Dan Wetzel takes us into the gray netherworld of sports, where some writers aren’t willing to tread. We discuss how his experiences covering college basketball and AAU taught him to look beyond cliches. Hear about characters such as Sonny Vaccaro, Jerry Tarkanian and others who were easily cast into roles for a simple narrative. Dan puts us in the media room when John Chaney threatened to kill John Calipari. And the Yahoo Sports national columnist describes the tensions and emotions that existed in the court rooms when he covered the trials of Aaron Hernandez and Larry Nassar.

Wetzel is the author of these books:

· “Sole Influence: Basketball, Corporate Greed and the Corruption of America's Youth” with Don Yaeger of Sports Illustrated

· “Glory Road” with former University of Texas-El Paso basketball coach Don Haskins

· “Runnin' Rebel: Shark Tales of ‘Extra Benefits,’ Frank Sinatra, and Winning It All” with former UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian.

· “Resilience: Faith, Focus, Triumph” with Alonso Mourning

· “Death to the BCS: The Definitive Case Against the Bowl Championship Series” with Josh Peter and Jeff Passan

And he has written several sports biographies for children as part of the Epic Athletes series :

· Stephen Curry

· Alex Morgan

· Serena Williams

· Tom Brady

· LeBron James

· Lionel Messi

· Simone Biles

· Kevin Durant

· Patrick Mahomes

· Zion Williamson

Follow him on Twitter (@DanWetzel) and Instagram (wetzelsports).

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices