Raw Recruits

Journalists Alexander Wolff and Armen Keteyian show the underside of college basketball recruiting in this still relevant and hard-hitting book. As many know, the key to winning is recruiting the top players. Since the NCAA forbids paying athletes in cash - recruiters, scouts, coaches, and hustlers have alternative methods for landing the top jocks. As the authors show, those methods include gifts of athletic shoes, summer camps, and fun-filled recruiting trips. Parents of top athletes and their high school coaches sometimes receive dollars, favors and/or jobs. I particularly liked the authors' description of Nike executive Sonny Vaccaro, who skillfully exploits the process with his popular athletic shoes. Simply put, the game is awash in corruption, Many realize that amateurism - paying athletes not in cash but with scholarships - is unworkable in big-money sports. Others know that too many top players leave college without a pro contract, and with little education. We fans may enjoy college basketball, but that cannot obscure the sport's dark underside.