"When March Went Mad: The Game That Transformed Basketball" by Seth Davis (Times Books, $26) By Chris Richcreek The mega event known as March Madness in men's college basketball had a seminal moment (other than the rise of office bracket pools) that helps explain why it now attracts such a rabid following among sports fans.

That moment was when Magic Johnson's Michigan State Spartans met Larry Bird's Indiana State Sycamores in 1979 for the NCAA Division I championship, a matchup that is still the highestrated basketball game in TV history.

Author Seth Davis does a great job of filling in the details surrounding that clash in the book "When March Went Mad." The CBS studio analyst skillfully weaves together two sets of stories, one involving Johnson and Bird, and the second involving their coaches, Michigan State's Jud Heathcote and Indiana State's Bill Hodges, two men who never made it back to a Final Four after 1979. Hodges, who was in his second season as head coach, would be gone from the ISU post a mere three years later.

Davis' book sheds light on key members of both teams, the personal histories of Bird and Johnson, and how a number of changes resulted from their meeting, including the rise of ESPN and the rebirth of the NBA.

One of the most illuminating points comes at the book's ending, a description of how Bird has never quite got over the loss to Johnson, despite their later friendship. An emotional Bird told an Indiana State crowd in 2004, "Hell, Magic was just too tough."

It's the kind of detail that helps secure Davis' spot as having written the definitive book of Bird and Johnson at the apex of their college careers.

(c) 2009 King Features Synd., Inc.