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What: “She’s Got Handle”

Author: Adam Zagoria

Publisher: Andrews McMeel

Price: $26.95

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Nicole Louden, a basketball phenomenon from Paterson, N.J., in the late 1990s, at one time had her pick of colleges to play for. She received her first recruiting letter from Florida State when she was in the seventh grade.

Adam Zagoria, who covers women’s basketball for the Herald News in West Paterson, chronicles Loudon’s prep career, capturing all of Louden’s emotional highs and lows, successes and failures, in “She’s Got Handle: The Story of Nicole Louden’s Triumph Through Inner-City Basketball.”

Set in the drug-infested, near-poverty conditions of Louden’s hometown, Zagoria relates how the player’s on-the-court prowess helped her get past those dangerous neighborhood conditions.

The book also examines the crossroads that women’s basketball now face. Will the women’s game mirror the mistakes of the men’s game--recruiting players so early that childhood takes a back seat to basketball, and crossing the line from aggressive to illegal recruiting practices?

Zagoria, a graduate of the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism, provides first-hand, compelling accounts of intimate conversations between Louden and her family, coaches and recruiters.

A superstar among her New Jersey peers, Louden, primarily a point guard, ran into problems when pitted against players ranked much higher than her nationally. A series of injuries and other missteps eventually dropped Louden from the nation’s elite. She ended up settling on Auburn, which showed late interest in her. She is now a freshman there.

Her quest now: honing her skills for her ultimate dream--playing in the WNBA.

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Steve Rom