This book project (written with 45-year hindsight) is part journal, part memoir, and part unofficial master’s thesis. One goal is to indirectly compare and contrast the 1977-1978 basketball season to the 2022-2023 season. Another goal is to celebrate the players, coaches, broadcasters, sportswriters, referees, and so many others involved in making my designated annual basketball madness such a unique nine-week period of each year. Storylines, backstories, acquaintances, friends, family, and family trees. Coaches and coaching trees. High school, college, and the pros. Girls and boys. Women and men.

Kent Anderson is a proud Avenal resident who spent the last twenty-five years of his full-time career in education teaching math at Avenal High School to the students of Avenal and Kettleman City (1995-2020). He continues as a devoted coach and fan of the Buccaneers after stints as the head coach for the varsity boys basketball team, as the athletic director, and as the head coach for the varsity girls basketball team.

keywords: Basketball, California, History, Avenal, Visalia, Fresno, Bakersfield, Sacramento, Santa Barbara