Don’t Put Me In, Coach - Mark Titus - Book Review

Title:  Don’t Put Me In, Coach: My Incredible NCAA Journey from the End of the Bench to the End of the Bench 
Author: Mark Titus

Review: This was a fun inside look at the workings of a top rated college basketball team.  I think the thing that easily gets lost when watching professional (or in this case, near professional) sports on television is how good the benchwarmers actually are.  Take the best players the average person has ever played with and those guys you see are above and beyond any of them.  Mark Titus has given these unsung heroes as voice.
As a quite phenomenal high school player among even better teammates Mark was able to work a bunch of varying factors into a place on one of the première college basketball teams in the nation.  Or as he aptly puts it, just plain dumb luck.  Typically a guy in Mark’s position will always be striving for the next level, only to find their four years done  and left with just bitter feelings about their experience. What makes Titus unique was he recognized early on who he was and he accepted it for what it was.  Instead of missing his life waiting for his mythical real life to begin, he played the cards he was dealt with enthusiasm.
A secretary of mine used to have the expression “life is what happens while we are making other plans,” Titus made the most of what he had and became the most famous benchwarmer in college history.  So much so he had fans at away games cheering for him.
Told with a blunt and often humorous style of a college frat boy, Mark Titus takes you inside college basketball and all its blemishes.  A fun book for any sports fan, and more importantly, it will make you look at those end of bench guys a little differently, with a little more respect.

Publisher: Doubleday 
Copyright: 2012
Pages: 257
ISBN: 978-0-385-53510-6
Quick Review: 3.5 Stars out of 5.
Why I Read it: It looked funny (the cover) and relatively short (small commitment)
Where I Obtained the Book: My local library

Synopsis: An irreverent, hilarious insider's look at big-time NCAA basketball, through the eyes of the nation's most famous benchwarmer and author of the popular blog ClubTrillion.com (3.6m visits!). Mark Titus holds the Ohio State record for career wins, and made it to the 2007 national championship game. You would think Titus would be all over the highlight reels. You'd be wrong.

In 2006, Mark Titus arrived on Ohio State's campus as a former high school basketball player who aspired to be an orthopedic surgeon. Somehow, he was added to the elite Buckeye basketball team, given a scholarship, and played alongside seven future NBA players on his way to setting the record for most individual career wins in Ohio State history. Think that's impressive? In four years, he scored a grand total of nine—yes, nine—points.

This book will give readers an uncensored and uproarious look inside an elite NCAA basketball program from Titus's unique perspective. In his four years at the end of the bench, Mark founded his wildly popular blog Club Trillion, became a hero to all guys picked last, and even got scouted by the Harlem Globetrotters. Mark Titus is not your average basketball star. This is a wild and completely true story of the most unlikely career in college basketball. A must-read for all fans of March Madness and college sports!

Author Biography: Mark Titus is the founder and author of the blog Club Trillion. His book, Don't Put Me In, Coach, chronicles his career as a walk-on benchwarmer for the Ohio State basketball team.

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