Net Prospect: The Courting Process of Women's College Basketball Recruiting

Rating:
Summary: a good read...
Review: As an occasional-but-not-fanatic college hoops fan, I found this book gave great insight into a little-seen aspect of the game, and was pretty engaging. I expected to have only a passing interest in the book, but found myself drawn in by the way the author personalizes (and humanizes) the recruiting process. I guess the greatest endorsement I can give it is that I passed it on to friends and family, and ordered a copy for a friend who plays high school ball. It's a surprisingly general-interest-appealing book despite its seemingly limited focus; a good read.

Rating:
Summary: More for players than fans
Review: I enjoyed reading this book -- but it wasn't directed to me. Becker wants to help high school seniors and their parents as they make choices that could impact them for a lifetime. She ably explains the differences among Divisions I, II and III, as well as other leagues. She explains the process and gives us an idea of the complex, arcane and (some would say) outdated NCAA rules.

The best part of this book: Anecdotes about players I recognized. For instance, Ruth Bolton's sister played for Auburn, so the Assistant Coaches felt obliged to go through the motions with Ruth. Trouble was, Ruth ignored their hints ("Wouldn't you be happier at a lesser school?") and insisted on coming to Auburn. She led the Auburn team to many victories, became a 2-time Olympian and now plays for the WNBA!

Young women grow up fast when faced with these decisions. Many non-athletic high schoolers are not called on to demonstrate this degree of maturity -- to visit a place and say, "I belong here," or, "This is not for me." Playing basketball, the book seems to say, contributes to maturity, and ultimately to success.

You have to be a pretty dedicated fan to read this book - and since there's a dearth of books about women's hoops, I was glad to get it. Good writing and some choice anecdotes -- more detail
than the average fan needs or wants, but worth skipping over to get to the juicier parts.

Rating:
Summary: More for players than fans
Review: I enjoyed reading this book -- but it wasn't directed to me. Becker wants to help high school seniors and their parents as they make choices that could impact them for a lifetime. She ably explains the differences among Divisions I, II and III, as well as other leagues. She explains the process and gives us an idea of the complex, arcane and (some would say) outdated NCAA rules.

The best part of this book: Anecdotes about players I recognized. For instance, Ruth Bolton's sister played for Auburn, so the Assistant Coaches felt obliged to go through the motions with Ruth. Trouble was, Ruth ignored their hints ("Wouldn't you be happier at a lesser school?") and insisted on coming to Auburn. She led the Auburn team to many victories, became a 2-time Olympian and now plays for the WNBA!

Young women grow up fast when faced with these decisions. Many non-athletic high schoolers are not called on to demonstrate this degree of maturity -- to visit a place and say, "I belong here," or, "This is not for me." Playing basketball, the book seems to say, contributes to maturity, and ultimately to success.

You have to be a pretty dedicated fan to read this book - and since there's a dearth of books about women's hoops, I was glad to get it. Good writing and some choice anecdotes -- more detail
than the average fan needs or wants, but worth skipping over to get to the juicier parts.

Rating:
Summary: Great info - weak organization
Review: Ms. Becker's book contains wonderful insight to the recruiting process of women's college basketball. She talked to many, many coaches, players, and others involved in the process. Unfortunately, I found reading her book similar to walking around at a cocktail party and having conversations with interviewees. The input from the interviews is high in content, just poorly organized. Very good source of information, but be ready to have to keep notes to get it all organized.

Rating:
Summary: Net Prospect: The Courting Process of Women's College Basket
Review: Ms. Becker's book provides an informative, insightful, and compelling picture of the complex world of women's basketball recruiting. Since reading the book, I've watched college games with an added sense of astonishment at how the athletes managed the thorny recruiting process while playing top-notch ball. A definite must-read for anyone involved in the recruiting game as well as for fans.

Rating:
Summary: interesting stories but lacks purpose
Review: While Miss Becker clearly has a passion for college basketball, this book lacked a clear audience and a clear mission. I purchased the book for my daughter under the assumption that it was a recruiting guide, but I think all the great stories Miss Becker gathered on her travels around the country got the better of her and rather than write a recruiting book, she turned it into something else. There is some basic information on NCAA guidelines, rules and regulations that was helpful as well as detail on D1, D2, D3 and Junior college options, but as another reviewer said, its like "walking around at a cocktail party." The information is not really presented in any real detailed format and reads more like a novel would than a "how to" should. I was particularly disinterested in the page that discusses one coach meeting a recruit at her house only to discover the recruit has a pet monkey. While this information may appear interesting, it doesn't really help me help my daughter in her recruiting process. There is another section that describes one coach who gives recruits a list of questions to ask, but she never once mentions any of the questions. I would rather have been presented with a list of questions to ask a coach, rather than learning that some coach gives out a list of questions.

There is also a chapter on scouting services that rank players and sell their lists to college coaches, while this was interesting to me, it appears that either I or my daughter have no control over these services and I didn't really need to read 10 pages about who runs these companies and all the money they make. I assumed that information was for college coaches, which again, makes me wonder who the real audience for the book was. I did enjoy the section on club coaches and the conflict that often occurs with high school coaches in the recruiting process and that is something I am starting to see.

If you are looking for an interesting book on women's college basketball that has information from many different players & coaches, you will probably enjoy this book as it is kind of a "what's going on in girls basketball". If you are looking for a complete guide for the college recruiting process, I think you will be slightly dissapointed and it certainly did not walk me through the recruiting process from start to finish as it claims. I suspect that some parents will think its a good recruiting resource due to the fact that its the first piece of information they have probably read on the subject. Now that I have had time to gather more info from other sources on recruiting, it's clear to me that the book lacks many key pieces of information on the college recruiting process..