Raw Recruits

By Alexander Wolff and Armen Keteyian

 

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This book is basically a hatchet job.  The guys do their research, but it appears that they are bending the facts to match their pre-conceived ideas.  No, I am not trying to justify an opposite stance for personnal reasons -- Kansas State University is never mentioned in this book.

        These guys point to all that is corrupt in "amateur" basketball.  He starts to young children who are "recruited" (with inducements) into summer leagues by teams sponsored by sneaker companies.  He goes into the corruption of funnelling these kids to coaches who endorse with the same sneaker companies.  They really villify Nike (which I like, since I am no fan of Nike).  They go into street agents, illegal recruiting, and dig up a lot of dirt.  They go after Jim Boehim, Norm Stewart, Jim Harrick, Rick Pitinio, Eddie Sutton, and many others.  They spend a significant amount of time going over the problems at the University of Kentucky under Eddie Sutton, and what they were trying to do to fix their problems.  They go over the famous Emory/$1000 package in UK's recruitment of Chris Mills, along with the many other recruiting problems they had involving Shawn Kemp and Eric Manual.

        They also spend a lot of time covering the hypocrasy of the NCAA.  Overall, I think they are a bit extreme, but I think the truth lies closer to their side than the other "ideal" side.  This book basically turned me off of college basketball.

Insight:  4
History:  1970s-1988
Readability:  3

Raw Recruits.  Alexander Wolff and Armen Keteyian.  Simon and Schuster.  1991.    


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