise you because I am intensely intellectual and soon to be a graduate of the University of Chicago. In fact, in my four years at the University of Chicago AND the four years prior in high school, I have completed two books aside from Titus’ masterpiece. They were both about David Beckham [ed. note: we wish he was kidding].
If it wasn’t apparent from his status as a four-year bench warmer, a role Titus whole-heartedly embraces, his basketball career was not serious in the least bit (he scheduled half hour long bathroom breaks during practice and once spent an entire practice in the Schottenstein Center press box). Titus’ documentation of his career is described similarly, with a stronger focus on the locker room than the court itself. I think anyone who has played or watched sports wonders what goes on behind the scenes of these incredible teams. Titus is perfect for telling such stories, as he was slightly less invested in the on-court results than his future-NBA Lottery Pick teammates (although Titus does declare himself eligible for the NBA Draft in 2009, to which the NBA politely responds with threat of litigation).
He tells of famous teammates like Evan Turner whom he refers to only as ‘The Villain’ for the entire book and describes his propensity for dribbling completely naked in front of their locker room mirror for long periods of time. He also describes NBA lottery-pick bust Greg Oden’s use of a Nerf gun consistently for his entire year at Ohio State, as well as current Buckeye William Buford’s urging the nerdy white Indiana boy to refer to him by the N-word. He even paints the awesome sense of humor of Coach Thad Matta and the coaching staff as a whole, who at one point tells him he could, “do naked cartwheels down the court during practice and no one would know he was there.”
Titus tells everything from life on their private dormitory floor, to waking up in a road trip hotel to a girl in his roommate’s bed, to losing to Florida in the 2007 National Championship. All is told from a unique perspective of unlimited access, with a voice and humor only Titus can achieve. It balances the intense nature of a sports documentary with the personality circus of a Saturday Night Live episode (like a Farley/Sandler SNL, not a Lindsay Lohan SNL) all in one perfect book.
Titus is now a contributor for the highly acclaimed, ESPN financed, Grantland, and writes some of the funniest things I have ever read on college basketball. The book is available on Amazon and at many bookstores near you.
Stanton Coville is a contributing writer (an accomplishment given how little he reads) for the blog. An interview with the author can be found here.
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