Foul Trouble

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a top tier college basketball recruit?  Making college coaches drool over you, being offered scholarships daily, earning the opportunity to be the face of a school; If so, then I would highly recommend reading John Feinstein’s Foul Trouble.  Foul Trouble is a book about the nation’s top college basketball recruit, Terrell Jamerson, and his best friend and high school teammate, Danny Wilcox.  Danny is also being recruited by colleges and his dad his high school coach.  The first half of the book takes place at a summer basketball camp.  This camp is for all the top high school teams in the country.  Coaches are all over the camp trying to recruit talents like Terrell and Danny.  Coaches are chasing them into their locker rooms, agents are taking them to fine restaurants, and boosters are escorting them to the wildest parties around.  This process may seem like fun, but college basketball recruiting is a sly business.  The NCAA has a very strict set of rules, mainly consisting of rules that state players can not make any money or else they lose their amuteur status.  Many smaller profile colleges that recruit top players use boosters, people who bribe players with money to come to their schools, which is completely violating the NCAA recruiting rules.  This makes a difficult choice for Terrell, who is not extremely wealthy.  Option one, follow the rules and go to the NBA later and then make money.  Option two, break the rules, accept money in college, become rich, take care of loved ones, go to the NBA, become even more rich, and pray for dear life that you are not caught.  Terrell doesn’t want to break the rules, but he is nervous about all the possibilities.  What if Terrell has injuries in college and can’t play in the NBA?  What if Terrell doesn’t perform in college and is not good enough to play in the NBA?  Both are big issues that leave Terrell poor and looking for a new career.  In addition, Terrell wants to attend a school that offers a prestigious education and an elite basketball program.  This book presents many decisions to be made and will leave readers waiting to see what he decides to do.

 

Foul Trouble is for anyone who has ever wondered what it would be like to be a top division one college sports prospect.  This book leads readers in many different directions as they will have different opinions on Terrell’s choices.  Some readers may pick the sneaky earn-riches-quickly path, while others will pick the honest regular college kids life path.  This leads to excellent debates and discussions about which path is right, making it a superb group read.  The book features lots of sarcastic humor which makes it an enjoyable read.  The characters are well developed and the ending left my jaw dropping in astonishment.  In fact,I would say it has the best ending out of any book I have read.  This book’s ending teaches us to expect the unexpected and never take anything out of possibility.

 

Genre: Sports

Author: John Feinstein