Make It, Take It

Witty and insightful, this isn’t the college basketball we hear about on TV. And Bradburd knows what he’s talking about.

An inventive novel, Make It, Take It sneaks the reader past the press conferences, locker rooms, and huddles of college basketball. Without judgment or sentimentality, Rus Bradburd lays bare the web of conflicts between players and coaches, blacks and whites, revealing the complex humanity of a team’s inner circle. Here, every choice has a very real cost.

Steve Pytel is an assistant coach and top recruiter for a university basketball program. His goals are simple. He wants to keep his job and be a head coach someday. Keeping his wife barely makes the list. The team staggers; everyone’s days are numbered. Pytel was responsible for landing prized recruits Leonard Redmond and Jamal Davis. Pytel’s duties now? Keep Leonard out of jail. Make sure Jamal ignores the advice of his preacher, sidesteps his girlfriend’s pregnancy, and puts the ball in the basket. Good thing Pytel doesn’t carry around a bagful of scruples.

Rus Bradburd is an assistant professor at New Mexico State. He walked away from the glamorous world of college basketball after coaching fourteen seasons at UTEP and New Mexico State.
His book about Nolan Richardson, race and college sports--＂Forty Minutes of Hell＂--was published in 2010 by HarperCollins’ Amistad Books. ESPN’s film version of Richardson’s life, based on Bradburd’s book, came out in early February, 2012.
Bradburd traveled to Ireland in 2002 to coach in the laughable Irish Super League. While leading his beloved Tralee Tigers into dead-last place, he gleaned wisdom from his reclusive Irish fiddle teacher. His book about that time, his first, was called ＂Paddy on the Hardwood: a Journey in Irish Hoops＂ (University of New Mexico Press, September 2006).
His free summer program in El Paso’s poorest neighborhood &mdash Basketball in the Barrio &mdash has been featured nationally on NPR’s Weekend Edition, was the subject of an award-winning feature film, and comprises a chapter of David Zirin book ＂Welcome to the Terrordome: the Pain, Politics, and Promise of Sport.＂
His short stories have appeared in ＂Southern Review＂ (special mention for a Pushcart Prize), ＂Colorado Review,＂ ＂Puerto del Sol＂ and ＂Aelthon.＂ His essays have appeared in the ＂New York Times,＂ ＂Los Angeles Times,＂ Chicago’s ＂Daily Southtown＂ and ＂Houston Chronicle.＂
Rus married to the award-winning poet, Connie Voisine. He lives in Chicago and New Mexico.