This is a good book. Doesn’t overstate anything. The dialogue is realistic. There are two last-second games, but at least it’s not all last-second heroics. There’s a lot of great basketball gameplay detail, and it all makes sense from a coach’s perspective.

On the other hand, it’s hard to make perfect sense of the adults. Liam’s Mom and Dad seem more like flat stereotypes than real people. Liam’s coach on the boy’s team just disappears after a while – not a surprise, but it makes his issues disappear as well. The coach of the girl’s team is so philosophical and warm and “call me Jack” feel-good that I can’t take him seriously.

The thick-headed members of the boys team are no fun either. So I focused on the gameplay, and enjoyed the story just fine. The title fits, by the way. I’d take Jessica on the ACS JV boys team.