A note from George Dohrmann

From George Dohrmann:

"Paperback version of Play Their Hearts Out includes new epilogue and Q&A about the book"

This is the book to read in order to get a sense of summer and spring club team basketball. Nothing else compares.

"Play Their Hearts Out" -- a great holiday gift

If there was such an authority, George Dohrmann's book "Play Their Hearts Out" should be required reading for all parents and college basketball prospects. It's the story of Demetrious Young, now redshirting at New Mexico, chronicling his life from middle school onward. He was once the highest-rated-in-his-age-group prospect in the country (yes, there are some adults who stoop to such a level of rankings) and his fall, along with many others, including a number of adults, from grace is starkly depicted. The book contains a lot of good, bad and ugly but ultimately is extremely informative and a great read.

Here is an excerpt from Dohrmann's book.

Here is another lengthy excerpt.

Here is one Q-and-A with Dohrmann.

Here is a second one.

Here is a strong endorsement of the book with the last line reading "It'll make you sick."

Here is another related article.

No, PTW is not related to Mr. Dohrmann nor will we in any way profit from sales of his book.

"I will never forget the first time I paid a player"

George Dohrmann has an article -- "Confessions Of An Agent" in the most recent Sports Illustrated that is setting the college and pro football worlds on fire. -- go here.

There are many questions to be pondered but a basic one is this: why do we expect the individuals in the world Dohrmann writes about to act any differently than how the rest of the world/universe behaves?

We're late on this

George Dohrmann won a Pulitzer for his coverage of the Clem Haskins - Minnesota basketball scandal some year ago and now has produced a new book -- eight years in the making -- titled Play Their Hearts Out.

Here is a lengthy exceprt:

Demetrius Walker and his coach, Joe Keller, were at the Rancho Cucamonga (Calif.) Family Sports Center early in 2003 when a young man Demetrius guessed to be about twenty years old entered the gym. Demetrius did not recognize him, but Keller hurried over and they hugged, and he then led the young man to where Demetrius sat lacing his shoes.

"D, this is Keilon," Keller said. "He used to play for Pat [Barrett]. He's going to work out with you."

Demetrius looked at Keilon, more than a little confused. Keilon was a man, with several tattoos on his arms and a chiseled physique. Why is he going to work out with me? Demetrius thought. But he didn't say anything. If Coach Joe wanted him to work out with Keilon, there must be a good reason...

Go here for the remainder.

'Must read' is too often overused but it certainly applies to this book.

A great read on recruiting

George Dohrmann, one of the best investigative reporters around today, has an insightful read for you. Like just about everything in life, there's the" above surface story" and the "submerged" one. College recruiting is just example #79542.

It's endearing when some fan posts on a message board that "our coach ought to go after so-and-so" -- because "so-and-so" is often spoken for long before any official letter-of-intent can be signed. It's a prospect/parent-uncle-brother/high school coach/club team coach/family advisor/in-between "runner" equation. Did we leave anyone out?

Story behind NCAA violations in Arizona basketball program
George Dohrmann
Sports Illustrated
February 9, 2010

At first glance, the inaugural Cactus Classic in May 2006 appeared to be like any other grassroots basketball tournament. There were 32 teams in Tucson, Ariz., for the three-day event. Games were played on the campus of the University of Arizona, split between three courts in the McKale Center and three in the school's intramural gym. Teams were grouped into pools of four and played three games within their pool.

The size, setting and format of the tournament were like any other, but the Cactus Classic was no ordinary grassroots event. It was not staged or sponsored by Nike, Adidas or Reebok, like most big tournaments. The organizer was a 28-year-old Tucson resident who had never held a major basketball tournament before. Also, the tournament was in the middle of an NCAA dead period, meaning no college coaches could attend. All the usual enticements that get teams to a tournament -- allegiance to a sponsor, a connected organizer, a chance to be scouted by college coaches -- were missing, yet the 32 teams were among the best in the country. With the exception of the big shoe-company events in Las Vegas in July, there was not a better assemblage of talent west of the Mississippi that year.

The Cactus Classic was special, and during its three-year run, which ended in 2008, it was the most talked about youth basketball tournament in America -- by college recruiters, AAU coaches, and later, NCAA investigators. Yet few people know the story of how the tournament came to be, how members of the Arizona coaching staff devised a plan to gain an edge in recruiting, and then brazenly toed -- and at times may have crossed -- NCAA boundaries to implement it...

Go here for the remainder.

After this, we'll let it go

The charade involving Mike Garrett/Tim Floyd/O.J. Mayo and USC basketball isn't WAC-related so we need to let it go. We will still be watching to see what the sloth in quicksand, er, the NCAA, dishes out in term of penalties but we'll re-focus on WAC hoops right after the following George Dohrmann column:

George Dohrmann
Sports Illustrated

USC would like you to believe that when it self-imposed sanctions on its basketball program last Sunday, it dropped the hammer on its troubled hoops program.

A ban on postseason play this season, a loss of one scholarship this year and the next, restrictions on recruiting ... It was a litany of wrist slaps that the Trojans hope will be viewed as equitable punishment for the numerous NCAA violations committed during star guard O.J. Mayo's one year in Troy.

"When we've done something wrong," USC athletic director Mike Garrett said, "we have an obligation to do something about it and that is exactly what we are doing here."

What Garrett and the Trojans also did was take everyone, including the members of the NCAA's Committee on Infractions (COI), for fools...

Go here for the remainder.